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?

Not having enough toilet rolls for your stay
Nowhere to hang clothes/no coat hangers
Uncomfortable/too small sofas

From our last visit - beautiful outside area, highlighted on the ad, but with no outdoor furniture. We had to drag the (non waterproof) indoor seating outside whenever we wanted to enjoy the view or the sunshine.

No wine glasses! Gives me the rage.

Not enough towel rails for everyone staying. I end up draping them over dining table chairs or doors.

I suspect the reason they don't leave many dishwasher tablets is because people take spares home. The owner of the place we rented last time apologised when we arrived for no hand soap in one of the bathrooms because the previous renter stole it, it was brand new the week before because the previous renter had taken one! What bemused me is the owner had provided full cake making equipment including a lovely stand mixer and several shaped cake tins! (She also provided a large homemade cake!)

Surprised to see so many other people annoyed by the blunt knives. Thought it was just me. Places should provide a knife sharpener so guests can take care of it themselves.

Small bowls (usually if the owners are older and only think of bowls as being for cereal, not pasta and rice meals)

Bedroom curtains that don't keep out the light. Guests are on holiday, and usually don't want to wake at the crack of dawn.

No table to eat at. No hooks etc. for coats, esp. when wet and you don't want them in a wardrobe. Not enough armchairs/sofas for the number of people.

No dustpand & brush for minor spills.

No kitchen basics (salt, pepper, coffee etc.) This was abroad - I don't expect the owners to feed and provide for us but don't want to have to take this stuff abroad on a flight, and it's nice to have coffee or something there when you arrive at 10pm.

The one I'm in at the moment only has overhead lighting in the living room. A couple of lamps would've made such a difference. And there's no extra blankets either, and just one tea towel.

Parking I always check before I book - loads of holiday places, especially in more chocolate box type places, don’t have off road parking.

Annoyances in current place - no pint glasses (have gone to buy cheap as chips set), no comfortable sofa to watch tv/ relax. One bath sheet per person provided (a couple I would personally reserve for the dogs) - I like a towel for my hair as well. Horrible, soft mattress, so I keep waking up nose to nose with DH.

Ps I always take my own knives and saucepans in the U.K., and if travelling by car to Europe I at least take a large stockpot and knives

Ants. Roaches. Mouldy bathroom fittings. Tat (unnecessary ornaments/pictures/vases/cushions).

We stayed in one place, we were one of the first guests. It was clear that everything was brand new, but everything from furniture to crockery was the cheapest possible option. Looked nice on photos, but was all cheap, plasticky, on the verge of breaking..

Nothing ‘extra’ was provided at all, no toilet rolls, bin bags, dishwasher tablets. It cost quite a bit to stock up on the basics to get us through the week, we made sure we took everything with us when we left!

We also had to pay for parking for the week, so another expense.

Talking of pointless ornaments - flippin' bowls of pot pourri everywhere. So easy to spill, and often full of dust.

And worse, other very strongly scented cleaning products and air fresheners. One place I stayed it was so strongly scented I got a headache if I spent more than about 10 minutes in the sitting room, on top of the runny nose, and it took 4 days of airing it for the smell to decrease noticeably.

Inadequate heating - I hate being cold.
Uncomfortable sofas and chairs.
Tiny cups.
No coffee machine.
Big garden but no BBQ!

Cheap or broken knives
No olive oil, salt or pepper
One dishwasher tablet
One or no tea towels
A mouldy or damp smell - so depressing to realise you’re the first people to stay there for months
Houses furnished from junk shops with no thought given to comfort or even a basic amount of style - cost has obviously been the only factor.
Owners who don’t think to put the heating on before you arrive late on a winter night, meaning you arrive to a freezing house that is no warmer than outside.
Glass chopping boards
An obviously mouldy shower screen or enclosure.
Missing or blown lightbulbs
Stingy towel allocation
Having to make your own bed up or having to pay extra for ‘linen rental’ - who wants to take bedding on holiday with them?!
Crap hairdryers that are less powerful than a mosquito’s fart.

@PerspicaciaTick

strangely we have 17 mugs and 3 cereal bowls.... want to swap??

I always pack kitchen roll, knives and binbags.

Yy to not enough seats for the number of beds!
I've stayed in a large house, fifteen beds, 6 dining places! Eating is a massive part of our family holidays, and we were really put out we had to push side tables up and use garden chairs for our meals. We were paying over £2k for the week!

Poorly equipped kitchens.

Pillows with stains on.

Towels that have seen better days.

Ornaments or fake flowers.

We once rented a really expensive house and they had plastic on the high seats at the kitchen island. I took it straight off. How to make people feel unwelcome!

Definitely need big mugs. We now own about 10 cafetière because I always forget to take one and they’re never provided. Towel hooks

We left one cottage 2 days early (out of 4 nights) as we just couldn’t get the place warm. It was the middle of winter and from the guest book it didn’t look like anyone had stayed for the previous few weeks. It was right on the beach and it was a cold and windy weekend, and the place was one of those with a mezzanine floor, so basically one huge room with very high ceilings.
There was one small radiator and an open fire, it just wasn’t enough to heat the place.

We couldn’t get hold of the owner until day 3, by which time we decided to leave as couldn’t stand being cold any more!

We got a partial refund after a lot of complaining!

I stayed in a place this weekend that stank of damp and had pot pori eberywhere. :(
And we had to add up our energy usage at the end with a complicated equation. Not easy when you're trying to do the idiot check and get out of the house.

No clothes horse for drying clothes 😡

'Dogs are welcome' in the advert but when we turned up:

Not allowed upstairs
Not allowed on the furniture
Wees on grass must be hosed off

Not really welcome.

I recognise so much of this! Pint glasses, mugs, enough towels if they said they're provided - and big enough, no footboard on the bed is part of our booking criteria, towel airer, hooks on doors for towels,dressing gowns etc. Yes to dishwasher tabs and bin bags, and enough crockery. And a comfy sofa. I could go on!

No storage space for food, we booked lodge for 8 people last year, only half a cupboard for food. And, 8 knives, bowls, plates etc., we were washing up all day, that's not a holiday!!