To ask you how you go about choosing a holiday cottage?

[Movinghouseatlast]

My disclaimer is that I am setting one up! It is an annexe attached to my house.

There seems to be so much choice of area I don't know how anyone makes a decision!

So do you pick a general area, or a specific place? Eg Cornwall, or a specific village.

In terms of cottage companies, do you stick with one and look at every suitable property? Or look at loads of companies?

Is price most important? Or a view? Or the interior?

Mine is very high end (luxury dare I say) inside, big log burner, massive furnished terrace but we don't have a sea view. Next door has a sea view, but is very basic (but lovely) inside. We are more expensive as I have compared our house with nearby ones with similar interiors and facilities.

Is it important to you to be able to walk to a village/pub/beach? You can from ours, but some of the most popular cottages in my area are a drive from anywhere at all. Yet they are expensive and booked all year round- and don't have additional facilities to mine.

I am.just trying to get my head round it all. I want to get my pricing right and give people a fab experience.

Thanks.

I use unique home stays a lot. Gorgeous houses with lovely interiors

Oh wow, just had a quick look and bookmarked - thanks.

I agree with PPs - if you're going for a luxury let, then Airbnb isn't somewhere I'd think of looking. I'd be looking for a good holiday lettings company such as the one above. I've used Menai Holiday Cottages several times for Wales holidays and they've always been great.

as long as the outside space is private i wouldn't mind the owners on site.
TBH it would put off your less discerning clients - which is a good thing!

First year I'd start on the average/lower end of the price of similar properties, to ensure that you can be fully booked. If you are, then increase the price the following.

Kitchen - Washing up liquid, sponge and dishcloth, Kitchen roll, dishwasher tabs and binbags for kitchen bin and refuge bin.

Yep, forgot about bin bags - another "detail" that is important. Owners often leave notices to tell you to put your bin bags in the outside bin, but then only leave the 1 bin bag in the bin. So you have to go out and buy a roll! Sometimes it's the tiniest/cheapest of things that make a massive difference to how a guest feels and whether they'll be back.

Would only consider if:

There is a washer, dryer and dishwasher.
There are photographs of kitchen, living room, bedrooms and bathrooms
It's clean, modern and co-ordinated
It's in the area I want to visit
It's detached
I can see reviews of the property

We travel light, place a lot of emphasis on our family holiday and are willing to pay for it. It has to meet my home standards at least!

The obvious things would be: near paces of interest or natural beauty / clean / nicely decorated and furnished. Those are the things that you can see when you book. However, it's the little things when you arrive that you can't know in advance that can be annoying for holiday makers if they are wrong, for example: not having a central heating thermostat anywhere visible / no shelf in the shower to put your shower gel and hang your scrunchie/wash mitt / no hooks on the back of doors for dressing gowns / lumpy mattresses / creaky beds / flickering lights / no lock on the bathroom door / difficult parking / no sofa, just armchairs / dirty baking trays in the cupboard etc etc. Those sort of things would put me off returning to a holiday cottage.

TBH it would put off your less discerning clients - which is a good thing!
I assume you mean people who would be a nuisance would not want owners next door. While that is true, many of us who are never a nuisance, but value privacy very highly and/or have had bad experiences of owners being right next door, would also be put off. Owners can be a total pain sometimes and do not always act professionally.

Another one here that wouldn't ever consider AirBNB, and the only holidays I have had for many years are holiday in cottages in the UK. I would look into getting on to one or other of the various holiday cottage websites that cover your area.

Family of 5, often take MIL with us. We look for

• large light rooms
• decent beds and showers
• good kitchen with decent fridge, hob and equipment. Bonus if it has a dishwasher and washing machine. Great if spices, oils, coffee and tea there. Not bothered about welcome hampers but is a nice touch when done.
• parking
• decent sized garden
• pubs and activities near by
• no pets

I also hate ordinary normal places being described as luxury. It is an over used word.

I scrutinise photos of every room and assume that if something isn’t visible it is either not there or horrible. I want to see honest pictures of each room. I need to be able to count the seats in the living rooms and round the dining table. No arty pictures of a croissant on a plate or a door at a strange angle. I want to know how many outside seats there are and what the barbecue looks like. Show me the kitchen so I can see whet the cooker looks like and get a feel for how big it is.
If the pictures are poor I won’t book. Arty is not a substitute for informative.

Menztoray - we don't describe our apartment as 'luxury' on actually advertising it. Just saying to the OP here that ours would be seen as the 'luxury' end of the market and where we get guests the most as she mentioned that was the aim for her property.

I don't actually know what 'luxury' defines in terms of a holiday rental? I just know that we offer higher standards than most around us, ie everything was completely replaced last year ie brand new walk in rainshower bathroom, new kitchen, floors, high thread count, brand new furniture, lots of 'extras' like decent baby equipment for free, bathrobes and slippers etc etc.. we charge the same as people who rent down the road who havent changed a thing since the 80s.

strawberry
And that is why the photos are so important. After my basic criteria are met, I choose on the photos. There is a huge variation in the state of properties you get for a price. I also double check with the review that the place is "as it says on the tin photo "

In order of importance:

-Price
-Not on a main road
-Wifi if in a rural location where 3g coverage might be poor

don't really care about anything else.

I have been known to dismiss a holiday let because I didn't like the sofa.

Interesting your thoughts in Air BnB.

There are lots of holiday cottages on there, and quite a lot which are very high end. One in my village is only on Air BnB and it is £3800 a week peak season.

It is clearly a perception that they are for bargains though.

Things I am going to put into practice is to use the key safe rather than greeting them in person. Great idea.

Also, the logs. We were going to give a nights worth free then charge for more. Perhaps we should just give the first night then leave them to get their own?

Most other things you mention we will be doing- welcome pack, posh sofas and bedlinen etc. We will leave lots of bin bags and dishwasher tablets.

I'm really grateful for the advice!

The annex thing - I used to avoid being adjacent to the owners when it was me, dh and three dc but when I went with just dd last year, we booked one which was at the bottom of the owners garden - I didn't choose it for that reason and I'd only have bothered them if it was a dire emergency but it was nice to know they were about just in case. So it may be a selling point for some.

I prefer the keys to be in a lock box or otherwise hidden somewhere so I don't have to worry about what time I arrive or about making polite conversation with someone when I just want to explore and settle in.

Enough genuinely comfortable chairs or sofas for everyone - stayed in one where there was only one really nice armchair and a tiny upright uncomfortable ancient sofa - caused a little bit of tension

When it was five of us, I never booked anywhere that didn't have more than one toilet! Not bothered about an en-suite but just an extra toilet somewhere!

An extra telly somewhere was always a bonus so we could stick a dvd on for the dc and watch something we wanted in another room - although I am probably showing my age here - laptops would probably do the trick nowadays!

Big bed definitely.

Extra blankets available.

Big bath towels.

It has to be clean.

Really that’s a big thing. Stayed last summer in a cottage. Well known letting agent. Luxury place.

It was such a shame the kitchen was filthy. Dishwasher was empty but really dirty. Old food packaging in the cupboards. Crockery not clean. It was awful. Got the manager of letting company out to the cottage, and he said “oh our cleaners don’t open cupboards, they don’t have time”. Given that this place requires a £100 damages deposit I thought it was shocking. The previous people could have run off with all the kitchenware for free.

Owners living nearby wouldn’t worry me. Actually it could be a good thing if there was a problem. The place we stayed last summer, as I mentioned upthread, we had problems after problems with the plumbing, we were having to deal with plumbers and it runined the holiday to be honest. Having owners close by would make me feel they cared a bit more.

I avoid Air BnB and stick to booking.com. Unfortunately more and more Airbnb owners are also advertising on booking.com.

Why do you say unfortunately Mazz?

We are going to do booking.com too.

Another one here who wouldn't use AirBNB to book a cottage. In fact, when I've looked at AirBNB, I think the prices they are charging are extortionate and way above what the companies specialising in this area charge. The reviews of AirBNB aren't great either - if there's a problem it appears that they are difficult to resolve.

Presuming I don't have a set date or place to look for...

The first things I look for are price
and house layout. (Less important now, but we always needed the kids on the same floor as us, as they would wake in the night. Many a house was dismissed for this reason)

Second is local setting, is there parking? If the house is in a tourist area which is a nightmare to park in, then can we walk from the house to the town/beach/attractions.

After that we prefer pet free. DH is allergic to cats, but has unexpectedly had problems in houses which allowed dogs.

Preferences we may ignore in favour of cheaper accommodation: dishwasher, Wi-Fi, no knick-knacks/ornaments, enclosed garden etc.

If you advertise WiFi please make sure it will work in the living room, kitchen and lying in every bed!

I would rather squash my kids together than pay more for roomies accommodation.

*roomier

Private parking, privacy -not attached to anything/owners overlooking, hot tub, large kitchen, big beds, and a good shower

I used Airbnb last time and it was great.

We usually chose area first.
Then I chose interior/ exterior next. We live in the country so we don’t want to be in a noisy town/ city. We like to be near the sea as we used to live by the sea and miss it. If not then country with some walks and walking distance from a pub/ village though last summer we went to Bodmin right up on the moor. We took an hour and a half to find it which wasn’t great after 6 hours driving. Directions were vague but signage around was poor. We ended up driving in and asking someone local.
Main thing is cleanliness. I also like it if a small welcome pack is available. I used to look after a holiday house and offered a small pack especially to those travelling a long distance. I did tea, coffee, hot choc, biscuits or scones ( homemade & jam) and sometimes a loaf of bread, bacon, local sausages & eggs so if the missed the village shop they had something for supper or breakfast. I also listed local pubs, restaurants, butchers etc and phone numbers so they could ring and enquire if they wanted to book a table. This was very much appreciated by people travelling the length of Scotland or more.

The only other thing I would say is an emergency number in case of leaks, no electric. I hope it is a success.