Holiday cottages

[Icimoi]

We booked a holiday cottage this year through an agency. The booking info said that sheets and towels would be extra - £17 for a double bed set, £15 for a single bed set, £10 for towels comprising one bath towel and one hand towel. I thought it was pretty expensive but booked the bedding (but not the towels) as we didn't want to have to carry it with us. I was however less than happy to arrive after a long journey to find none of the beds were made up despite the fact that they insisted on a 5 hour gap between when people have to vacate and when they will allow the next batch in.

I realise that we had a choice whether to go for this option, but I've never been in any other holiday cottage where the beds weren't made up, and it feels a bit like airline scams to make the basic price look better than it is - by the time you've decided which cottage you want, checked availability and ploughed through the booking procedure you're less likely to cancel everything because of the bedding issue. The agency operates in a popular destination so it's quite difficult to find somewhere, and in this case we were booking at quite short notice so had even less choice.

I know, first world problem, we could have junked the whole thing and gone elsewhere - but AIBU to feel it leaves a bit of a bad taste?

Thanks - will keep those in mind for future Uk holidays.

We've got a cottage and it costs us £2.50/bed and £1/towels so basically whole cottage+towels £20. Its two loads of washing + ironing of easy iron sheets. #bargain the cleaning uses our machine whilst she cleans. We pay for powder etc on top.

we stay regularly in cornwall and have done for years and have never paid extra for linen or towels or had to make our own beds up. we always rent direct from owners never through agents but you do have to read the terms and conditions carefully. if linen isn't included then we just don't book it - simple as. even abroad we have always arrived to find beds made up. to be honest, I think it makes a place look better, nicely made up beds and laid out towels. presentation and first impressions are so important so cant understand why owners don't all do it. Once almost booked a cottage in wales. read the small print and it said they charge not only per day for the tv but for the video player as well. what did they do if you wouldn't pay, move it out??

The reason cottage owners charge extra for bedding is that it gives guests the option to savemoney. Particularly if there are a lot of beds. Each time there is a changeover, all the beds need to be changed, even tjose not slept in. If there are high thread count linens it could take a lot of machine loads to get everything clean. Also, if it is a very short let the laundry and cleaning adds as much cost as the long let.
It is the time it takes for someone to do the work, good linens also need ironing. We made a conscious decision to only use top quality linens when we started but charge a flat cleaning fee with an extra charge for more than six people. I am staying in a cottage at the moment which has polycotton which looks nice but feels nasty. I can see exactly why they use them though.

Generally though you get what you pay for. Thank goodness for things like Tripadvisor, which sorts out the bad owners from the good. We let ours through Airbnb so guests are verified as well which is safer for us. They also don't charge such high agency fees.

windchime nope no electricity.

It was a lovely experience but as part of a longer trip - I wouldn't want to do it for my entire hols

Cottage my main issue with charging for sheets and towels is that it should be made very clear upfront that this is the case and the cost should be proportionate.

In France they were trying to charge us something like 17 euros for double sheets and 15 euros for a single bed, I think the towels were something like 10 euros each. I wouldn't imagine that they would have been Egyptian cotton either ! It may well have been something that French people were aware of, but it didn't seem to be signposted at the time of booking and was an unpleasant surprise when I got the invoice through.
Luckily our friends who live there supplied us with some - and in return we bought them Branston Pickle and poppadums.

In the lovely mansion we stayed in Shropshire it was £10 per bed, they were high quality bedding and they made them up. Plus it was advertised on their main page so it's not as if we weren't aware there was a cost.

No Windchime the ones we stayed at didn't have electric hook up!
We went as someone in the family had a big birthday paid for 4 tents at a FDF but we were able to go in from about 3pm I think? Definitely not 5.
It's the only level of camping I'd do, and even then, I'm not sure I'd do it again!

Just to add, I think review sites are great. I tend to avoid any property that has no reviews as it's really helpful to get a relatively unbiased assessment of a property.

Whenever possible I avoid booking the cottages where bedding is extra - I agree does feel like a con, just up the price of the cottage by a few £ if you must. I would be put out to have to make the bed up too. It only takes a few minutes so the cost to the owner is minimal but the irritation to the customers is disproportionately large.

I also abject strongly to notices reminding you that beds must be stripped before you leave and never do it. Again, I've paid a fair price for the cottage and it will take the cleaning staff only minutes to do it. I will leave the cottage presentable but I haven't come on holiday to do housework.

£17?
You can buy a double bed set at Wilkos for £15.

I've stayed in rental properties where linen is not supplied, and you either have to bring your own or hire it.

I'm now on 'the other side' and own a holiday let, and it comes with linen and the bed made up.

I've worked out that I rather go for a shorter holiday somewhere nicer rather than somewhere mediocre. I use the VisitEngland gold (or silver) awards as my guarantee that a cottage will be good quality. It's always worked for me.

Never stayed in cottages where you have to bring own linen or pay for it. This thread is putting me off them altogether, tbh.

Always found those Feather Down Farm places a rip off.

Laqueen, Airbnb is really good, especially for short city stays where you might want self catering but don't mind using a lived in kitchen. We went to Paris and stayed slightly out of the centre where there were amazing food shops, you can imagine the thing, Delis, bakeries all artisan and all frequented by the most particular customers. Staying in a Central Paris hotel we would have missed all that.

We do Airbnb because we like to know who is staying at ours, we are still a bit personally attached to it as it was the family holiday home for 40 years.

We stayed in a Classic Cottages place last year which was fabulous. Everything was as it should be, beds made with clean linen! All bathrooms and kitchen clean, flowers on the table, fresh milk and a gorgeous homemade drizzle cake to greet us. It was really splendid and I would use the company again for sure.

North Cornwall by any chance?

We have rented from this company many times and it really hacks me off each time about bedding and towels. it cost us over £80 this summer to hire them as we simply didn't have the room in the car to bring them. Having to make the beds up on arrival is the worst, after a 5+ hour journey.

(The rebooking policy is dreadful too).

In fact, I have had enough of it all and we have this week booked a property for next summer with a company which provides bedlinen and towels (and beds are made up on arrival!)