Hot tub in new holiday let or not?

[Loafbeginsat60]

We are building two three-bed holiday lets on our farm - they are quite private and have nice views over the countryside.

We will accept dogs and offer activities such as fishing and clay pigeon shooting and possibly options to get involved on the farm but not sure about that yet.

Anyway my question.... do we put in hot tubs or not - two small ones, one large one or none at all? I hear people think they are grim sex ponds and yet others love them.

What's does the collective wisdom of MN think - would you rent a rural properly without a hot tub or would you like to see one provided?

Thanks

Me too. I’d swerve a cottage with one, I don’t want to pay for something I’d never use.

I'm hopeful that people staying wouldn't be massively noisy if they knew they had neighbours outside too?

Oh yes they will. Holiday lets are notorious for noise. On holiday, people drink more, stay up later, talk louder, play music, dance, are more disinhibited, to do what the hell they like in someone elses property because they don't have to live with the neighbours after Saturday.

I think @mellicauli's advice is excellent as a longer term strategy. A hot tub will add overhead to your operation - financing the install, the daily clean / top up and the energy costs are hefty.

As this thread shows, they can help you expand the market / income for your units, but you might be able to get those weeks booked without the additional overhead. You won't know until you've tried, so maybe running a season without a hot tub will give you the baseline.

A lot of it is about identifying your key point of difference and leaning into that. I've run a rental in the North for years and never needed a hot tub to keep occupancy north of 80%...because it has other rare features that people value.

I think that with energy costs where they are at the moment I would put this on hold. I'm not sure they are a great thing environmentally either, surely it's a massive waste of water and energy, but I'm prepared to hear otherwise.

They are also a lot of extra work with the maintenance and extra hassle from people misusing it and/or complaining

Personally it would not be a draw for me as a possible visitor, I would have absolutely no desire to get in one when I had no idea who else had been in it before me or how well it was looked after.

Yeah you are right - I was being optimistic there wasn't I!

Yes, I thought exactly the same until we booked a cottage with one, just because it was in the area we wanted.

We tried it and I became a complete convert. It was blissful. We now actively look for cottages or villas with them. We are off to Brittany in September, the weather may not be great but there is a hot tub so we won't care.

I wouldn’t be happy about the hot tub not being available for the first day of the stay. I’d be complaining straight away. In fact I left a 2 star review on air Bnb as the hot tub was unavailable once for part of a stay I booked. I only booked the place as it had a hot tub! That’s only ever happened once and iv stayed in multiple places with hot tubs though.

I would also only book a place with a hot tub. My kids love them.

Clicked post by accident🤣

The first think I search for is area and then hot tub places. I won’t even look at anything without one.

A tip though would be if possible try to make sure the hot tub has a roof. Anything really do it can be used in all weathers.

I can’t use essential oils myself but would would be unlikely to have a reaction to a home previously cleaned with fragrance. If it’s v recent I do sometimes need to air the room for a while and I try to avoid getting fresh product on my skin. Some people are more sensitive though so it depends how far you want to go.

I agree with you re airfresheners. I haven’t been able to bear the smell of them for years now, way before my allergy started, and they are actually very bad for indoor air quality so not sure why people use them. Having been fragrance free for a while now I have found almost all scents to be unpleasant. My DH comes home from work stinking if other people’s fragrance and it’s nauseating tbh. I also really struggle with the washing powder aisle at the supermarket! Overwhelming! It’s amazing how strong the smells become when you become used to things not smelling of anything!!

if you want any suggestions, I use Ecover zero products throughout my home which are v effective. And reasonably priced. And a few bio-d fragrance free ones - they do an amazing (best one I’ve ever used fragrance free or not!) fragrance free limescale remover and they also do toilet cleaner.

If I’m staying in a cottage I tend to take some of my own for use while I am there.

Ooo one thing that is a complete pain if there is a dishwasher is fragranced rinse aid. Bloody impossible to remove and means I can’t use the dishwasher even if I take my own fragrance free tablets.

Hope that’s helpful and if you want to PM me when you are up and running I might be your first customer 😀😀😀

I wouldn't use salt it makes my skin very dry and itchy. The dog friendly is lovely if it's really clean but so many have been horrible smelly and hairy.

Glad there are no dogs in the hot tub! If it is really beautiful location like you’re describing as long as you market it right you won’t necessarily get noisy guests and people who might pay a bit more for the privilege of knowing that. I know that’s the kind of thing we search for can’t describe it but there very definitely is a code you can spot around these things as have discovered to total horror (although fortunately not the loud sex described in the other thread!)

No. I want you to earn less money.

I think this is really excellent advice. A hot tub/ accepting dogs might widen your market but it doesn’t necessarily make you more money and it costs you more and more hassle. You only need one person who wants that week at your price point. For every person who wants a hot tub/ to bring their dog there’s another who doesn’t and hot tubs will increase noise between the units, and makes it a year round problem instead of just a summer problem.

id start without either and see how you get on.

I'd prefer a hot tub over having to share the grounds with other peoples' dogs.

It's one thing allowing dogs when it's a standalone property. That said, I am guessing if you are a farm you have your own dogs anyway. But then, is it a good idea to allow guests to bring theirs? Most B&B owners don't allow dogs if they have pets of their own.

Have you checked?

As for dogs in hot tubs, going by MN stories of crazy behaviour in hotels, on cruises, in restaurants etc, nothing would surprise me any more

I would much much rather you put in an extremely luxurious shower indoors (multi 🚿 , seating and steam etc) thanks. Would never use the pond of other people's detritus that truthfully can never be cleaned sufficiently for my standards. If I had my own hot tub I would never let anyone else use it!

For us it's a yes

Be very careful from a H&S perspective. Carefully read the HSE’s HSG282 guidance before even considering purchasing. You would need to empty between guests, test as a minimum twice daily, send off monthly microbiological samples, quarterly legionella samples, annual servicing, electrical checks etc. Consider also that the size of the hot tub needs to match the size of the holiday let so you’re not overloading it.

Don’t even consider a wood burning one with no chemical or filtration- you’re wide open as they do not follow the HSE rules.

Also think about where you’re draining the chemical used water to- you can’t drain into a watercourse. (I am a farm H&S advisor with clients that have hot tubs in holiday lets so do have experience- AKA the fun police!)

All that said, holiday lets with hot tubs command much more £ & interest so worth considering if you can tick the boxes for H&S.

Are you in a popular location with a lot to do nearby (hills, beaches or a town)? Basically, if people are only using it as a base, but the area attracts a lot of people, the costs won't make it worth it.

My kids are now 9&12, so a hot tub is nice. However, it was when they were too little for a hot tub that I actively looked to stay on farms. Would you consider the "baby friendly bolt holes" market instead? A nice play area and feeding a donkey, collecting eggs etc would be a lot cheaper to run and is less common.

😂

Neither would I

We have beautiful beaches 15 mins away. Amazing walks, lochs to swim in. Hills to climb, historic towns and villages to explore. But it's the north of Scotland, it rains a lot, it's windy, it's cold! But randomly we also have an amazing 2 floor soft play and cafe open 7 days a week which people love! They do heaps of classes and activities too which is just fab for little kids.

We have eggs to collect, lambs to feed at easter, goats to cuddle all year found, sheep to hand feed. I think we will make a wee wooden play park for the guests to use too.

In the near future we might have a fishing loch. Will defo offer clays.

I prefer a games area with table tennis over a hot tub.

I prefer a games area with table tennis over a hot tub.