What would your ideal holiday cottage have?

[Merryoldgoat]

I’m on holiday in a very nice cottage but it’s one of those where I feel they’ve skimped a bit of functionality.

Its not a budget cottage but not the height of luxury and I feel a few small things would’ve made a massive difference.

Proper bath sheets - towels are the size of postage stamps

Thick curtains. Once it’s day they offer zero protection from the light.

Decent shower - it’s like a trickle and makes washing the beach off really hard.

Easy to use cooker/hob - we’ve got an induction hob here - no manuals and not all the pans work without putting a metal thing on the hot plate first.

What do you think is a must in a holiday cottage? I’m in a grump because I’ve injured myself. The cottage is very nice, I’m just missing.

A dishwasher

Lots of stuff ... I want any holiday cottage to be at least as nice and as functional as my house, and pretty to boot!

I stayed in holiday cottage which had all twin or double rooms. Each person had three towels: bath sheet, small towel and hand towel. Each set of towels was a different colour. Genius! If the towels were all white they could have got mixed up. Four colours between the eight of us, but different colours in each room.

I always want an open fire in a holiday cottage, or at least a wood burner. Something completely different from my day-to-day life.

No dishwasher either which I’m really annoyed at.

Also a really small fridge.

Comfy sofas
log burner
good quality beds and mattresses
yes decent water pressure in shower!
washing machine
heated airer

Something for ice cubes!

Garden chairs and table

Must have a dishwasher and tablets.

I like a shelf of DVDs and books to nose through.

Bin bags, cleaning stuff so I can do a quick tidy before we leave

Crystal clear instructions on everything, especially recycling.

Definitely a decent shower and towels. With sandy, salty dcs they're a must.
Decent bed linen.
Some decent glasses, not just tumblers from the petrol station.
A welcome pack that hopefully includes tea, coffee, milk, washing up liquid, a loaf of bread and some butter. (a basic breakfast 🙂)
Directions to the nearest pub/shop/filling station.
The location of the fuse box and the stopcock.
An airer to put outside for wet swimming cossies.

Cooker, fridge, dishwasher, tv etc, fine as long as they are clean and work. Curtains don't worry me much either.

If it's remote and there's no wifi, something to read.

Ooh yes, definitely clear instructions on recycling. Some places are very specific.

Dishwasher but as I rarely cook on holiday it's not a must. Just nice to have
Not bothered about towels as I take my own
Comfy beds with bedside cabinets and a lamp
Microwave
Bin bags,cleaning stuff
Clothes airer
Enough coat hangers

Yeah, this - I don’t want to go on holiday to be more uncomfortable / inconvenienced than at home!

Oh and decent WiFi and TV

Basically I want it to feel like a home and not just a rented space. I don't want to feel like I've downgraded from my own home.

Comfortable furniture - not hard stuff that feels like it was bought with 'easy to clean' in mind

Good quality appliances - dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, oven, hob

Plenty of bedding, bed linen and towels. Plenty of cooking utensils and tableware.

Good internet coverage and speed.

Good, smart TV.

Thick curtains, it should be possible to almost blackout the bedrooms.

Decent number of decent tea mugs! Just came back from a cottage that had three cupboards of different sorts of glasses - I kid you not!! and seven small tea mugs

Comfortable beds. Shocking how many places are nicely decorated and then have the very cheapest beds that it’s possible to buy.

Properly laundered towels. Often they smell quite dank.

Black out curtains
plentiful and powerful hot shower. And heating if necessary
decent knives (and other equipment) for cooking, especially in a place where the eating out options are limited
big thick towels
ice cube maker
decent glasses
comfy beds/sofas

I’d love a swimming pool and games room for rubbish weather, direct access to beach, all double/king size rooms, large garden, lovely view, clean - not much to ask! Obviously all this is available, and we’ve had one or two out of those features over the years, but all of it together = too many £££ for us!

i wouldn't want a log burner, too much faff.
Heating of some sort though

A chef 😁. Can you tell I’m not a holiday cottage renter?

Good knives and enough space to store food.

Beyond the usual clean and with all amenities in working order I’d like decent sized mugs, tin foil and bin bags in a drawer and enough beds (i.e. twin beds in the second bedroom rather than a double). Oh and basics like salt, pepper, cooking oil and enough loo roll.

Ooh yes, so many cottages fill every cupboard with things you never use of holiday but leave nowhere to store your own food.

Full size fridge/freezer
Dishwasher and washing machine
Washing up liquid, dishwater tablets, kitchen foil, kitchen roll
Small packets/wrapped tea, coffee and sugar (not loose in jars)
Plenty of crockery, cutlery, glasses, etc - at least 2x the max number of occupants
4 slice toaster (especially if cottage sleeps 4 or more)
Instructions for cooker, microwave, washing machine, dish washer, and TV
Fast broadband, preferably fibre, with password provided!
Sky or Smart TV
DVD Player
Large bath towels and hand towels for every occupant in bedrooms
Extra hand towels in kitchen/toilets
Baking trays and pizza trays for oven (been in some where you had to put food on oven shelf!).
Blackout curtains/blinds on bedroom windows
Choice of pillows/sheets/duvets
Nice outdoor eating area not covered in bird shit
Modern furniture (not Granny's old stuff!)
Basic welcome pack of at least bread and milk (unopened!)
Showers with good power and hot water on demand (preferably removable shower head rather than fixed).

As said above, we don't want to slum it on holiday and standard must be similar or better to what we have at home.

All of those things would make me NOT consider this a decent holiday cottage. Tiny fridge and no dishwasher means if I want to self cater I'll be shchlepping to the shops daily and then having to spend hours cleaning up after. Yuck.

My bug bear is lack of decent knives. I don't need gourmet knives. But one decent sharp kitchen knife is not too much to ask - I have a cheap one I bought at TK Max and I really don't see why holiday cottages can't do the same.

Coffee machine or at least a bodum. We now carry our own with us because so often they don't have one (although that has been better recently).

Also more than one mixing/serving bowl.

Enough cups, mugs, glasses, plates cutlery for the advertised occupation number
Comfy beds that are long enough for men over 6'3 (I have two...😊)
At least one king sized bed
A reasonably powerful shower
Decent curtains that actually keep out some light

Just come back from a cottage. They didn't provide any "instructions" as they didn't need to. It was a farm conversion, so 4 cottages around a courtyard. In the corner of the courtyard were the bins - a row of bins clearly marked "paper", "glass", "cardboard", "plastic", "metal" and a couple of bigger wheelie bins marked "everything else". Couldn't have been simpler really. The owners sorted out for the collection days etc. All we needed to do was put stuff in the right bins. No faff at all.

We'd been in other cottages where it had been a right faff, lots of conflicting instructions about what to put in each coloured bag or box, even once where there was a note saying which boxes go out on the alternate weeks but not giving you a calendar showing whether you were in week A or week B so you didn't have a clue which week it was so didn't know which to put out!