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AIBU?

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Original poster

Dishwasher or washing machine in holiday let?

702 replies

dontdillydallytoolong · 21/02/2021 23:42

Hi. We are in the process of converting our annexe into a holiday let. There is one double bedroom and a smaller bedroom with bunk beds. There is space in the kitchen for either a washing machine or a dishwasher. Which would you prefer if you were staying? My husband is saying washing machine, but I am thinking dishwasher. Would like help to decide. Thanks.

YABU - washing machine
YANBU - dishwasher

OP posts:
LST · 22/02/2021 12:34

@sashh

Who wants a weeks worth of washing to do on returning home?!

There are laundries, most will do a service wash, some will even collect, wash, dry and iron clothes before delivering them back 24 hours later.

What a waste of money when you can just shove a load in when you're away!
LST · 22/02/2021 12:35

@TangerineGenie

To me people saying they do washing on holiday so they don't have to do it when they get home is akin to saying they answer work emails on holiday so they don't have to do it when they get back to work :-)

Whilst it would be wonderful to not have to do washing when I get home if I'm going to have to do it at all I'd prefer not to be doing it on holiday.

Not remotely comparable!
BonnesVacances · 22/02/2021 12:36

A dishwasher will be used every day during the let. How many times will people use a washing machine? In a small space, the 60cm used up by the appliance will be valuable space. Choose whichever will be used the most frequently.

SellFridges · 22/02/2021 12:37

Dishwasher. 100%

I can avoid washing clothes for a week, but I cannot avoid doing the dishes even if we mostly eat out. I’m not prepared to stay somewhere without one.

Bythemillpond · 22/02/2021 12:37

We use holiday lets a lot. I always put in the filter when it has one that I want a dishwasher. I wouldn’t even consider a place if it didn’t have one.

If you were letting on a more long term basis then I would say washing machine but for holidays most people take enough clothes for a week or are quite happy to rinse through things in the sink and take dirty clothes back with them.
Also washer dryers which you would need aren’t the greatest

lottiegarbanzo · 22/02/2021 12:38

I really couldn't care less that some MNetters would consider us lazy for not wanting to wash up on holiday! I don't go on holiday in order to 'improve myself' according to the random standards of internet strangers!! I do positively enjoy being lazy, in some ways, when on holiday. (More to the point, OP cannot run a holiday business by judging people, only by meeting market demands).

What I hate about washing up on holiday, especially in ill-equipped cottages that give you only one meal's worth of crockery, is that it eats time, after every single meal. Pause to wash up, before doing the next activity. I'd much rather stick everything in a dishwasher, run and unload it once a day.

I don't mind at all doing lots of laundry when back home. That, to me, feels part of the 'holiday experience'. (If there is a washing machine, I'll use it, so we can bring clean clothes back but I don't care about this).

Serafinaaa · 22/02/2021 12:45

Dishwasher. I've never washed clothes on holiday and hate having to wash dishes. If there was a dirty laundry problem I'd shove it in the shower and wash properly back at home.

pictish · 22/02/2021 12:46

@sashh

Who wants a weeks worth of washing to do on returning home?!

There are laundries, most will do a service wash, some will even collect, wash, dry and iron clothes before delivering them back 24 hours later.

Not in the remote Scottish Highlands there isn’t...lol. We need a machine.
AnathemaPulsifer · 22/02/2021 12:48

Dishwasher. 100%.

HeronLanyon · 22/02/2021 12:54

Had another thought. I have énerver owned a dishwasher and never will I suspect and firmly on the washing machine side of the vote up thread.
BUT it is now coming down to this in my mind (and I have a remote second home which would make a great rental but have never wanted to)

Would I prefer to have people staying who -
Think washing dishes is too difficult or
Need a washing machine because of sick children throwing up/pet accidents etc.
So the shockingly lazy (in my view) or those who may trash the place and need washing machine.
I’d prefer the former as renters.

Interesting.

Serendipity79 · 22/02/2021 12:56

Dishwasher. I fully expect to come back with a weeks washing, but I dont go on holiday to start handwashing dishes every day!

LadyDanburysCane · 22/02/2021 12:58

Washing machine!

We go on lots of walks etc when on holiday and I don't actually own enough trousers to have clean ones for everyday if they get muddy (which they often do).

On holiday I rarely use the dishwasher because we eat "simple" meals that use few (if any) pans and with only three/four of us we simply handwash the few bits of crockery used.

The washing machine though.... that does get used! Slightly less now that the DCs aren't actually "children" any more but it still gets used.

BIWI · 22/02/2021 13:00

Can't you have both? You could stack the washing machine on top of the dishwasher. I saw a display in B&Q that showed this once.

If I had to choose, it would be the dishwasher, and we'd just have to take enough clothes to last us.

LadyMacbethWasMisunderstood · 22/02/2021 13:01

I have to say both. We stay in holiday cottages every year. Have done for years. I would never stay in a let without both. If you can find any way to incorporate both then you should. Maybe a slimline dishwasher?

Clymene · 22/02/2021 13:05

@HeronLanyon

Had another thought. I have énerver owned a dishwasher and never will I suspect and firmly on the washing machine side of the vote up thread. BUT it is now coming down to this in my mind (and I have a remote second home which would make a great rental but have never wanted to)

Would I prefer to have people staying who -
Think washing dishes is too difficult or
Need a washing machine because of sick children throwing up/pet accidents etc.
So the shockingly lazy (in my view) or those who may trash the place and need washing machine.
I’d prefer the former as renters.

Interesting.

Yes I have to say that the mud, puke and shit tales would make me think twice about providing a washing machine if I owned a holiday let!
muddyford · 22/02/2021 13:05

Washing machine 100%. We rent a holiday cottage and on our first visit, when I realised there was no washing machine it was a nasty shock. No public launderette within fifteen miles and I ended up pleading (successfully) with a local company that did linen washes for businesses. We were there for three weeks. Please provide something to hang washing on too, inside or out!

SuperbGorgonzola · 22/02/2021 13:06

It's interesting how we are all so different.

I would hate to have to take a week's worth of clothing for a family anywhere. I'd always opt to take 2-3 days' worth and then wash it. I couldn't be arsed with heaving all that stuff around the country.

Even for shorter visits, with young children i'd want things like mud stains, food stains etc washed on the day they happened to avoid them being ruined. The last airbnb we stayed in just had an airer that we put out on the patio.

VoyageInTheDark · 22/02/2021 13:06

Dishwasher definitely. And I have a small child

lanthanum · 22/02/2021 13:06

We had the "child sick on holiday" issue, and were glad of the washing machine (and indeed the fact that we were three in a sleeps-4 cottage, so there was a spare set of bedding). However if it's your annexe, presumably you would help out in that sort of situation, and you could potentially offer young families that you could put one load through your machine mid-week.

LaPoesieEstDansLaRue · 22/02/2021 13:08

I voted for washing machine, as dishes CAN be washed by hand, whereas towels, clothes etc if dirty can't (easily) be washed by hand. Also lots of people eat out on holiday so may not generate a huge amount of dishes. But it was quite a difficult choice and in all honesty I would expect both in a holiday let.

LadyDanburysCane · 22/02/2021 13:10

How do folk manage if they go to a hotel? Or stay in a caravan?

Hotels usually have a laundry service. Every campsite or carvan site I've used has had a laundry room.

redcandlelight · 22/02/2021 13:13

previous poster has s good point about changeover.
a dishwasher would allow you to put all cutlery and crockery in between visitors - no more grimy spoons.

ChequerBoard · 22/02/2021 13:14

Dishwasher every time. If I'm stayjng a week or two I don't want to be washing up by hand every night.

I would definitely use the dishwasher and only might use the washing machine. Who wants to be doing laundry on holiday if you don't have to?

luckylavender · 22/02/2021 13:15

Dishwasher

Himawarigirl · 22/02/2021 13:17

Would prefer a washing machine. Stayed somewhere last summer, had assumed there would be one as it the second home/rental of a family we know, kids raced through their clothes, for sandy, got sick and I couldn’t believe there was no machine. But whichever you go for make it clear on your letting info!!!!