to ask how much you would pay for luxury accommodation, if children weren't welcome?

[LadyOfTheManor]

Beautiful countryside, self catering cottage (16th century old bakery) but done up to a 5 star standard. Two beautiful bedrooms with ensuites, one with a hot tub, sitting room, reading room, kitchen and decking/BBQ facilities. No under 12s allowed, dogs welcome. £650 for the week.

I think that is reasonable, considering two couples would have the opportunity to stay and split it. Would you pay that for just you and dh or you and 2 children (over 12)?

Check out websites that advertise cottages for rent in the Pembrokeshire area. They should give you some idea of what to charge for your property.

Me and DH will often go away without the kids to a 'nice' place so I get that bit.

I wouldn't go to somewhere that took dogs though personally.

It does sound absolutely lovely OP, I'm very envious

x post

if you are aiming luxury/high end, I have always been impressed by:

places that allow my (extremely non-feral) children to say

properly kitted out kitchen (eg corkscrew, cheese grater, more than one chopping board, sharp knives that are sharp etc)

properly kitted out cleaning products: I don't want to have to dash off to buy dishwasher tablets, or washing powder to be able to use the washing machine (if provided - I don't stay anywhere without a dishwasher though!).

ditto for: tea towels, kitchen towel, bin bags, washing up liquid, olive oil a nice touch, salt and pepper must.

some nice soaps in the bathroom/loos are also guaranteed to impress me - not necessarily little bottles that people hoard, but just the hand soap on the basin etc.

more than one loo roll

I have also always been touched by places that make a nice little effort - fruit in the fruit bowl, milk in the fridge. a couple of places we have been to have also provided croissants, cereal, and a bottle of wine! (these were high end city rents - say £170/night for a two bedroom place though)

things which have annoyed me are:

not enough loo roll
crappy kitchen ware - not clean enough to use, rusting, filthy oven etc
the hot water being restricted - there shoudl be enough to make sure that evey one staying can have a shower each morning. and don't restrict it to eg between 7 and 8 am!

also, if the place sleeps 4, consider having maybe 2 or 4 extra place settings/room to sit. people sometimes visit areas because friends/family are there, and we have several times catered for friends coming over one evening (admittedly, we have small children, so easier that way)

*places that allow my children to stay (amongst other typos!)

We have a Visit Britain rated 4 star property which we let for £600 per week in the high season we drop to £265 for ultra low season on the Isle of Wight. I would trawl the websites of cottages4U etc to see what they are charging for similar properties in the area. The price is the same regardless of occupancy - in fact we have a single lady staying for 2 weeks in August.
We allow 1 dog, but there is an additional charge of £25 for the dog. We do allow children and to be frank all the damage that has ever been done has been done by the adults - washing sandy swimming costumes in the bathroom sink blocking the plug and standing on the Victorian tiles hearth tiles and breaking them.
You need to think about how you advertise and whether you use an agent or not. We do use an agent and they consistently are in the top 4 on google when you type in Holiday cottages Isle of Wight, and 85% of their bookings come through the Internet. The company has been featured in The Times travel or Sunday Times travel 3 times in the last 6 months so has very good media exposure also something worth looking at. We have just tipped the 20 week occupancy in our second year so are now able to switch from full council tax to business rates - quite a saving.

why do you allow dogs but not dc?
Id I didn't want dc at the private cottage I just wouldn't bring any. What kind of couple are going to go away for a romantic time with another couple....

I agree with the others that you shouldn't necessarily exclude children. Not all children draw on expensive wallpaper! What you do is charge a damage deposit.
My friend and her DH have a DS aged 3.7 and they holiday with him in Tenby on a regular basis. My DH and I have a DS the same age and we regularly take short breaks in countryside settings, ll he wants is a big field to run around them. Clearly when you advertise, you advise of the grounds and access to open water and let the parents decide - I di reject a cottage a couple of years as there was an unfenced brook at the bottom of the garden, which itself was steeply sloped.
I have rented cottages from Cottages 4U, probably worth a look on their website to see what prices people charge for similar spec cottages to yours. They will list nearest amenities such as shops, restaurants, leisure centres etc., and often people will decide to rent places on this regard.
Oh and get a decent washing line - have found on a number of occasions where a washing machine is provided (and this is a huge plus point for me!) there is no where to hang your washing!!

Good luck with it!

I think you are massively narrowing your market by saying no under 12s. Yes, wear and tear on the furnishings will be greater, but part of that will be covered in the deposits, which you can keep if damage occurs, and even if you have to decorate more often you'll see that money back threefold by expanding your market. Whether children would be bored/drown/get lost is their parents problem, not yours!

Unless it is a boutique hotel where other guests might be put off by children everywhere then I don't see what you have to gain by excluding them. As it is a single property rented by one group at a time, it makes no difference.

Sounds reasonable but I wouldn't stay anywhere that allowed dogs....

Thanks for all the insight!

Yes feather pillows, but will provide an allergy pillow alternative in the laundry trunk.

I discussed the dog thing with my father, who said the guy who owns the studio is full every single week of the year and he is yet to see people rent it who don't have a dog. I mentioned to him (about 20 minutes ago) how I hadn't considered carpets, he advised that I do the downstairs (it's still being refurbished) with oak, and provide a safety gate to prevent a dog from going upstairs (where it will be carpeted).

I think it's important to charge by the property and not by heads. The second room is rather large and will compromise a king size bed and a sofa (which sleeps 2 when pulled out), the master suite will have a super king size bed.

I'll be looking into business rates of council tax, as obviously that'll benefit me. Is there anything else that's "a must"? I mean, do people expect towels, or do you presume people will bring their own? What kind of damage deposit am I looking at?

I would exclude dogs rather than children, because of the smell. I would never stay somewhere that allowed dogs.

Other than that, your price is about right for peak with no pool.

Yes Fellatio, makes perfect sense. I'm working on a stupid loose plan that was in place to turn it into a boutique hotel, until I pulled the two properties apart. Maybe I'll look further into that. I'm wondering if the guy with studio apartment allows children, as I've never ever seen any there...(we sold him some parking space on our land for his property hence I appear to know everything about who stays there-I'm not a curtain twitcher!) then again his is only a one bedroom place.

If I did allow children does that mean I'd need to provide cots, high chairs and sterilisers and the like?

The dogs and I would love that! So would the DC (teenagers) but it's not a holiday with children. I'd happily pay 650, it sounds a perfectly fair price to me.

I'm very biased about dogs and I personally wouldn't want to holiday without mine. I can certainly guarantee that my dogs are far less likely to cause any damage or be an issue than young children and, more importantly, from a business POV I think you've got it spot on. I do appreciate what the dog-allergic people are saying but as far as I see it there's such a huge demand for dog-friendly holiday rentals that it's not worth losing that custom for the sake of gaining that of a few people who don't want to hire somewhere which accepts dogs.

We do supply a travel cot - DDs hardly used looks like new Mamas and Papas one and I bought a new highchair from John Lewis for £29 it is easily cleaned. We also have several boxes of nice toys in the sitting room.

One thing I was interested in is Visit Britain require a living room TV and a TV in every bedroom as well as an ensuite for 5 star rating. Also the need you to improve every year to maintain your rating though they do tell you what they will be looking for next year (remembers needs to sort ice making facility and washing machine before next March).
We also provide a welcome pack bottle of wine, tea, coffee, sugar, pint of milk, half pound of local butter, nice local bread and a pot of local jam - really useful for our Thursday through Monday customers off season (who pay three quarters of weekly rental price) who often arrive late on Thursday night.

I must admit, I watched 4 in a bed a few weeks ago and there was a "pet friendly" place to stay. However, there was dog hairs in the bed, on the breakfast table...I mean it was truly horrific.

I think cleaning wise, I'd up my game massively, but having wooden floors would help, as would the ability to sweep and bleach (not bleach per se but the zoflora stuff and disinfectant) regularly.

DogsBest, would you resent only allowing the dog downstairs if you were to holiday with it?

If you allow dogs, you need to ensure that you clean scrupulously in between lets. We've rented national trust cottages which allow dogs many times and you wouldn't know it if you didn't read about them in the visitor's books. On the other hand, we rented a cottage in Scotland where the dog hairs were everywhere. Yuck!

So, if you're 5* and allowing dogs, you'll need to think about what that means for your cleaning regimen on changeover days, as I wouldn't want to see trace of a single dog hair.

I woudn't want to see drawn on/torn wallpaper either, but that is probably easier to fix quickly than trying to rid an entire apartment of dog...

Ooh, massive x-post with you there OP. Sorry!

You need to provide towels! Preferably luxurious ones. I stayed in a lovely, excellent quality cottage which also supplied posh dressing gowns.

IMO it's lower end of the market (youth hostel level!) not to supply towels.

Well-equipped kitchen rates highly for me. The posh cottage I stayed in supplied a welcome hamper of milk, bottle of wine, crusty loaf, eggs, butter. Olive oil, sugar, spices and (I think) tea and decent quality instant coffee were also supplied.

Fresh eggs would be lovely.

About the dogs/no dogs - my sister is absolutely delighted to have found a holiday let that will take dogs, she didn't find it easy to get one, so that might be a selling point.

My DP and i love cottage hols around the UK. The price varies on location really and how much there is to do locally. We found Cornwall/Brighton the most expensive. Lakes and Kent about £450 for a 1 bed cottage (4/5*).
We just came back from Shropshire (£280 for a week) - beautiful location but too remote, the pub was a drive away which defeats the object of going to the pub really!!
We usually go off peak and we work and are not retired - we just fancy a holiday in November occasionally. Specially if it has a log fire and lots of cosy blankets.
I would also say the non allergy pillows are a must as is non allergy sofa and cushions. We went to one cottage and had to remove the sofa cushions which were feather and made sitting very uncomfortable.
And i second the nice touch of having a jug of milk in the fridge, some tea and coffee. One cottage left a bottle of local wine, a jar of homemade marmalade and some biscuits - which was lovely.

God I really want a weekend away now, reading this thread.

Yes, we were discussing a welcome hamper. We have a plum tree outside the house, and my father makes jam from that, so that would be lovely. I was considering baking a cake (carrot or ginger) for arrival, as well as some milk, eggs and home made bread...then leaving them to their devices. I'm quite cautious that I can "mother" people and really need to know when to basically fuck off leave people.

Do I go in and make beds etc every day a la hotel or leave people to get on and do it on change over days?

Green, please hang on until March 2012.

I'm taking notes, so should be able to please EVERYONE. Then you had all better turn up.

Plum jam, a cake on arrival and home made bread? Sod the dog policy, I'm there!

Hmm, I'd be inclined to say only on changeover days, but maybe once midweek? or leave spares? Certainly not every day.