How Often Does a Holiday Let Actually Need a Deep Clean?

Changeovers hold the line. They don’t roll back a year of guests. Here’s where the line actually slips.

Build-up doesn’t arrive, it accumulates

A let can pass every changeover and still be quietly going off. Nothing looks dirty on any given Friday — but the oven’s darker than it was, the grout’s greyer, the couch has flattened and taken on a smell nobody can name.

Guests don’t notice it happening. They notice it once it’s happened, and they write it down.

Twice a year, if the let is busy

• Before the season — a full deep clean. Everything reset to a standard the changeovers can hold.
• After the season — the heavy one. Carpets and upholstery extracted, oven stripped back, bathrooms descaled properly.

A quieter let might get away with once a year. A let with a hot tub, dogs or big groups needs more.

What it costs to leave it

A sofa that gets extracted is a job worth a couple of hours. A sofa that gets left is a replacement — and most of the ones people write off can be brought back. Same with carpets. The cheapest year is the one where you clean it before you have to replace it.

The signs it’s due

• A smell that comes back a day after every changeover
• Grout that’s grey rather than white, silicone going dark
• The oven door you’d rather guests didn’t open
• Carpet that looks flat and dull even freshly hoovered
• A review that uses the word “tired”

That last one is the expensive one. By then it’s public.