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Original poster

I want to relax, owner controlling central heating remotely

184 replies

PaddingtonBearPumpkinstare · 26/10/2019 11:52

I am currently on a long weekend with DH and two DC. Whilst the cottage is lovely and we can’t fault it, the heating is controlled remotely via an app by the owner. It is set to 22 degrees and to come on at 6.30am to 10am and then 4pm to 10pm. If we want to alter the temperature or turn it on or off we have to text the owner and ask her to do it. Is this the norm?! I’ve never heard of this before.

We only arrived last night and have already had to text her twice. We arrived just as it was starting up at 4pm and as I was unpacking I was absolutely boiling and had to open all the windows upstairs. Our heating at home is never above 19, DH asked her to turn it down. She said she’d turn it down to 20 for the rest of our stay unless she heard otherwise.

During the night DS woke for a bottle at 3am and I was really cold and actually couldn’t get back to sleep for a while. Obviously we couldn’t text her at that time. If that had been at home I would have just put the heating on for an hour whilst he had his bottle. Then this morning at 6am, DS started whinging in his sleep and when I checked him his cheeks were really cold. So this morning DH has texted her again and asked her to put it on at 2am for an hour but she hasn’t yet responded.

I can only assume the reasoning for it is to stop people leaving the heating on all day when they go out. The weather is horrible today and I want to arrive back to a nice toasty cottage but that won’t happen if we arrive back before 4pm.

AIBU to want to relax on this short break and not be pissed off and feel like a child asking for the heating to be put on?

OP posts:
Original poster
PaddingtonBearPumpkinstare · 26/10/2019 13:19

Just as I pressed post DS (8) threw up in our 8 day old car so have had to detour via a Tesco to buy him a whole new outfit. Ironically he threw up as he got too hot in the car (I had a change of clothes for the 11 week old but not for the 8 year old!)

Have skimmed through some posts so will try and answer some questions and then see if I have missed anything major. Will definitely look for a thermostat when we get back.

Booked through Hoseasons not Air BnB, not sure what their procedure would be. The first we knew of this was when DH spoke to owner to arrange collecting keys.

We are in North Yorkshire, it is not warm.

Someone mentioned it wouldn't be that cold between 10 and 4, we have an 11 week old DS who is a devil gets slightly cranky when cold

Going to have to stop again as DS has done a poop (thankfully not the 8 year old this time!) and DH is getting road rage in Tesco car park! I wish we'd stayed at home!

OP posts:
Original poster
PaddingtonBearPumpkinstare · 26/10/2019 13:29

@Lockheart I wouldn't normally have the heating on at 2am at home but this is a cottage which is colder than our home and if I was cold at home I would put the heating on for 30 minutes or so regardless of the time of day

OP posts:
katewhinesalot · 26/10/2019 13:37

Ring hoseasons if you can't get any joy from the owner. Definitely leave a review.

If all else fails then ask for a high temperature all day and night and regulate through windows.

timshelthechoice · 26/10/2019 13:38

I'd put a complaint in to Hoseasons and leave a very negative review.

Original poster
PaddingtonBearPumpkinstare · 26/10/2019 13:38

We are in the Yorkshire Dales at the minute and my signal keeps dropping out and I am getting annoyed trying to refresh the screen

DH is going to text her once we stop and ask for control of the heating as we have a baby with us and I will definitely be looking for a thermostat once we are back there

I will also look at Hoseasons complaints procedure and how to leave a review

OP posts:
OtraCosaMariposa · 26/10/2019 13:41

We've stayed in probably dozens of holiday homes and have never had to do this. It is definitely not normal. Yes we've often arrived at places and found the thermostat set too high for our preferences - 22c would be stifling for me, and we never ever have heating on overnight. But there's always been a way to get it right for us by manually overriding the presets or turning radiators on.

Definitely worth feeding back to the agency if you've rented through them, or by leaving a note on a review website if you were writing a review anyway.

VeniVidiVoxi · 26/10/2019 13:51

There might also be controls in the boiler itself, if you have access to that. Ours is a combi and you can control it directly. I think you can switch off the thermostat and just set it to come on and a water temp, presumably incase the power goes off you can still have heating. The controller for the remote thermostat is wired into the boiler and plugged in. If you turn that off the remote will stop working and you could potentially seize control! Mwah hahahaha. Maybe.

ragged · 26/10/2019 14:03

It's very confusing that the temperature fluctuates that much. I wonder if the cottage has terrible insulation.

Span1elsRock · 26/10/2019 14:06

That's ridiculous. I'd phone Hoseseasons direct and say you're freezing cold with a young baby and need access to the heating controls or a different cottage where you can be warm. I'd bypass the owner completely.

CottonSock · 26/10/2019 14:09

Tell her you have a baby and need to control the heating. Sounds awful.

SpookilyBadOooooooh · 26/10/2019 14:11

Poor DS is he feeling better now? Hopefully car sick rather than a bug?

I stay over where I work and when Hive was installed it was a bloody nightmare. TBF there was no issue in getting the presets changed but it was sodding annoying as it couldn’t be done immediately as the person with the APp wasn’t contactable 🙄

The manual thermostat is a nightmare to adjust, but at least I know how to do it now.

Keep texting and RING at 2am if you don’t get a suitable solution today!

It definitely should be able to be adjusted by the people staying in the property. If there’s not a manual over ride they need to give access via the app. They might need to invest in a cheap smartphone just for that rather than everyone having to download the app and whatever else. But that’s their problem, not yours!

AirB&B is always assumed to be the bad guy...🙄. I actually had the opposite this year. I was in France and it was 38deg plus. I’d been out for a few hours & met the owner back at the house for something - when we went in he exclaimed how hot it was in there and asked if there was a problem with the Air Con 😳 I said no, I just didn’t want to leave it running all day, costing him money, while I was out. He was shocked and said it’s an expected cost of renting out the house in the summer and not to worry about that. Ignoring the environmental impact I thought his attitude was really nice.

DC3dilemma · 26/10/2019 14:13

How annoying. We are pretty frugal with the heating normally, but with 3 DC we accepted that during the baby years we have to spend a good part of the year with heating on all the time. We might turn the thermostat down to 16 at night but otherwise it’s at 19.

SpookilyBadOooooooh · 26/10/2019 14:15

That's ridiculous. I'd phone Hoseseasons direct and say you're freezing cold with a young baby and need access to the heating controls or a different cottage where you can be warm. I'd bypass the owner completely

Why on earth would you do that?

It’s a ridiculously childish suggestion. Sure go to the Agency if the owner won’t co operate, but not to discuss it with owner first is ridiculous! Not to mention the first question is likely to be ‘what has the owner said!’

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 26/10/2019 14:16

Hunt high and low for those controls as there will be a control panel; you have to have a “point of origin” to do a manual override should the app cease to work.

Is this true? Our boiler was installed in June and it doesn't have any local controls, just an app. I thought it was very weird at the time but we were told it was normal...

Span1elsRock · 26/10/2019 14:21

Because you've paid Hoseseasons for the break, are customers of Hoseseasons and your contract is with them, not the owner.

I've always gone direct with a complaint under those circumstances. Things happen more quickly that way, and the company are aware of issues in real time.

Actionhasmagic · 26/10/2019 14:22

But what if your phone was stolen and you couldn’t control it manually? There should always be a manual control I think

EggysMom · 26/10/2019 14:27

My DH is a night owl and is often still up at 2am, even when on holiday. So he'd find the lack of heating after 10pm very annoying and, if we couldn't get control, we'd be leaving the holiday home and looking for a refund.

HolidayLetter · 26/10/2019 14:36

I would overheat at any higher than 16 degrees, and sleep with the windows open in January. So this would more or less kill me.

British Gas are always trying to sell me these Hive things, and I keep saying no. Guests need to be able to control the temperature in the houses while they are staying there. Some guests then leave it on 25 degrees - but I always go more or less straight in after each group of guests, not least to check that the properties haven't suffered any mishaps. I just then turn the thermostats down again.

OP, I would definitely contact the owner again and ask her to let you know where the thermostat is. Any decent owner would do this, or would come straight over and sort it out for you. I would give her a chance to do this, though, as she may just assume that everyone likes the heating in the way she likes it.

Whatever happens, you should mention it in your review.

northerngirl2012 · 26/10/2019 14:36

That's really odd. Can't you overide manually with the thermostat?

Dollymixture22 · 26/10/2019 14:38

I would hate this.

We stayed In A rented cottage last spring. It was cold. We put the heating on at 8am until about ten or so, then knocked it back on when we got in at about 5 and if we were staying in needed to keep it on till about midnight when we went to bed. We stayed in all Damon a particularly wet day- needed heating on all day

I have never stayed anywhere where I couldn’t control The temperate.

BlaueLagune · 26/10/2019 14:39

Yes there must be some sort of physical controls - for safety reasons.

Years ago when we lived in another house the boiler started clanking. I've never got down a set of stairs so fast and switched it off! You have to be able to switch it off. And yes you could lose access to your phone or your wifi could go down. Sounds like Anchor's plumber may have been talking rubbish.

I would also expect to have control over the heating I was paying for as part of a cottage rental!

teraculum29 · 26/10/2019 14:57

i would buy cheap fan heater if the owner wont cooperate

iMatter · 26/10/2019 15:15

I hate this.

We had exactly the same issue when we stayed in a house in S Devon a couple of years ago. It was pissing down, we all got soaked on a dog walk and were absolutely freezing when we got back. Couldn't warm up, couldn't have baths/showers because there wasn't enough hot water.

Eventually found a master switch hidden away in the utility room.

Tianc · 26/10/2019 15:23

Our new boiler is completely remote controlled, it has no physical thermostat. Took some getting used to hmm There's a screen that tells you the temperature and when it's due to come on next, but you can't control the screen without the app...

Are you absolutely sure? Does this mean if you drop your phone down the loo you can't control the heating till you have a new one?

What if your mobile signal goes? Or if your phone's latest operating system update crashes the app?

What happens if people move house? How do you make sure the last owner no longer has access to the heating system? And how do you make sure you DO have access to it? Especially if the previous owner has died...

Surely no manufacturer can really have been this stupid? Please?

Countryescape · 26/10/2019 15:57

Was this clear in the advertisement for the place? If not I’d be asking for a refund. It’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard of!

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