23/10/2026
A little behind the scenes at Fronlwyd 🏡
We have been reading some of the recent discussion online about holiday let cleaning fees and what guests should be expected to do before leaving. We wanted to add a little clarity about how the cleaning fee works here.
The Longhouse sleeps up to 15 people. After every stay, our lovely cleaning agency usually sends two or three cleaners who spend around three to four hours preparing the house for the next guests.
Our standard cleaning and laundry bill is currently ÂŁ360 for each changeover. The cleaning charge guests see is ÂŁ250, so we contribute at least ÂŁ110 from the booking income.
If the house needs a deeper clean or the team needs longer, our bill increases. There is no profit for us in the cleaning fee.
The agency pays its cleaners properly and keeps its own management charge modest. Supporting reliable, fairly paid work in rural Wales is important to us.
Adam and I also go into the house before the cleaners arrive to deal with anything extra, and we look after the hot tub ourselves.
We pride ourselves on offering guests a slightly later checkout of 11am. If we can accommodate an even later departure, we are always happy to do so.
Making that work within a busy changeover relies on guests doing the basic, considerate things most of us would do in any self catering home. Washing up after meals, leaving the kitchen reasonably tidy and putting rubbish in the appropriate bins all make a real difference.
We do not expect guests to clean bathrooms, hoover the house or do the work of our cleaning team. Happily, 99.9% of our guests already do these simple things without a second thought, and we are enormously grateful to them.
Cleaning fees are sometimes presented as an additional source of profit for hosts. For us, the fee does not even cover the professional cleaning and laundry bill, before our own time is taken into account.
We love welcoming people to Fronlwyd. We want guests to enjoy a relaxed departure while ensuring the house is beautifully prepared for the next arrival and the people who help us are paid fairly.
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