Holiday rental must have/have nots

[TitaniasAss]

What do you look for in a holiday rental property. What are you 'must' haves, your 'would like' and your 'absolutely puts me off's please?

Wi fi
Parking
Washing machine preferably, definitely a clothes drying rack.
Well Stocked kitchen with a colander, roasting tin/dish and casserole and decent knives. I once stayed in a holiday flat where they had a slow cooker, genius!
Enough toilet rolls.
Information, but not notices everywhere.
More than one pillow per person, big enough bath towels

If you claim to fit 4 people then have a table large enough to sit 4 people around, and have 4 chairs to sit on....

If you have a coffee machine then state what brand it is

Don't have sofas that barely clear the floor as they are too low to sit on for anyone with knee/back/mobility problems.

Provide:

sharp knives for cutting cheese etc
bedside lamps
bread knife
large drinking glasses
oven gloves
tea towels
dishwasher tablets

The best one we stayed in was in Puerto pollensa and was the owners holiday home , a 3 bedder with big lounge and big kitchen, king sized bedroom , plus 2 twin rooms . . Itcwoukdnt have suited everyone as it was very personalised, pictures up of kids and grandchildren on fridge , cot and high chair available, framed family pics, bookshelves full of books and games , but had huge comfortable sofas, beautifully equipped kitchen , outside loungers and table on patio, BBQ , plus development had 2 lovely pools. It was also 2 minutes walk to beach at the nice end of the town- couldn't fault it and back in June 2005 was£600 for a week- worth every penny!!

Parking, Wi-Fi ( good enough for my teenage Dc) and a washing machine. Everything else I can live without

Most of these have already been covered... but maybe if enough people mention them some owners might take notice!?

Things (that are fixable) that put me off even booking:

old-fashioned/chintzy/cluttered decor (mind you the minimal leather sofa look is also a big no)
living rooms without enough comfy seating
lack of decent photos - I want to see what every room looks like, as well as some good exterior and garden (if there is one) shots, but I do NOT need close-ups of the biscuit tin or hallway table

Things (also fixable) that annoy me once I'm there:

winter duvets in the summer
extra cushions and throws on beds
flimsy or ill-fitting curtains
nowhere to put toiletries in the bathroom
lack of coat hooks
lack of cupboard space for food
lack of power sockets

At least a king size bed, dishwasher and decent furniture to sit on.

Holiday owner here.
Also live on site, which doesn’t seem to bother any of our guests who seem to spend half the summer trying to talk to us.

We have a guest book, it’s on the main table, and contains all stuff needed like WiFi password, places to go, recycling etc.. people still knock on our door after 2 mins to ask all these questions.

We have most of the above people ask for, but it is a balance. I provide 8 of everything for 4 person place, but if I included every kitchen gadget and utensil known to man, then the place would be cluttered, hard to clean and awkward to see what’s missing.

We are a child friendly place. Provided travel cot, bedding, baby bath, highchair, stair gate, large basket of toys, aqua play for garden, small ride on car, kids cutlery and crockery to a family once with x2 small children.
They left a negative review saying it wasn’t child friendly enough as we didn’t provide a double pram for hiking. which we don’t have, but they also never enquired about before or during stay ( and we could have directed them where it may be possible to hire)

Can’t win for everyone. Most of our guests are now repeat guests, who come the same weeks every year, so we don’t have to actually appeal to many new people. And yes we do listen to requests, we have recently purchased beach chairs, new beach umbrellas and cool bags after someone asked

Wow, thank you all SO much, this is massively helpful! I have a list as long as my arm now but genuinely, this has been incredibly useful. Many thanks.

Parking, wifi, comfy bed and some outside space. That's all really. Anything else I can live without. We don't tend to cook much on holiday, so not fussed about pots and pans.

Wi-Fi, public transport links, bath or powerful shower.
But above everything, not dog friendly and no dogs allowed. The smell creeps me out.

Not bothered:
Microwave (never used one in my life)
TV (we're on holiday, we're not watching telly)
Downstairs loo (not something I've ever had at home)
Stuff about hospitals etc - we're grown ups, we can work this out in the extremely unlikely event it's needed
Air fresheners (always smell weird)
Being "spotless" or immaculate - it needs to be relaxing & a bit lived in, like a normal house

Good to have:
Decent radio
Wi-fi
Dishwasher
Washing machine
Parking space
Enough cups etc (eg not just 4 if house sleeps 4)
Ice cube trays - G&T without ice isn't fun!
Plenty of coat hangers

A shower. We've managed to book somewhere without one.

A three bedroom place for 5 people, on the beach, no shower.

I couldn't figure out how I hadn't noticed as I am usually extremely careful before booking anywhere but realised it was a month after my brother died so I obviously wasn't at my best and just went along with DH's choice.

So yes, a shower!

Oh and not too much stuff. Last summer we stayed in a lovely place in Wales but it had way too much kitchen stuff and nowhere to actually keep food.

4 types of cups, 8 of each, champagne flute, 2 types of wine glasses, excessive amounts of casserole dishes but nowhere to put any groceries. Very odd.

Have proper black-out blinds or curtains in all rooms. I may be able to fall back to sleep when the sun is up, my child definitely wasn't able to do this.

Only have blackout blinds please, with normal curtains, so people have the choice not to use them, I hate blackout and my kids never needed it.

Plenty of hooks and towel rails. And sockets.
Toilet paper, dishwasher tablets, cloths etc.

Comfy beds are the top for me and decent pillows and duvet. I'm miserable if I don't get proper sleep. Proper blinds on any velux or otherwise high up windows, and decent thickness of curtains- I don't have young children any more but I've had to mock up curtains out of blankets in the past because of too much early morning sunshine waking up the kids at 5am.

Twin beds that don't have a footboard on if teenagers are coming. DS1 is nearly 6ft 3. DH's and mine has to be a king size, that is a standard bed size these days in holiday homes and hotels as far as I'm concerned. I would instantly dismiss an old fashioned double.

Proper size bath towels. Stayed in an independent hotel once in York which was so disappointing. Teeny double bed. And handkerchief size bath towels. Barely covered my arse, and I'm quite skinny but they weren't even long either so I just couldn't wrap them round me properly. They were more like large hand towels. Useless.

Decent shower, don't mind if it's a shower over a bath or a shower cubicle. Doesnt' have to be a power shower either. I just want a steady temp and stream (not a trickle). Bathrooms need either a window or proper extractor for ventilation.

A few tea towels, not just one.

Stayed in a very well equipped house in Dorset last year. We didn't have to buy anything for the kitchen apart from our food (and even then they'd provided a lovely Dorset apple cake, milk, tea bags, multiple sachets of sugar and coffee enough for the week and other goodies). They had full sets of tin foil, cling film, paper towels, handwash and antibac, dishwasher tabs, washing up liquid, surface cleaner etc. Fly spray, candles, matches, torch, plenty of bin bags and recycling bags, washing powder. All the cooking implements you could want. Was the best ever place we've stayed in terms of equipment and we've stayed in some excellent ones. No doubt you pay for that as part of your rental but I'd rather pay extra than have to ferry stuff there in the car, or buy it down there.

At least one decent sized comfortable sofa so I can stretch out with a couple of armchairs. I made the mistake of booking somewhere that only had a two seater sofa with high armrests so DH and I had to sit upright side by side.

A decent bed with comfortable mattress not old and/or cheap.

Hooks on the back of the bedroom/bathroom door.

Lots of decent coat hangers in the wardrobe not a mish mash of old/metal/children's hangers.

Decent quality kitchen knives that actually cut!

Spotlessly clean.

Everything needs to be decent quality (John Lewis / M&S) and in good condition. I'm not a snob but don't particularly want to stay somewhere that looks like it has been furnished by The Range.

We're really good in this country at providing decent self-catering accommodation, I think. Generally. We rented a villa in Puerto Pollensa through a small letting agency. The villa could have been lovely but it was owned by a local doctor I think who must have lived elsewhere and came to clean it himself between rentals. It definitely needed a woman's touch, it was very sparsely equipped and hardly anything was provided. No local information (apart from his business card!)

No tin foil or cling film or washing up liquid, no salt and pepper, just 1 scraggy cleaning cloth and worn tea towel for the week. Nothing to scrub dishes with. There was a dishwasher but no dishwasher tabs. I think we even had to buy a can opener. So we had to go out and buy all those things, full size, and we spent so much extra money that I outrihgt refused to leave anything and stuffed all our suitcases full of bottles of olive oil, bags of sugar, washing up liquid etc. Even paper towels and toilet paper etc. We're not usually so extremely stingy but it really pissed me off. They must know that foreign tourists would be coming by plane and wouldn't have dreamt of packing that stuff. I've stayed in plenty of other places where it's clear that renters have bought or replaced some items and left them there for others to use, and we've done that too, but to literally leave a place stripped bare in the kitchen was not on.

And the guy couldn't clean. We put our toothbrushes in the toothbrush holder (one of those ceramic ones where you stand your toothbrushes in the holes in the top). I realised that there was a pool of previous guests' spitty toothpasty water in the bottom of it when we lived our toothbrushes out and stuff dripped off the end. Absolutely gross.

If the accommodation is for six please have a dining table with six actual chairs to sit on . ..not benches. Our holiday is the only time we have time to eat in a leisurely way with friends/extended family or play card games ext on cold evenings. We don't want aching backs we want to enjoy the experience. Likewise, if you have a garden please don't put table and chairs for two out there and claim garden furniture on site. Six people means opportunity for 6 to enjoy a drink in the garden ...not a race to be first out.

Must have dishwasher and washer dryer.

Should have a cafetiere, kitchen knives, a good vegetable peeler, chopping boards and a set of water glasses not just wine glasses, I'm amazed how many good quality places don't have these.

We're really good in this country at providing decent self-catering accommodation, I think. Generally. We rented a villa in Puerto Pollensa... and hardly anything was provided. No local information (apart from his business card!)

We rented a house in Crete. It was gorgeous, but absolutely nothing was provided in the kitchen in terms of consumables. We arrived at 10pm after a flight and a drive, and a battle with the lock to get in, and there was nothing to revive us, not even coffee. Thankfully the village shops were open on Sunday mornings, so we could at least get coffee and breakfast before heading out for the day.

And like the above poster, no local information at all (and a charge for wi-fi should you want to look anything up) but many brochures for the owner's fitness business.