To not like pictures of the owners in a self catering cottage?

[MissPattie]

We are in a lovely self catering cottage at the moment, and there are a couple of photos of the owners up. I think this is fine, but I'm not massively keen on it.

It reminds me of a place we went a few years ago where you could not move for pictures of the owners' family. It was a bit of a posh rental in Cornwall, and you couldn't move for pictures of their three blonde beautiful children messing about in boats, looking like something straight out of the Boden catalogue, or the family having cocktails on a tropical beach.

Am I being a grinch? When I go on holiday, I hate having the feeling that we are trespassing in someone else's home.

Bods you sound lovely :)

Oh and the oven gloves - the same cottage had no oven gloves but we didn't know until we'd done a roast, they wrote to us and complained that the tea towel was burnt; we'd used it for oven gloves. We didn't reply and never heard anything else.

I have my moments

Jeezo some holiday home owners sound a bit OTT. Inspecting cottages before leaving and contacting people over a marked dish towel? Good grief. The only issues we've had were the pool party incident and someone putting their dog in the hot tub. Things like dish towels you expect to get a bit stained through normal use.

bods where are you and can i come and stay?? Please says Wales near a beach and yes

The best bit about holiday cottages has got to be the guest book, love reading them.

Most memorable is a comment along the lines of: "we conceived our first child here, sorry about the mess on the sheets!" Haha just why would you write that!

I was really pleased to see olive oil, balsamic syrup etc in our holiday let this year. I hate having to buy all that stuff. I then left a full bag of pasta, some ketchup etc.

I once stayed in a holiday let where the owners emailed in advance to ask what kind of wine we liked, and did we prefer butter or marge. Arrived to fridge stocked with all the essentials, including two rather nice bottles of Pinot Grigio. There were quite a few of the owners' belongings around, including lots of books and DVDs (for all tastes, kept my DDs happy on a couple of rainy days) and a large locked cupboard. TBH I liked the feeling that we were staying in someone's much-loved home, and not a soulless business. But maybe the wine helped.

hazei I'm in Scotland - no beaches near me I'm afraid. Plenty of hills though

We have a holiday cottage and run it as a business. No personal pictures here! We live in the same hamlet (of 4houses) but the gardens are seperate and the houses don't over look each other. The pool is shared though, accessed seperatly from each garden and also not overlooked.
It is a fine line with ornamerts, nothing at all looks very bare, but who wants loads of dusty niknaks and twiggy shite. We have a few big jugs/pots made from the local earthenware, I think they look OK and if one gets broken, well it only cost a few €s.
It's the same with food supplies - I clear out all stuff left behind. But other essentials? Well on a recent thread people were saying they wanted everything from tea bags, coffee and olive oil through to bread, butter and enough stuff for the first evening meal. I normally leave local wine, bottled water, fresh milk, a small bottle of oil, salt and pepper (fresh herbs in the garden) a few tea bags and some of those individual coffee things. I also supply lots of loo roll and cleaning stuff. Plus a few veggies from my garden if I have them.
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Dog in a hot tub? Why on earth would someone do that? Poor dog. Poor hot tub.
I like a few bits but not too many as I worry about breaking them. Oven gloves are a must.
Your cottage sounds lovely Bods.

My Mum has 4 holiday properties, well 3 and 1 that had her offer accepted last week.
On Saturdays Mum Gran and I make scones and use some of Grans home made jam and buy clotted cream to leave for the new guests. Mum also goes to the cash and carry and buys loo rolls dishwasher tablets etc once a month.
Obviously the let's aren't cheap but Mum has had damage beyond belief, not Mners but people who break windows, manage to pull shower units from the wall etc.
I could go on but I know Mners wouldn't do such things so no point. Consequently as with everything the minority cause damage so Mum asks an approx arrival time and goes to the property offering the keys.
On changeover days the lets are all cleaned and beds changed after Mum or Gran or me have visited to say goodbye, check things over and collect keys but there are no photographs or personal things around. Its a business not a second home

bods i love Scotland too but our o2 company doesn't supply there!
averylong wales???

As a side question to holiday let owners, would you have any issue with taking delivery of 02 for someone who was staying there? I think we're gonna struggle to find anyone willing to have a concentrator and cylinders delivered, OH thinks ot'll be fine

France, not Wales! I think you would need to speak directly to the cottage owner, not just to the agent. If someone phoned me. I wouldn't have a problem, but would need to ask about collection /delivery /storage details.

Re. O2 delivery: I wouldn't object at all but our place is in Cornwall so delivery would depend on the size of the vehicle used. We also have a few steps accessing our lane, so that would be something to check as well.

I think photos would be a touch too much for a holiday let. We've just come back from Cornwall, where we were left full cannisters of teabags, coffee and sugar, and a tub of Roses, and a pint of milk in the fridge. There were fresh flowers on the table, and plenty of cleaning materials, plus a couple of loo rolls.

And with fresh towels (many places don't have them) and teatowels/dishcloths, it was reasonalby well catered for.

On one of our first SC holidays many years ago, we did arrive to find nothing remotely considered a welcome, not even a solitary teabag. But there were indeed many photos of a personal nature that I found off-putting. I tend to carefully scan photos before committing to booking a place now.

Thanks. At least i know not rveryone would object on principal . Its all delivered by the company and collected to so thry'd do lifting

I would always prefer to rent from someone who recognised it is a business. They are far more likely to be professional. And surely you take credit card details in case of damage? Certainly the only damage when I have been in a place was caused by my dad. He phoned up the owners, told them, and said he would pay for it. It was an accident.

hazeimcgee, this is an issue for me too, I think the main problem is that the O2 company only delivers on weekdays so Saturday changeovers are tricky as no O2 delivered till Monday.
The only way round that I can think of is to take a portable liquid holiday unit to last the weekend and get a Monday delivery. The holiday units are a bit hit and miss, depending on when they were filled, but that and a portable concentrator should do the trick unless you are on huge amounts

MeandMy yes, it really was just like that. Never again!

My perfect holiday let is now the sort with a key safe and the owner living abroad.

I am not fussed about bottles of wine or anything being left for us when we get there. I tend to leave it.

We stayed in an apartment last year where the owner made a big song and dance about the 'white' carpet. It was actually a beige colour. All v odd.

Ours us definitely run as a business. We use an agency but we've never tried to extract money for damages - dishes get broken from time to time, that's life, and any major damages would be covered by the insurance (not that we've had any).
I want guests to feel that the place is all 'theirs' during their stay - except that they don't have to do any housework!

officer no car so taking more than enough for travel is a problem, PFB is currently on 1litre. Was thinking of looking for somewhere from a Friday or someone who would at least accept delivery on a Friday. Looking for just a long weekend. Proper hotel might be better option but would prefer b&b or cottage etc.

We have most recently used VRBO, which means that you are essentially staying in someone elses holiday home. I quite enjoy all the touches of the owners family, but the quality is very variable. We've also done chain rentals and national trust properties. Some of them were lovely and some very soulless. Seems a bit odd to have such an issue with a few photos.

I would care at all. It's someone else's home so they can leave what they like out. Same with food. I'm happy to find bits to use as long as they are all in date.

Wouldn't care