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.

I would love it. I would replace every photo with a picture of Steve Buscemi.

We rented a lovely place where the owners had a massive canvas photo print of their DC over the bed in the master bedroom. I had to put it behind a wardrobe for our stay.

I think it depends - my cousin recently inherited a seaside house which she is trying to hang on to by letting it out to mates in order to pay off her sibling's share of the estate.

It would be fair to say Auntie Liz's house was where every nifty gifty you've ever encountered went to die . It's also full of photos of my late aunt & uncle, my cousins, their families...

Cousin is booked out & couldn't even squeeze us in this summer, but to be fair she's charging mate's rates & letting it mostly to her FB chums.

For a proper, business-like holiday rental I would definitely expect something neutral.

Haze I'd suggest deciding on a general area and phoning a few agencies. I know ours is staffed by really keen, helpful people and I'm sure they could pinpoint a few properties with a Friday changeover (ours, for one - not so good with the steps though!). You could spend hours googling which a few phone calls could avoid. Just a thought.

I think photos of the owners family would be okay hung on the wall, especially if pics from the local area. Like the family out on the beach? I'm not too bothered by random wall art.

But photos on bedside tables would be clutter and I'd put them out of the way while visiting.

The cottage we recently stayed in had no personal photos and I think I prefer that. There were paintings of lighthouses and beach huts and a very cosy looking fireplace. I loved it.

I guess it depends whether it's someone's holiday home that they just rent out when they're not using it to help it pay its way or whether it's a proper business to purely generate money.

If it were mine and infrequently stayed there then I'd leave a few personal things around, not loads though but it would definitely have my stamp on it.
I do own quite a few rental places though, mostly long term rentals but we have a few holiday cottages on the estate and they are all nice, neutral with no personal touches as that seems to be what people like.

But someone paying to rent a holiday home does not care about that distinction. If you are taking peoples money, you need to be professional. Or charge below the going rate and be honest that you have your own stuff there.

Yanbu op. I find it odd that people wouldn't mind being "reminded" they are in someone's house. How very patronising!

I would hold a different view for AirBnB properties.

We've just got back from holiday in Spain where one half of the wardrobe in the main bedroom was padlocked shut (obviously containing owner's property) and that annoyed me too.

I want to feel that a place is mine for the week or fortnight.