Holiday cottage owners - things I would like pls!

[EinsteinaGogo]

Hi everyone,

There have been a few posts from holiday cottage owners recently (which makes sense, due to situation).

I'm browsing holiday cottages / lodges in Suffolk for between Christmas and New Year, and I'm pondering my 'must haves'.

Obviously, everyone has their own 'must haves'. In our case, we only go out for a few hours a day. the rest of the time we spend In the cottage.
so my must haves are:

Excellent wifi
Good sized Smart TV with Netflix at a minimum, ideally Amazon and ability to have other apps
King sized bed

There are so few places that have smart TVs -
I'm actually thinking about bringing one! And so many places only have a double bed. My DH is 6'4". Double beds mean rubbish sleep for us.

Renters: what are your must haves?
And owners - can you get me smart tv and massive bed pls?!

@RockyRoadster,

We have a real leather armchair and a different sofa(not a set), sofa is soft Italian leather from John Lewis and I have grown to hate both so passionately I barely use the living room or sit on a beanbag(DH refusing to sell cheaply and nobody wants to pay lots, and sofa would need a van and access to our house is tricky)
Leather is slippy and horrible and sticky in the summer and cold in the winter. Any throw slides right off.

Even though our leather is real and worn/soft, it's still a glossy type of leather. Maybe you meant this velvety sued-y type of leather? I imagine it's more like fabric to touch and not slippy.

The best advice on this thread to owners is to use the place for a few days yourselves, sleep in it, store food and cook in it.

None we've stayed in has been really awful, but one had no cleaning materials except half an inch of washing-up liquid ( no dishwasher) and the hoover bag was full.

Another had no chair in the bedrooms, low bedside tables with tiny lamps so reading was impossible, a fridge not even as large as an undercounter one (though there was a space for a tall fridge freezer in the spacious kitchen), and no mirror in the house anywhere near a socket for using a hair dryer.

Unlike a lot of people I'm not bothered about a welcome pack as we always take enough for the first evening and next morning.

The best places have enough cupboard space for food, enough dishes etc but not too many, likewise with cooking utensils.

And a dog friendly secure garden needs to have a decent fence or hedge and gate, otherwise it's useless.

Another couple from me!

If you live on the same site, don't constantly check on guests and if you have dogs, keep them under control! We stayed at two places last year that were lovely lodges, but we won't return for those reasons.

The first owners didn't live on site, but came over twice a day to check the hot tub. Fine, these things have to be done. What doesn't need to be done is bringing their large, bouncy dog aswell who then wandered into the lodge, scared the kids by bouncing them and the owner saying "oh he's friendly"

Second lodge, the owners lived on site, but a short distance away. However, their farm house overlooked the lodges and we felt like we were constantly being watched. They also arrived 40 minutes before we were due to chexk out (and therefore still finishing packing the last few bits) to chivvy us as they had to go out for the day!

Ooo yes I race to the visitors book when our guests leave, and love reading the comments. It's really useful too for future guests. Our holidaymakers sometimes come up with brilliant day out ideas which we haven't!

@TheoneandObi I always strip the beds anyway, so would be happy to bung it all in a laundry bag. To be honest I always clean the bathroom and kitchen really well before leaving as well, so all the cleaners need to do is dust, make up beds and hoover and mop. Used to clean holiday cottages many moons ago, so old habits die hard

The way I feel about holiday cottages is I expect them to be at least a similar standard to my own home. I have a very comfortable bed, why would I put up with sleeping on a lumpy one? I have a dishwasher, why would I want to wash up by hand on holiday? I don’t want to put up with any discomfort or inconvenience, especially when I’m paying someone else for the privilege.

We went to a hideous holiday cottage once years ago, I cant believe how it was rated by any holiday board or why anyone would have had it on their website or brochure.
The decor was awful and there were blatantly unsafe things like a plug socket immediately above the sink.
In the visitors book nearly all the comments had been scribbled out with permanent marker!!

[quote Cassandrainthenight]@RockyRoadster,

We have a real leather armchair and a different sofa(not a set), sofa is soft Italian leather from John Lewis and I have grown to hate both so passionately I barely use the living room or sit on a beanbag(DH refusing to sell cheaply and nobody wants to pay lots, and sofa would need a van and access to our house is tricky)
Leather is slippy and horrible and sticky in the summer and cold in the winter. Any throw slides right off.

Even though our leather is real and worn/soft, it's still a glossy type of leather. Maybe you meant this velvety sued-y type of leather? I imagine it's more like fabric to touch and not slippy.[/quote]
I’ve just never found that tbh, but appreciate that different people have different experiences. No, I’ve never had velvety suede-y type leather 🤷🏻‍♀️

To answer the question about wine glasses, at least from an owners point of view: wine glasses break all the time. It is rare for us to have a let without at least 1 broken wine glass. The bigger the glass the more likely it is to break. A broken glass isn't itself an issue, they are cheap enough to replace, but more often than not they break in the dishwasher. The broken glass gets down to the impeller and the dishwasher stops working. This happens on a depressingly regular basis. The smaller wine glasses tend to go into the dish washer easier so don't break.

Another thing to consider is cultural variations. British guests love big glasses, the bigger the better. And big mugs. French guests like a small glass, very small in some cases, and would never use a pint glass for example. And they prefer little coffee cups. The morning coffee is drunk out of a bowl so there is no need for big mugs. We have guests of both nationalities so try to find a happy medium.

Beds are similar, French guests are more than happy with a double bed (we have a couple) whereas the British guests all want king or superking. It can sometimes be difficult to please everyone.

Ooh, I've thought of another.

Please let us control the heating, particularly if there isn't a log burner or fire. Just a simple thermostat if that's possible (I appreciate it's not always workable).

An hour at 6am and an hour at 8pm doesn't manage to get the place warm when it's 2 degrees outside and it's miserable being cold on holiday. I say this as someone quite warm blooded.

I know what I dont want, and thats soft cushions and throws on the beds that clearly dont get washed between guests (most are dry clean only).

ShandlersWig entirely agree. I remove all cushions & faffy bits from the bed on arrival and put them out of the way.

A rainforest shower should not be the only type of shower head. I hate them.

Proper instructions for TV/satellite/complicated ovens etc. I don’t want to spend even a small amount of my holiday time fathoming out how things work.

Enough keys so that adults in the household can go out individually if they want (obviously I wouldn’t expect it for a 25 person let but it’s not unreasonable to want 3 keys for 3 people.

Good lighting in all rooms.

A few basic kitchen & cleaning supplies cost pennies but show that the owner has actually thought about what would make life easier for their guests.

Yes, very good call from pp - nothing on the bed that isn't going to be washed at every guest change. No cushions, throws, bedspreads or blankets.

In the instructions and guest book, I'd like to get a sense of welcome and thank you for booking our cottage. Not the "we're doing you a huge favour and you'd better not step out of line" Basil Fawlty type vibe you get from some owners.

Enough keys so that adults in the household can go out individually if they want (obviously I wouldn’t expect it for a 25 person let but it’s not unreasonable to want 3 keys for 3 people.

Good one. So many owners think a single key is sufficient.

@DuesToTheDirt

Enough keys so that adults in the household can go out individually if they want (obviously I wouldn’t expect it for a 25 person let but it’s not unreasonable to want 3 keys for 3 people.

Good one. So many owners think a single key is sufficient.

We have a key safe. I thought that was pretty standard for holiday lets?

Decent, firm mattress. It doesn't have to be expensive (ikea have some decent firm foam mattresses). A soft mattress can ruin my holiday because it wrecks my back. Not memory foam, makes my back even worse.

Bizarrely request - a good sized mug that can be microwaved without the handle getting really hot. In mainland Europe mugs seem to be made of different material and the handle is too hot to hold. Drives me mad.

100% cotton bedding. Feather pillows.

holiday cottage owners / agents... please check your tin opener.

Yes – veg peeler too. We always pack one as so many places don’t seem to think guests might need one.

They also arrived 40 minutes before we were due to chexk out (and therefore still finishing packing the last few bits) to chivvy us as they had to go out for the day!

Grrrrr!!!! Not a holiday cottage, but my sister and I (when children) stayed in a B&B many years ago with our parents, where they phoned us in the room 15 minutes before vacating time. It wasn’t even a ‘just checking if you’re OK with your packing/need a hand with your bags’, which would have been irritating enough, but he said “I’ve got girls out here that I’m paying to stand doing nothing!” Well, don’t employ them to start until after guests need to vacate, then! Some guests will prefer to leave earlier, but you can’t move the goalposts if they don’t.

This was the same man who, on showing us to our room, insisted on mansplaining demonstrating how to turn the telly on “as it can be quite difficult”. It turned out that you had to press the ‘On’ switch when you wanted it on, who could have guessed?! We also had to order breakfast the evening before.

My parents ran a kind of related business that could have brought them some good trade and had already agreed shortly after arrival to take some leaflets to display for them; but after that, Dad binned them when we got home and said he didn’t want to risk their reputation being seen to endorse rude people like that!

Sorry, didn’t mean to sidetrack, but needed a little rant

For me a firm mattress would ruin my holiday as it hurts my arthritic joints. There is no pleasing everyone.

I agree with nothing on the bed that isn't cleaned between guests. More than one key. A decent tv and wi fi. I also hate leather sofas but can live with it for a week.

I also hate owners who pop by. In our last place they checked the hot tub at 6am and that was it.

Also clear instructions on where to put rubbish. One lodge asked us to take it out and put it in the rubbish area. But we couldn't find it. Turns out it was inside a locked shed, but no idea how we were meant to know that or gain access.

Yes also at controlling the heating. Once we had an unseasonably warm period around our stay and couldn't turn the heating off. Took the owners two days to come and sort it.

Feather pillows

Definitely not, allergies.

We have a key safe. I thought that was pretty standard for holiday lets?

How many copies of the key(s) are in there, though? Maybe we're unusual, but we only use the key safe once when we arrive, to get the keys, and once when we're leaving, to put them back again. The rest of our time there, it's on a side indoors or in a pocket or bag. Do most/some HC guests remove/replace the key every time they go out and get back during their stay?

Decent towels. BIG fluffy ones.

Try Unique Homestays. www.uniquehomestays.com Most of the things people are asking for have to be provided as standard. I don't work for them, I just wish I could live in their properties full time!

Oh, and big mugs for tea. We always take our own as we drink bucketsfull.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

We have a key safe. I thought that was pretty standard for holiday lets?

How many copies of the key(s) are in there, though? Maybe we're unusual, but we only use the key safe once when we arrive, to get the keys, and once when we're leaving, to put them back again. The rest of our time there, it's on a side indoors or in a pocket or bag. Do most/some HC guests remove/replace the key every time they go out and get back during their stay?

The ones where different adults want to different things during the day do.

The ones who are bothered about losing the keys while they are out do.

The ones who are setting off for a days hill walking on foot from the cottage neatly always do.

The rest just take the keys with them. But it's an option that's there and gets round needing several sets of keys.