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?

We're away at the moment. This house has every. Literally everything. It's the best equipped house I've ever stayed in. It even has dishwasher tablets, laundry powder and fabric softener. Baby gates everywhere, a baby monitor and crockery, cutlery etc for littles. I'm seriously impressed

No headboard on the bed. I can't stand this. I don't want to sit in bed leaning against a wall. If I can see from photos that there's no headboard, I won't book.

Cheap pillows. Argh! The quality of bedding is so important. Definitely no polyester. And no dodgy mattresses either. Get yourself to Soak & Sleep and invest in a mattress topper please (actually I stayed in an AirBNB in the Cotswolds that had such an amazing mattress topper that I came home and bought one for myself - and convinced my father to buy one too).

Tiny two person sofas. I want to be able to lie on the sofa without dangling my legs over the sofa arm.

Poor or non-adjustable heating. I'm a big baby who doesn't like being cold so your 3 minutes of heating once a day just isn't going to cut it during winter.

Rubbish shower. This is a dealbreaker for me. I scour reviews before booking looking for comments about the shower.

• We leave a dishwasher tablet per person for a weeks stay

Wouldn't it be more sensible and logical to leave a tablet per day of stay? Working on the reasoning the dishwasher would be run on average once per day as the most likely average?

@feather - Florida gulf coast?

Used to stay somewhere like that

No bedside lighting - main bedroom light on or off & nothing in between.

Not enough crockery or cutlery - house sleeps 6 so you need just 6 of everything, right?

Tiny saucepans & crap non-stick.
No mixing / serving bowls.
No sharp knives.
Tiny 'Paris goblet' wine glasses.

No keyhooks. No hooks on backs of doors. No airer for damp towels.

We leave full compliment of spices salt pepper vinegar oil etc. Hand soap etc. 18 + plates etc. Lots of cutlery. Pans are a bore because people really trash even the most expensive non stick.

We leave spare bulbs etc too.

2 towels and 2 pillows per person.

The one that really ticks me off is people that leave a tap running. It's happened at least 3x. And it can be weeks before we realize if we don't have back to back bookings.

Ah we recently stayed somewhere with the thinnest curtains you can imagine, they might as well not have bothered.
Meant the toddler barely slept and spent the weekend throwing tantrums over the slightest thing. It was also a first floor flat, so ended up annoying the neighbours as well!

The other one that stands out is a tiny fridge & no freezer for a 3 bed flat with 6 adults and a toddler. Not even close to enough space!

Nowhere to hang damp towels to dry
Spatulas that are half melted and miss-shapen (and so flimsy you cant pick anything up with them anyway
Everything jumbled in the kitchen cupboards and drawers so you have to play I've found one mug where is another one? Oh look I found a cheese grater and half a popcorn popper....
Random half used ancient spices - just in case you might fancy them

We once had a rental which was lovely but they had a beautiful new induction hob

And only 1 pan out of about 15 provided that worked on an induction hob.

No hooks on the back on bathroom/bedroom doors.
No mirrors.
Limited choice of drinking glasses.

I agree with small mugs, we now take our own. One of my biggest gripes is no coat hooks, or not enough. I also check photos closely online to see if the sofas are big/comfy enough.

I’m in a lodge/caravan type thing at the moment.

It has a George Forman grill and a blender (?!), but only three dishwasher tablets. It has a Judge knife block - but they’re all blunt. The airer isn’t tall enough to drape even one towel over - and this is a six berth place.

I must say though I do feel most owners try really hard, and you can't please all the people etc. One person's luxury is another person's hovel. Sometimes new owners might not realise things like smell or the little things we notice.

I do like a whingey thread like this now once or twice a year.

Wouldn't it be more sensible and logical to leave a tablet per day of stay? Working on the reasoning the dishwasher would be run on average once per day as the most likely average?

No.

We are told in advance how many guests to expect and plan accordingly (not just dishwasher tabs but cake wine/beers/ welcome tea bags and sugar lumps)

We have two properties that have 1 bedroom (sleeps one or two people plus infants) and one property that has two bedrooms (sleeps one - four people plus infants). We regularly get single travellers in all three properties, two single people in the 2 bedroom property or two couples plus 2 infants.

7 dishwasher tablets for a single person would be silly. But it's about the right amount for two couples plus babies in exactly the same accommodation. We provide enough crockery and cutlery for it to be ok for a full set to be in the dishwasher and there still be enough in the cupboards for a meal for 4 though which is probably what makes the difference.

It annoys me when there is no full length mirror. I'm not obsessed with my reflection, but it is normal to want to check your appearance before going out. I once stayed in a 'luxury loft' where the only mirror on the premises was about a foot square and directly above the washbasin-only useful for viewing your midriff, unless you happen to be 3ft 6.

We have a rental. I think we’ve thought of practically everything. It’s really well equipped.

But someone complained the other day about the lack of toilet roll (we provide 2 per bathroom, 3 bathrooms) for a 9 person let. She said they would have run out had they stayed the last night (they left one day early due to family issue, had a lovely time though). I just thought - there’s a shop a 1 min drive away and when I go to a self catering place I always take loo roll!!

Also you would be amazed at how much crockery and glassware gets broken on a weekly basis! It’s difficult to keep on top of! As for scratched non-stick pans - how do you think they got this way? Why do guests use metal implements on them? 🤣

Anyway, we have 2 pillows and towels per guest, bath mats, white company cotton bedding, comfy beds, WiFi, cookware, glasses (albeit mismatched due to constant breakage), corkscrew, black out linings, DVD’s and more importantly the DVD player, off street parking for 4 cars, kids stuff.... anyone want to come and stay? 😊

Yes, mirrors. The mirror in the bedroom, suitable for a 6' model drying her hair. No one had looked at that closely when they fixed it. Also, overdoing the twiggy shit, in this case driftwood themed items for a seaside cottage.

Posh bathrooms so sleek there’s actually nowhere to put your toothbrush (or any other toiletries). Enough mugs to host a coffee morning for an entire village ....in a cottage that sleeps two....and then a cafetierre that looks like it belongs in a dolls’ house. Microwave but no cookware suitable to use in it. TV/DVD remote control arrangements so complex you need a degree in computing to work them out. Fussy cushions on beds then no extra blankets. Our best one ever: very strange noises every night coming from the attic above in a spooky Cornish cottage. DH is hard of hearing and as I lay in bed tracking the scratchy slithery sounds above, he slept on oblivious. The housekeeper showed up on day 3 and I mentioned the ‘noises off’ to be told ‘arrh, that’ll be a tree branch my lover!’ Some months later we saw the same holiday let advertised as follows: ‘no pets, please, especially snakes....’

Lack of decent curtains or blinds
Paper thin walls you can hear everything through
Squashing in too many - tiny terraced cottages advertised for eight people
Pans not big enough for the numbers accommodated
Insufficient sockets
Inadequate cleaning and general poor maintenance.

I like

• a welcome pack which includes homemade scones and cream plus teabags and milk
• privacy not an ever present owner
• maps
• logs and firefighters if an open fire

Leather sofas
No storage space - full kitchen cupboards!
Poor cleanliness
Too many Knick knacks
Uncomfortable bath
Noisy radiators or hot water tanks
No fan provided in hot weather

Ornaments, I don't mind a few but not too many.
Throws and decorative cushions. I don't trust them to be clean.
Teddy bears on the beds 😱
Usless, blunt kitchen utensils.
4 dishwasher tabs when you are staying for a week.
1 toilet roll.

We have a 6 person gite-
If I leave a box of 30 dishwasher tablets and another of washer pods, plus a bottle of rinse aid etc, they all vanish.
So, I leave 1 dw tablet per day plus a few.

C

Advertised WiFi that barely works. Don't advertise it if it's crap and you can only get a poor signal sat in one corner with your phone up against the window!

The knives are always shit and blunt.

The bins and rubbish collection is always a pain in the arse.

Lack of storage for clothes.