I want some bin bags and dishwasher tablets - tight arse holiday self catering company

[Pancakeflipper]

Booked a holiday apartment over looking the bay in Wales. Paid over £2k for the week. But has the sea view, parking, balcony.

Apartment is lovely. Very mod cons.

But I'm slightly narked and still narrowing my eyes whenever I walk to the kitchen area....

We are here for a week.
The company renting it out left a bottle of wine.
They left 3 dish washer tablets.

No washing up liquid.
No bin bags.
The shower was full of sand and we found finger and toes nails on the rug in the lounge.
Pillow cases stained.

I think it's cost cutting tightness. And they expect us to leave it sparkling (there is also no surface cleaner)..

Had to go out and buy the bin bags, washing liquid and cleaner.

We stay regularly in holiday homes (have a DC who has medical needs - this makes it easier for both them and me). Never had this tightness.

Lots of hotels don't have room service and they charge through the nose for it if they do

Yet I'm reading on here about the crazy cost of various Air B&Bs and rentals where you still have to do all the housework plus buy your own bin bags.
Each to their own, I suppose.

But as you know, it usually rains a lot in Scotland. We like a whole house or apartment to be in case we can’t go out. This year we had 3 bedroom houses for the two of us. If we spend 13 hours walking one day then we tend to sleep in the next day. We have tried hotels and we do mix hotels up with our Airbnb type stay but the hotels do have restrictions on meal times and don’t have room service. However, we did luck out this year as our Airbnb was a 2 minute walk from a Michelin starred restaurant.
I don’t have problems with dishwasher tablets etc because we always stay in ones that have excellent reviews and I take a small bundle of things.
I have been doing this for years and have tried both types of accommodation so I know what suits us best.

To add to pp, this time I took several loo rolls - having once arrived at a holiday let that had 2 loos and zero loo roll! - some cooking oil, salt and pepper, tea and coffee, a sponge cloth for wiping surfaces. All were needed.

Besides the pans etc. already mentioned, the folding clothes airer/dryer thingy was broken, could only use it standing on its side, and no pegs! however there was a tumble dryer which we didn’t use - weather being warm and dry.

When we left I made sure that dd took all the bin bags, dishwasher and laundry tabs we’d bought. I thought it very noble of us to leave the brand new, induction compatible non stick frying pan and the fried egg lifter-upper!

I will never stay in hotels for a holiday as we probably have very different wants/needs to people who do. We like to cook, eat what want, when we want, play board games, watch a film as a family, relax and read. I also find it really useful to be able to pack light and use a washing machine (we only holiday in the UK so need a full range of outfits for every weather type). We also hike a lot and travel rurally so appreciate a kitchen we can use ourselves at 5am before a hike or at 9pm after a late return. Our accommodation is a part of the holiday experience rather thank just a base.

Most places I've stayed have been brilliant and supply everything. However, 21 of us stayed in a huge mansion type place recently. It had a swimming pool, tennis courts etc but only one tea towel, a broken dishwasher and no cheese grater or bottle opener! It was very expensive and marketed as luxury (big family event and 3 significant birthdays, I didn't choose it or pay for it!).

The reason it’s all so inconsistent is that each holiday let is owned by an individual, Sykes et al are just commission agents, and though they tell you what you should supply etc there is no checking once the contract is signed - all they are interested in is the commission.

I always get the feeling owners think it’s a bit of easy money, and have little idea of customer service and what is really involved in running a good quality holiday let. At the beginning of each season I stock up with commercial sized rolls of foil, cling film etc, plus 5l bottle of Fairy to refill the kitchen bottle - the initial cost maybe £40 but it generally lasts 6 months or so. I find if generous guests tend to leave what they’ve brought with them behind, so at home I have many half empty bottles of washing up liquid etc.

With the tightening up of legislation and tax regimes around holiday lets I think quite a number will be leaving the market (there are a huge number around me that are for sale) so hopefully only the better ones will survive.

I never said it would suit everyone. We personally don't want to do housework on holiday, and we've had good experience with small B&Bs.
Each to their own.

Our last holday let was great, they seemed to have thought of everything and there were plentiful supplies. What I really want though is fresh milk in the fridge and a few teabags and some coffee to get a cuppa when we arrive. If there is that available I can manage everything else. I usually pack a supply of dishwasher tabs, bin bags etc.

Plenty of people specifically want self catering so the suggestion of a hotel instead is irrelevant - we have a dog and an adult daughter with additional needs and hotels work out way too expensive for us and mean we are spread across 2 rooms, with nowhere to sit and relax, having to pay to eat out for every meal.

Spatula. 😊

Though 'lifter-upper' is a great name for it!

Thought self catering meant no food was provided, but you’ve got a cess to kitchen facilities where you can prepare food. I think providers are being proper stingy by not supplying basic cleaning materials

I always take kitchen cleaning cloths with me as the ones provided are invariably useless. Also rubber gloves as I am allergic to washing up liquid and cleaning agents.

If you go walking then you really need a washing machine surely.

It’s not always either/or.

Lots of hotels have built adjacent holiday cottages for their guests.

That’s where we stayed the last two years.
Use of the hotel facilities but more space and it’s a lot cheaper than booking several hotel rooms (3 would be needed for our group). Still expensive though.

I agree they should supply these things but they almost never do. I always take travel sizes of washing up liquid, cooking oil, spices, herbs, dishwasher tablets and laundry pods. Then I buy toilet roll.

But I do think they should supply basics, and cleaning supplies if they expect you to clean.

I quite often stay in studio-type airbnbs, where they provide a kitchenette and the expectation is that you don't do more than make a cup of tea or have a glass of wine or pop a few things in the tiny fridge. But even then they're sometimes really poorly equipped. Low points have been a studio in Paris which didn't provide a corkscrew, and any number of complicated coffee machines which come without pods or indeed instructions.

Fish slice in this house.

But it's one of those things people never agree on along with the pronunciation of scone and whether it's jam or cream first.

A fish-slice is a type of spatula.
Another type is used for icing cakes and another for getting the last bit of cake batter out of a bowl.
So fish-slice is the more specific term I suppose, but I doubt self-catering cottages come equipped with a range of different spatulas anyway 😁

A holiday let in France had only tiny demi-tasse cups - family who were staying there had to go straight to SuperU to buy mugs!

It can’t surely be the case that the French drink only teeny espressos. The mother of my exchange girl (OK, a long time ago) would have a bowl - not a cup - of milky tea every morning, and dunk her bread and butter in it! The sight of the butter globules floating on top would make me heave!

I know E LeClerc, Carrefour and Intermarche from when my parents owned a French holiday home. Was always perplexed by the fact you couldn’t buy paracetamol there. But they have Lidl and Aldi too which is great for cost.

Most of them have wash up liquid and bin bags to clean up. If it has a dishwasher then three tablets sounds a bit mingy if it is for a family. Paying that much I would expect spotless and would want partial refund plus it putting right

I’ve stayed in numerous Airbnbs including Cornwall, the Lakes, a couple in Italy, south of France and Boston. All included enough washing liquid and dishwasher tablets for a couple of days. Enough time for me to visit the supermarket and buy some. I don’t mind buying them if they don’t mind me putting the cheapest tablet with no rinse aid in their machine.

If I’ve arrived and a kindly owner or previous occupier has left more supplies to share, then I will reciprocate. I don’t buy any cleaning products though other than cheap washing up liquid which can be used for everything from the bathroom to the floors to the toilet.

The mention of Boston reminds me of one of my more embarrassing Airbnb stories.

Four of us (one couple and two singles) rented a three bed apartment in Boston for the marathon. The single bathroom just had two rather meagre toilet rolls in it, in her welcome email the host had said "there is toilet paper in the apartment but if you need more just drop me a message". So I sent her a text on the morning of the second day saying we needed more toilet roll.

We came back to find a large 48 roll pack on the door with a note saying they hoped that would be enough. Thought that was a bit pass agg.

Later that day, when searching the hallway cupboard for an iron, I found a large pack of 24 toilet rolls. She clearly thought we had an ... umm .... issue.

That’s a piss take for £1500

Yep that is tight, we stayed in an Airbnb recently, supplied everything including dishwasher tablets, laundry washing pods, t rolls, tea coffee etc, bin bags. Often not the case.