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Original poster

What little things annoy you in a holiday home?

317 replies

Callistone · 28/05/2019 21:23

We're in a lovely holiday home at the moment, really nice decor, plenty of crockery and cutlery, a food cupboard of cool bags and beach rugs to help yourself too, definitely one to visit again.

However they have provided three dishwasher tablets and no spare bin bags. Hardly the end of the world but for the price of the rental I always get mildly irritated when they are so stingy with something inexpensive like dishwasher tablets. If it was me I'd just have them in stock like washing up liquid.

Anything irritate you?

OP posts:
Notnownotneverever · 29/05/2019 23:54

No vacuum cleaner or equally a rubbish one - I mean, why? It means the guests can’t help maintain the house.
Tiny mugs. Everyone likes a decent beverage in the morning.

Notnownotneverever · 29/05/2019 23:56

We also stayed in a cottage with absolutely disgusting brown carpets. As in they weren’t brown carpets but the middle section was dark brown. How hard would it have been to have them cleaned/replaced? They must have been a decade old at least.

BenWillbondsPants · 30/05/2019 00:30

We stayed in a holiday cottage in Scotland in Feb and oh my god it was perfect. There wasn't ONE thing that wasn't right!

Oh and the welcome basket had ground coffee, tea, TWO bottles of wine, homemade shortbread, scones and packets of kids sweets. There was milk, cheese, BACON, eggs, butter, clotted cream and a massive bar of chocolate in the fridge. I never wanted to leave and I can't wait to go back.

FurrySlipperBoots · 30/05/2019 00:39

'Bath towels' that fit round one thigh, if you're lucky

No sieve! I've lost track of the number of sieves we've bought on holiday over the years! We just bring one from home now

And yes re curtains made of tissue paper. I'm really sensitive to the morning light, and need a proper lie in to enjoy the day. I take blackout blinds from home but they always fall down in the night!

FurrySlipperBoots · 30/05/2019 00:42

Oh and uncomfortable mattresses! I am a bit 'Princess and the pea' when it comes to beds - none of the rest of my family seem to mind, but a hard/lumpy/sagging/sharp-springy mattress ruins the holiday for me. I bring a memory foam topper from hoe these days but it takes up an awful lot of room. Premier Inn mattresses are good. And the ones in Marriott hotels. If they were just in all the holiday cottages and hotels it'd be fine!

fuckwitseverywhere · 30/05/2019 00:43

Going self catering tomorrow. This thread is really useful! Thanks Smile

FurrySlipperBoots · 30/05/2019 00:43

@BenWillbondsPants

Awww, that's lovely!! I hope you left them a brilliant review.

FurrySlipperBoots · 30/05/2019 00:45

Oh, and not somewhere I actually stayed, because we just drove home rather than spend 3 days there, but one cottage was absolutely stunk out with Potpourri. They had bowls of it in every room, it was really overpoweringly nauseating. And it made you anxious about what smell they were trying to cover up!!

BenWillbondsPants · 30/05/2019 00:45

@FurrySlipperBoots I did - and booked to go back at Christmas too. We've stayed in some awful places in the past so this was so wonderful!

SomeLikeItTepid · 30/05/2019 00:56

Crap, blunt knives
Crap pots and pans
Teeny tiny fridge freezers for a house that sleeps 6 people +
Hosts that "can't help resolve the problems as they're on their own holiday right now....sorry" ..... GGGGGRRRRRRRR

FurrySlipperBoots · 30/05/2019 01:07

@notso

Owners who won't leave you alone. We rented an amazing villa almost perfect but the owners were a PITA. Far too present and told off for wanting to use the air conditioning as 'it wasn't hot enough' maybe not for them living in Greece for 20 years but for us from soggy Wales it was bloody boiling on the first night.

Oh God yeah! You've just given me flashbacks of the holiday in Kent where the owner kept popping round to mess with the apple tree in the back garden! No matter that you were out there sunbathing, she'd be round to join you with her apple-picking basket. The same woman once let herself into the house and walked into my room as I was taking a nap, to shut my bedroom window. She'd assumed we'd all gone out for the day. Even if we had she had no business doing it! I'm just glad I was sleeping and not canoodling with someone! It did piss me off though.

FurrySlipperBoots · 30/05/2019 01:11

Another one - killer main roads that they conveniently don't mention when you book. Even if you don't have children or dogs, who wants that constant 'zooming by' when they're trying to relax!

DuggeesWoggle · 30/05/2019 01:53

Amazed no one has mentioned lack of spatula in the kitchen. I use mine all the time at home to scrape out pans etc, never had one yet in a holiday let, just those awful rigid cheap plastic fish slices. I usually take my own (along with big sharp kitchen knife, small sharp knife, sometimes a chopping board).

To the pp who said pizza cutter - can't you just use scissors? It's how I always cut pizza at home!

SnugglySnerd · 30/05/2019 02:12

Large properties advertises suitable for big groups with only 1 highchair, travel cot etc. This actually makes them a right pain for big family gatherings.

houseymchouse · 30/05/2019 02:53

Stayed in a very very expensive house for my fils 60th and there was nothing worse than the very fancy and snazzy individual room mood lighting and music systems you could control from a touch of a button didn't work.. we got a refund I think it cost north of 1600 for one weekend and one of the main features didn't work!

houseymchouse · 30/05/2019 02:57

Just remembered another one! Lovely (tiny) cottage in Dorset that charged by the day for electric, and there was no where within 20 miles to buy wood for the stove so they provided some- for £20, and then there was the £15 charge on check out that covered 'cleaning' and we had to strip the beds and vacuum etc. All had to be paid in cash on the last day 🙄

houseymchouse · 30/05/2019 03:02

Haha! Another one.. can you tell we stay in usually very cheap and shit cottages?

Stayed in one middle of June and the fucking heating came on at 5am. It was so hot it was awful, we spoke to the owners and asked them to turn it off but it was attached to their house and they needed the heating on to heat the hot water 😭 it was awful! We tried to turn the radiators down but the temperature Turner thing fell off

houseymchouse · 30/05/2019 03:04

'Perfect for dogs' gets there and the garden fence is down on the floor 🙄 or it was once good for dogs but now there a nice note in the welcome pack saying 'due to previous guests please ensure dogs stay in the kitchen at all times...'

houseymchouse · 30/05/2019 03:13

@HundredMilesAnHour what topper? Do tell!

houseymchouse · 30/05/2019 03:28

Recently stayed in a large cottage advertised as 'perfect for hen dos' ffs! Notes all over the fucking house

'Turn the oven off after use failure to do so will result in us keeping your deposit'

'Use heat mats provided failure to do so will result in us keeping your deposit'

'Flush toilet after use failure to do so will result in us keeping your deposit'

'Make sure kettle is full of water when boiling so it does not boil dry failure to do so will result in us keeping your deposit'

Etc etc etc. Their shower was shit too it was either Mordor or the arctic... if you don't want hen parties don't advertise as perfect for them- for what it's worth we were a group of professional people who were probably very boring but I took a photo of the stain in the living room and they tried to charge us for that as it was clearly vomit but getting the keys at 13.00 and a photo that showed the dried stain at 13.01 meant they didn't have a chance there!

Orchardgreen · 30/05/2019 09:04

I stayed in a cottage in Scotland “very dog friendly”. It was in a small picturesque village next to the owners house, within a large gravelled yard. “Please do not let your dog foul in the yard”. Well, at home, I let DDog out for his morning pee, while I’m in PJs. What’s more, there was a village”rule” that you walked your dog out of the village for them to do their business. So first thing in the morning I would have to pull on clothes and shoes and stagger out of the village with DDog.
Also she had a cleaner come into do the changeover, the sofa was absolutely wrecked, clearly the owner and cleaner had never sat on it for years.
I agree with pp that owners should live in them for a week.

StealthPolarBear · 30/05/2019 09:10

BenWillbondsPants thank you :) I think that welcome basket might cost more than we charge per night but I'll see if I can add any items to my list

MerryMarigold · 30/05/2019 09:16

Stealth, that is some welcome basket with wine and bacon. I think milk, tea, instant coffee or ground if there is a coffee maker is sufficient. Home made biscuits a major bonus.

BalloonSlayer · 30/05/2019 10:11

We always have to pick "no dogs allowed" because of severe allergies. Only sometimes, when 2 members of the family are streaming and wheezing, it becomes apparent that the owners just don't want other people's dogs in their house and that their own dogs stay there all the time.

WillowintheUK · 30/05/2019 10:13

Not an annoyance more a wtf?!? Stayed in a beautiful big chateau in France last summer - whole family, kids, grandkids. Really well appointed, plenty of utensils, pans, fridge/freezer, all the comforts of home......they even supplied a couple of toilet rolls in each bathroom. Strangely the toilet rolls lived on the floor as there was no holder in any of the bathrooms. Towel rails, yes, even shelving, and in the case of the en suite, lovely built in double sink with space for everything. Just slightly spoiled by the toilet roll sitting on the floor.