When we first set up OwnersAway Property Management, almost all of our holidaymakers and owners were from the UK. Over the last 6 years, this has changed dramatically and we now have a healthy mixture of owners from Sweden, Norway, Spain, Holland and France.
Inevitably, this means that some things get “lost in translation” as whilst I´m fluent enough in Spanish, any attempt to speak Scandinavian languages would end up being a disaster!
Happily, most of these lovely clients speak sufficient English, but recently we still had to laugh at the mix up caused by the owner of a new apartment. Our client wanted to book a “full clean and laundry service” to service the apartment before a guest arrived.
No problem, we said, just leave the used towels and bedding in the bath and we will take away the laundry and wash and iron.
The cleaner duly called in and took away the laundry, thoughtfully folded and placed in bags on the floor. She started the usual process of checking, bagging and tagging the bags of sheets, towels and .....er , T-shirts, socks, underpants, shorts.. it seemed that our new owner has quite a different definition of full service to ours!
I got a frantic call from our cleaner, worried that she had taken the wrong bag and the gentleman concerned was now being forced to walk around Puerto de Mazarrón naked, but we reassured her that he had indeed flown home.
So we duly washed and ironed his clothes and placed them at the apartment for his next visit. And sent a follow-up note by email to clarify for him exactly what a “full clean & laundry” service entails.
Liz