Holiday home maintenance between stays — keep it running smoothly

1.

The departure routine that saves everything

Most holiday home problems start at the end of a stay, not the beginning. Someone leaves and forgets to turn off the heating. The bins aren't taken out. A window is left open. Three weeks later, you arrive to a sauna, a bad smell, and a damp bedroom.

A simple departure checklist fixes this entirely. Not a laminated sheet that everyone ignores — a shared list that people can actually tick off. Strip the beds. Run the dishwasher. Take the bins out. Lock the back door. Turn the water heater to low.

The key is keeping it short and specific. Five to ten things, no more. If the list feels like a chore, nobody will do it. If it takes five minutes, everyone will.

2.

Find a reliable cleaner (and treat them well)

If you share your holiday home with more than immediate family, a cleaner between stays isn't optional — it's essential. Even the most considerate people leave traces. Hair in the shower, crumbs under the sofa, a ring on the coffee table.

The best way to find one is local word of mouth — ask neighbours, the estate agent, or the nearest café. In rural areas, cleaners who specialise in holiday homes are common and know exactly what to check.

Pay them fairly and be easy to work with. A good cleaner who knows your house is worth their weight in gold. They'll spot problems early — a leaking tap, a broken blind, mice in the kitchen — and let you know before it becomes a disaster.

3.

Seasonal maintenance you can't skip

Holiday homes suffer more from neglect than from use. A house that sits empty through winter without the heating ticked over can end up with frozen pipes, mould, or worse.

The basics vary by climate, but the principles are universal. Before winter: drain outdoor taps, set the heating to a low minimum, check the roof and gutters, close shutters if you have them. Before summer: service the air conditioning, check for wasp nests, clear any overgrowth near the house.

Spring and autumn are for the bigger jobs. Repaint anything that needs it. Service the boiler. Check smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. Replace anything that's been limping along — the mattress that sags, the garden chair with a broken leg, the shower head that dribbles.

4.

Remote eyes on the ground

If you don't live near your holiday home — and most people don't — you need someone local who can check on things. This might be your cleaner, a neighbour, or a local property manager.

They don't need to do much. A quick walk-through every few weeks when the house is empty. Check for leaks, make sure the heating is working, confirm that the garden hasn't become a jungle. Five minutes, once a fortnight, can prevent thousands in damage.

If you're sharing the house with family, this is a good thing to coordinate together. Maybe your cousin who lives two hours away does a check after her stays. Maybe a neighbour has a key and peeks in when they notice something off. The point is that someone is looking — not that you're doing it all yourself.

5.

A shared to-do list that actually works

Every shared holiday home accumulates a list of small jobs. The bathroom tap that drips. The garden fence that needs staining. The kitchen drawer that sticks. Individually, they're nothing. Collectively, they make the house feel neglected.

The problem isn't that nobody wants to help — it's that nobody knows what needs doing. A shared to-do list visible to everyone who stays changes this entirely. People notice things and add them. Other people see the list and fix things while they're there.

Your handy brother-in-law fixes the tap during his stay. Your sister orders a replacement blind online. You arrange a plumber for the boiler service. The work gets distributed naturally, without anyone having to coordinate it.

6.

Supplies and restocking

Nothing says “the last person didn't care” like arriving to no toilet paper, no washing-up liquid, and an empty coffee jar. Basic supplies should just be there.

The simplest approach: keep a running list of essentials and have your cleaner restock between stays. Toilet rolls, bin bags, dishwasher tablets, basic cleaning products, a fresh sponge. Add it to the cleaning cost so it's covered.

For everything else — food, wine, personal items — people bring their own and take leftovers home. The one exception: keep a small emergency shelf. Long-life milk, pasta, tinned tomatoes, coffee, tea. Enough for someone who arrives late at night and can't get to a shop until morning.

7.

Don't do it all yourself

This is the trap most holiday home owners fall into. You bought the house, so you feel responsible for everything. The cleaning, the maintenance, the garden, the bills, the plumber, the broken dishwasher, the missing towels.

But if you're sharing the house, you should be sharing the load too. Not necessarily equally — you own the house, and people respect that it's ultimately yours to manage. But small contributions from everyone add up.

The family member who always notices when the garden needs attention. The friend who's brilliant at fixing things. The cousin who has a contact for everything. Let people help. Most of them want to — they just need to know what's needed.

A shared to-do list, a transparent cost structure, and clear departure expectations mean you're not the single point of failure. The house runs itself — with a little help from the people who love it.