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?!

@Pollaidh - don't worry, I just have messy children and get frustrated chopping veg with a blunt knife.

On the subject of visitors' books, I vaguely remember a programme on Radio 4 years ago called something like 'The Cheese Grater Needs Replacing', based on entries from a visitor's book in a holiday cottage in Zennor (I think) - I am not sure if it was based on a book or just a programme on the radio.

Good quality mattress/bed and reasonable bedding (doesn’t need to be White Company but Ikea’s cheapest line isn’t nice). Blackout curtains.

Non stick fry pan that isn’t Ikea’s £4 version, a couple of saucepans, a roasting tin (Pyrex are great), proper wine and champagne glasses and enough plates and cutlery for the max occupancy of the holiday let. I always bring my own knives as nothing in a holiday let is going to be as nice as mine. Ditto my own olive oil.

A smart TV so you can use your own Netflix and decent WiFi.

Enough lounge and dining seating for max occupancy. Don’t say the let sleeps eight and provide two double sofas.

Leather sofas are only awful if they’re cheap. Otherwise I don’t mind them at all.

What is interesting about some of these is that they are opposing.

I have read holiday cottage threads on here before where people are horrified at the idea of anything left behind by previous people, even unopened packets, and how they would bin everything and not touch it. So they want NO oil/herbs/salt/pepper etc, as it is too horrific to have items other people may have used.

The other thing is, you get what you pay for. Many of these are luxuries, so if you want them book a luxury cottage.
Or they are quite niche, so if you have niche needs, bring them yourself.

This one made me laugh:
Loads more towels than are usually provided. Quite often you get one hand towel and one small bath towel per person. You can't do much with a hand towel. I can't wrap my hair in one. If I could have my way it would be three bath sheets per person, at least one of them a large one - tiny towels remind me of the sixties.

I agree that you need a decent sized towel, and a hand towel big enough to be a hair towel too. I would also want hand towels by hand basin and kitchen. But 3 huge towels each? That's a joke.
If that's what you wnat, then bring them!

@Pollaidh - arghhhhh... my pet hate too!

We stayed in a place last year that was exactly the same... notes, AND the owner spent ages pointing out all the quirks and what we should / shouldn't do at checkin in.

AND lived in a house on site and was around ALL
the time..

Beautiful drinking glasses.
Nice cutlery and plates.
Plenty of all the above.
A well equipped kitchen.
Do not leave me lots of disgusting old dust gatherers, I'll only sweep them into a cupboard.
A beautiful outdoor seating area to have a drink or dinner.
Serving dishes and plates.
Lanterns, candles and matches.
Comfy sofas that aren't a million years old.
Air con.
A dishwasher.
A private pool and garden.
Nice cleaning staff.

Everything doesn't heed to be sterile, it does need a bit of charm.

Thoughtful touches when you arrive - a bottle of water, wine, beer etc in the fridge and tea and coffee making facilities, Makes such a difference when you turn up late and there's a bit of something there. And never, ever be mean on toilet roll.

I own holiday lets. "Leave it as you find it" doesn't mean clean the bath etc., it means leave it tidy, wash and put away the dishes and put the rubbish in the bin.
I've had people turn up with more people than the property can accommodate. Dogs! My own dogs don't go, I don't want other people's there. Snot, great crusty globules of it, blown into my John Lewis Egyptian cotton white duvet covers. Dirty nappies left stuffed behind toilets. Engine oil on the white towels, there is kitchen roll and spare, use that to check your dipstick. I been phoned by the guest demanding I drive from Chester to the Llyn Peninsula to turn up the valves on the radiators because the property is too cold for his baby. When you get there, this delicate newborn (you'd imagined from the hysteria on the phone) turns out to be a hulking great toddler. Shit, where do we start with the shit. Shit on the sheets, shit on the white towels (toilet paper-at least four rolls per bog are left for guests), shit on the toilet seat, shit on the floor with the remnants of the pubic topiary, and, the best ever, shit inside the toilet roll and then the roll put back on the holder.
Friday to Friday is because cleaners rates double at the weekend. At £60 per clean before laundry costs (I charge £40 for cleaning and £0 for bedding and towels), you can see why Friday is so popular.
Please, don't expect to arrive early and then expect to leave late. We have a lot of shit to clean up.

@Iwant2move
We've also had 'extras' turn up. Ours sleeps six. Six turned up. Then said oh you don't mind if our teenage children's friends come along mid-week and join us? Errrr... what? 4 extras? Gulp. Oh and can they have towels? Don't worry we've bought sleeping bags. This means theyre using sofa cushions and all sorts as mattresses and are hammering the heating and hot water. Just bloody book a house for 10!!!

My family have done holiday rentals, but not in UK.

Some people are unbelievable.
One reason you get 'leave it as you found it' is to get people to move the furniture back to where it started, it is not fun for a cleaner to arrive on her own and find that there is a bed in the wrong room, or a table/sofa etc moved.
dirty dishes, half full dirty dishwasher, bins full etc.

So many things get 'lost' knives, teaspoons, tin openers, towels. Really, what do people do with them?
It isn't so much the cost, as that the cleaner doesn't have time to do a detailed inventory of the kitchen drawers at every change over, and then the next person complains because they haven't got a tin opener or a corkscrew.

@Iwant2move

I used to work in a multiple occupancy building, with different companies on each floor. You wouldnt believe the state the toilets were left in, week after week. These were semi-professional people too. I just dont understand it.

Fans. The British summer can get surprisingly hot these days, and holiday cottages never seem to have fans. Seasonally appropriate bedding would be nice for the same reason!

Access to the Hoover is something I'd like. We go away every year with family and that's six adults and a young child in a cottage for a week. The floor gets grubby and I'd like to be able to clean it. I hoover and mop my own floors every day so by the end of a week in a holiday cottage I'm going spare at the state of the floor!

We leave a Hoover with no expectation that anyone has to use it. It's for the guests comfort really. We're costal/countryside in setti NJ and figure people
May not want a weeks worth of sand on their floor. Fir this reason too we have hard floors. That won't please everyone!
As a rule
Of thumb (apart from the people who brought the parrot
On holiday with them - they were unique!) we find the posher the guests the muckier the state the property is left in. It's not a problem. We accept ppl don't want to do housework on holiday, which is why we set aside ample cleaning time. But that's the correlation!

No passive aggressive notes stuck all over the place
No unexpected charges

We stayed at one place in Dorset and I swear to god it was awful! We didn't realise that the heating wasn't included in the price!!!!

£3 a day to be paid in cash on exit, £5 a day for using the provided wood for the woodburner and £3 a day for using electricity . Ridiculous

1. Good wifi.
2. A properly secure garden
3. No neighbours
4. No leather sofas

For that combo, I'd sell my soul.

My needs are simple. But amazing how many times they aren't met.

There must be enough room for the number of people who sleep to also eat at a dining table. (Not necessarily one table not necessarily in the same room, a dining table and a kitchen table would suffice)
If you can't do this, SAY SO in your booking info.
Equally provide enough cooking and dining equipment for the number of guests. If you have 6 people, 6 dinner plates is not enough. Same with forks etc. Can i cook oven chips for 6? Can I cook lasagne or casserole for 6? Can I boil potatoes for 6 in one pan?

If the house is aimed at larger numbers of guests think the catering through. Move in for a few days with the number of adults the place can take. And self cater.
I'm amazed by how many properties for big numbers have obviously been set up by people who have never had to cook for more than 4. Having lived in a community of 15 people, you need an entirely different set of cooking equipment. And a large property needs at least 2 kettles.
Equally 15 people will have 15 towels. Where should we put them to dry during the day?

Be clear about what your property has. Bed sizes. Room arrangements. If you have Wi-Fi, but it's crap or only works in the living room, just say that.

we find the posher the guests the muckier the state the property is left in. It's not a problem.

we have found the same.
Worst ever, was a group of top lawyers, with their toddler aged kids.
The bin was full of very expensive champagne bottles, the house was littered with dirty nappies and shit.

The cleaner had to put in an emergency phone call to TWO friends to come and help. We were lucky that they were available as cleaners are like gold dust on change over days.

I think they didn't bring the nanny on holiday and then couldn't work out how ot look after their little darlings properly

isittheholidaysyet

I really agree. If it is for 6 people, then 6 adults should be comfortable there. It is really annoying with teenagers when they assume that person 5 and 6 are small child sized. For this reason I hate bunk beds.

I think you are too nice though, it should seat everyone round one table, I don't want half of us eating in a different room!

Equally provide enough cooking and dining equipment for the number of guests. If you have 6 people, 6 dinner plates is not enough. Same with forks etc. Can i cook oven chips for 6? Can I cook lasagne or casserole for 6? Can I boil potatoes for 6 in one pan?

Well said. We stayed in a house the claimed it was for 8 people. There weren't even 8 full sized dinner plates! Just one oven tray despite there being a full sized oven. A small two slice toaster - try doing beans on toast for 8 with a 2 slice toaster - people have finished before others have started! And only 2 small pans. Some owners really havn't thought it through.

Beautiful drinking glasses.
Nice cutlery and plates.
Plenty of all the above.
A well equipped kitchen.
Do not leave me lots of disgusting old dust gatherers, I'll only sweep them into a cupboard.
A beautiful outdoor seating area to have a drink or dinner.
Serving dishes and plates.
Lanterns, candles and matches.
Comfy sofas that aren't a million years old.
Air con.
A dishwasher.
A private pool and garden.
Nice cleaning staff.

See I wouldnt expect "beautiful drinking glasses and nice cutlery and plates" as will presumably me lots more expensive to replace if when something gets broken. Also as a guest I would feel nervous if there were expensive wine glasses etc . Doesnt have to be Wilkos budget range but I imagine a lot of owners want something pretty standard that will be easy to replace.

I would imagine air con and a pool are for let's abroad. It wouldnt be worth it in the uk but wouldnt those things be specifically listed? I wouldnt expect either as standard.
And lanterns candles and matches to me is an extra rather than a requirement. In fact if accomodation was aimed at families/small children I would imagine they wouldnt leave this.

Yy to adequate catering and cooking stuff. We stayed at a place once and the holiday rep was most apologetic because we were missing an egg cup (I dont think we used egg cups at all when we were there) but there were only 2 saucepans which rather limited what you could cook, no wooden spoon, no sharp knives etc. Maybe we were just meant to eat boiled eggs all week?

Yes we aim for good quality but fairly standard design glasses etc so that when we replace we can match. All very well having exquisite design if you're constantly replacing. So we have Vileroy and Boch bog standard white plate etc for instance and John Lewis basics glasses

We had a brochure through for luxury Norfolk cottages and we went through it today to pick one for Christmas time and I no realise how fussy I am when we got through the whole brochure and only 2 were on our shortlist

Some had wallpaper not to our taste
Some were too open plan
Some had cupboard handles on the kitchen we didn’t like
Some didn’t have big enough sofas
Some had too much antler

@Rebelwithallthecause

We had a brochure through for luxury Norfolk cottages and we went through it today to pick one for Christmas time and I no realise how fussy I am when we got through the whole brochure and only 2 were on our shortlist

Some had wallpaper not to our taste
Some were too open plan
Some had cupboard handles on the kitchen we didn’t like
Some didn’t have big enough sofas
Some had too much antler

I can't decide if this is real or sarcastic!

I discount things if they are

• furnished very basically/look like they haven't been updated since 1985

-too far from a shop/pub -don't have the bedroom set up we need (2 DC of opposite gender, sometimes take a GP(s) -allow pets although I normally have to discount anything advertising as luxury as usually beyond our budget.

@Rebelwithallthecause

We had a brochure through for luxury Norfolk cottages and we went through it today to pick one for Christmas time and I no realise how fussy I am when we got through the whole brochure and only 2 were on our shortlist

Some had wallpaper not to our taste
Some were too open plan
Some had cupboard handles on the kitchen we didn’t like
Some didn’t have big enough sofas
Some had too much antler

I would say I'm quite particular, but I definitely have never used kitchen cupboard handles as an exclusion criteria before!!

I could overlook the kitchen handles I suppose

Finally finished it
here
Any comments on how the make it more appealing / anything we need to add?
Have got 12 plates, cutlery etc, pans plus large wok and frying pan, loads of mugs in various sizes, casserole dishes and storage boxes.

Can I ask OP why a smart TV is such a must have on holiday? Surely you can watch TV at home, holiday is for walks, exploring, views, countryside, etc. Not sitting watching TV.
Unless you never get a chance at home perhaps?