Holiday houses on Dutch holiday parks often fail to meet hygiene standards, Dutch consumer association Consumentenbond said on Tuesday.

The association tested one house on 30 different holiday parks in the Netherlands and found major problems with hygiene in 14, including blood, hair, mould and the E-coli bacteria.

‘We carried out the same research five years ago and we wanted to see if things have improved,’ spokeswoman Joyce Donat told broadcaster NOS. ‘Unfortunately, the houses are no cleaner.’

The houses, belonging to holiday village operators such as Landal, CenterParcs and Roompot, were subject to a visual check and then examined using ultra violet light. That check revealed that bathroom and kitchen walls were particularly dirty.

The inspectors also took samples from the bathroom, kitchen and door handles to test for bacteria.

‘We often hear that people spend the first hour of their holiday cleaning the house because it looks dirty, but that should not be the case, because they are paying extra – averaging €50 – for cleaning,’ Donat said.

Landal told the Consumentenbond that it took the findings seriously and CenterParcs pledged to take steps to improve hygiene. ‘We have our own cleaning teams and we try to do as good a job as possible,’ director Mark Giethoorn said.

However, Roompot said it did not accept the findings and tried to have publication of the report halted, NOS said.