What little things annoy you in a holiday home?

[Callistone]

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?

Oh dear our toilet rolls live on the little shelf by the toilet. I hate holders. Does it really make that much difference?

I never mind mismatched crockery, as long as there's enough of it. Stayed at one place last year where it was all mismatched, but evidently all chosen from junk/charity shops for lovely old-fashioned floral designs. Much nicer than bland white Ikea IMO but I know others will disagree.

My pet peeve, esp. in more expensive properties, is a standard double bed when there is clearly plenty of room for a king size. . Won't book anywhere without one any more. IMO it's very cheapsakte of owners not to,provide something that's standard in budget hotels nowadays. But then I do think 'some' owners think they're doing you a massive favour by allowing you to pay ££££££ to stay in their properties and should therefore be humbly grateful for what they see fit to provide.

no one's mentioned a sieve or colander. They are rare as hens' teeth. What are you all using to drain your vegetables and rinse your fruit?

You're cooking vegetables on holiday? That's one of the things I go on holiday to get away from.. But seriously, won't a pan lid work for this? Can't fruit be washed by holding it under the tap? There's lots I agree with on the thread but also quite a few things that are important to some people but not core items for everyone.

I always need a sieve on holiday. Rinsing fruit like strawberries. Draining pasta or veg. We still eat veg on holiday. There isn’t always a saucepan lid.

Stayed in one place where there were only two teeny saucepans for 4 people. Gave up trying to cook a spaghetti Bol.

That’s where my folding sieve and folding bowl come in useful

Colander a basic imo

My idea of a holiday is obviously very different to many on here. Colanders? Sieves? Kitchen scales? While I’m happy to cook breakfast I expect to eat out or maybe have the occasional takeaway. I certainly won’t be producing full lunches or dinners that require using any of the above.

I'm chuckling at all the people who bring various items of their batterie de cuisine with them on holiday. I live in the US. I can't transport kitchen utensils, especially knives, across the ocean. We always stay in self-catered accommodation when in the UK. I'm happy as long as there is Wi-Fi and good coffee making equipment. We don't do much cooking, except for breakfast.

Depends on your budget I imagine. We do eat out, but I like to eat in as well. Make sandwiches for a picnic etc.

I'm surprised by the amount of cooking people do on holiday, by self-catering I mean my husband walks by himself to the takeaway or I pick my self something from the restaurant menu.

@AlexaAmbidextra

The whole family eating out/getting a takeaway every night for a week would amount to big money!

If I’m paying for self catering I do expect to be able to cater. I don’t need egg cups or cake tins, but saucepans are helpful.

We stayed in a wonderful seaside flat at Easter, lovely bedding, etc had everything (including pods for the coffee machine) except a cheese grater.

I've thought of another couple. Owners of properties who are new to it, and possibly a bit ambivalent about letting property out. Stayed in a farm cottage on a farm estate, cottage had not laundry facilities, but had use of the ones in the main farm, in a kind of annexe. Using them one day, only to be challenged by the owners mother, slightly aggressively. Same cottage, checkout 11am. 1045 owner getting in our way, coming into the kitchen to collect recycling.... Leave it until 11, or have checkout earlier. If you are letting your property, don't act as if I am a slightly inconvenient guest, when I am paying mucho pounds!

@StealthPolarBear - of course it made no difference to our enjoyment of the holiday - I was merely telling what I considered a slightly amusing anecdote. A shelf would indeed have been nice to place it on in the absence of a holder. However, in spite of the abundance of storage and shelves everywhere there were none close to the actual toilets.

Just puzzled me a little, that’s all, and I didn’t lose any sleep over it in my king size bed.

I quite like cooking on holiday and do so at times. Nothing complicated.

Expensive to constantly buy take aways

I hate the tiny thinker sized glasses they provide. Three glassfuls later and I was finally no longer thirsty.

The most annoying one I’ve stayed in had the owner living in the converted garage for the weeks she rented it out. Talk about quiet enjoyment. Fat chance. She spent all day watering various areas of the garden meaning you felt really uncomfortable being out there at any time of the day.

The last one I stayed in was just weird. It was in Paris and the owner kept ringing me to ask if I’d left yet and she could have her flat back? Erm no. I’ve rented it for 3 days so you can have it back in 3 days. You’d think I was a fucking squatter.

Deliberately chose a cottage with a log burning stove. They charged £15 extra for heating but we reckoned that wouldn't be a problem as it was April and, if we needed a bit of heat, the stove would do. It was only when we turned up that the owners broke it to us that if we used the stove they would also charge £15. Not at all impressed.

Expensive to constantly buy take aways

We do a mixture of takeaways (which may be just cheap pasties), dining out, and having snack things like soup, bread and cheese, paté, salads, etc. The rule is definitely that cooking will be kept to a bare minimum, and we don't spend that much.

Have self catered for years but got really stung on holiday in France last year. They had plastic rattan style furniture outside that was tatty to say the least, and obviously a good few years old, splitting from the heat on the arms etc and the seats were sagging and the rattan coming apart in the centre.

We're not too precious but we were having a meal outside and I was sitting quietly on one of these chairs when the seat, already coming apart, totally split and my arse nearly hit the floor. I am not a skinny thing, I must admit but not bariatric!

We all laughed, informed the owner in the morning, no apparent problem till we got an email on the way home, saying we had damaged the entire set of chairs through our own negligence and they withheld our entire deposit of £250. They also told us we had left the place in a disgusting state and it took them 8 hours to clean an empty property. This was just a lie, I do holiday housekeeping in the UK and I know what a property should look like. We have done self catering for 30 years and have never known anything like it!

We will be taking photos this year (somewhere different!) and we are expected to leave the property in a state clean enough for the next guests to move straight in. Otherwise there's an £80 charge. I will be photographing every room on our departure. Its a shame but we never expected to be ripped off like that.

I left a pleasant, very polite trip advisor review, because I knew if I was blunt, she would start name calling. But I detailed about 15 minor helpful points that we thought could improve the property. She had to answer every point in turn, must have been the equivalent of an 4 page essay. Through gritted teeth no doubt.

We've had good luck over the years with holiday rentals, both in the US and the UK. But I have to say that the advent of smartphones really helps with issues of condition and damage. When we first enter, I go around and note stains on carpet, damage to furniture, etc. and email the pictures to the landlord/letting agent immediately. I haven't taken pictures on leaving, but that is a good suggestion, too.

From our years of holiday cottage experience;
A driveway over a stream with a sharp turn to avoid the car parked on the other side. That was interesting with a people carrier. (IOW)

The power shower that produced a sad trickle of tepid water at best (France )

The ornaments all over the house which go rather well with having a toddler (North Wales)

The pebble and twiggy stuff house where we didn't see a single person all week.
It also had a bed Base that was six inches wider than the mattress, leading to numerous bashed shins and bad language (Filey)

The French cottage where the pool alarm failed to work despite me throwing random items in to try it out:

and finally the cottage in Somerset where WiFi was connected when you stood in the corner with your phone in the air. There was also dog hair in DD2S bed and fleas in our bed.

But we did have lovely French owners next door once who kept leaving random vegetables on our doorstep. That was nice.

I'm in a holiday house right now. The road to the drive is 240cms wide, our hire car is 207cms. It's not great tbh

Showers that I can't get to give a decent warm-hot shower.
One place I stayed for a week, got a shower on 2 days only. Couldn't get water to be anything but freezing or scalding, on the other days.

More than once I've had a fridge with freezer compartment totally iced up. Everything else in those properties absolutely fine.