Holiday cottage soiled mattress

carlislelass

If you knew there was a chance of an accident, why didn't you put a plastic cover over the mattress? I know you used dri nights but still had a leak

Syman

I think the price they are asking is a bit high.

Did you have any kind of holiday insurance? if so, could you let them deal with it.
Alternatively your home insurance may cover you.

greenface

warehouse wrote: »

In that case ask them to go out and buy a 10 year old mattress. I'd say your £50 covers it completely, plus cleaning.

good point above :beer:

somuchindebt

Hello all,
Thank you for your responses. I haven't had holiday insurance unfortunately. Will check house insurance though.
Carlislelas, yes if I ever go again I will get the covers also. I thought I was protected with drynites, but have learnt from this. It's not like I did not do anything, but what I have done turned out to be not enough. I have offered £50 of compensation as I really appreciate that this accident has caused inconvenience. Originally I thought if they need to replace it, I would take this mattress and clean it myself, but certainly not going to do this for this old mattress. I really did not expect that places like this don't have newer mattress.
I have offered my old mattress but this wasn't entertained.
I am very embarrassed that this happened and really wanted to resolve the matter amicably but at the same time I feel that in the circumstances my offer is very reasonable.
Their agent has passed this onto senior management so I am awaiting their feedback. Will keep you updated.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

13Kent wrote: »

In the end they can't use one of their beds until they have purchased a new mattress, and even though it was an accident that was down to you. They could be losing letting income because of it, regardless of the cost of the mattress.

I would think that most letting establishments would have spare/emergency mattresses for the 'just incase' incident.

Would be surprised if they lost any income.

seashore22

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,



I would think that most letting establishments would have spare/emergency mattresses for the 'just incase' incident.

Would be surprised if they lost any income.

It's a rented cottage and I wouldn't expect them to have spare mattresses hanging around. Butlins and Centerparcs would, but not a private holiday rental. Where would they store them?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

ok, thanks.

Would think all the more reason to have protectors on though.

13Kent

Unfortunately some guests don't like sleeping on mattress protectors and take them off anyway, so using them doesn't always work. We have mattress protectors on all our beds, but don't use waterproof ones on the double, just a padded one, as the waterproof ones are uncomfortable to sleep on and we had often found them in the drawer after guests have left. We have bed mats both disposable and permanent that we offer guests, but last summer our double bed and one of our single beds was completely ruined by a family, it had been urinated on in 3 different places, the bedding and mattress protector had to be thrown away also - they had helpfully piled the bedding up over the wet beds to hide it. They basically "did a runner" leaving before check out time leaving piles of rubbish behind as well as the ruined beds. Our cleaner discovered the mess when she came to do the changeover clean. Our following booking had to be cancelled at short notice as we could not replace the bedding in time, we had to ruin the second family's holiday and refund their money. The family in question lost their deposit of £50 but we were unsuccessful in getting further compensation from them without resorting to going to the small claims court.

I think the age of the mattress is irrelevant, and in our case as we only let out for less than 10 weeks a year, in 5 years the mattress might get the same use as one at home being used every night would get in a year.

However in the case above I think the amount they are demanding is an awful lot for a single mattress, you can get a decent single mattress for much less that that - we didn't pay that much to replace our double one. Perhaps the OP could source a reasonable single mattress which costs less than that and offer to pay for it and have it delivered. If they don't accept then leave them with only their original deposit. If they choose to take it further I don't think they'll get very far if the OP has proof that they offered to replace the mattress with a new one and they refused.

somuchindebt

13Kent, thank you for your comment. This was double mattress unfortunately, my both children were sharing it. Deposit was £250 so they may be able to get that full amount but the agent referred it to senior management.
One of the reasons to change mattress would probably be allergens, dustmites, dead skin, germs or bed bugs. I imagine that once the mattress has been put to use, it is exposed to these kind of problems. Especially without a protector. But I am not sure if there is special cleaning processes that can eliminate it. Certainly you get more wear and tear if it's used more, I agree. I would still expect that in these kind of places guidelines for mattress changes should be followed.

somuchindebt

Hello, the agent offered to cover half of this so now requesting £75 from me.