So many holiday cottages have horrible furnishings?

[antelopevalley]

Kist looking for a cottage for a weekend away and I am saddened at how many have horrible furniture. Some look as if an elderly relative has died and just rented out with the relative's furniture still there. Others look as if the owners have bought the cheapest furniture they could find.

Manky throws covering God knows what, knick-knacks, flouncy bedspreads, tables that look as if they're out of junk shops (or skips). And they charge the same as nice places.

My skins crawls looking at some of these cottages.

Ugh, me too. Don’t know who goes there.

90’s carpets and curtains mismatched dated falling apart wooden furniture

Polyrster cotton frilly floral bedding.

l just scroll straight past.

I agree with you, but it's really very easy to find one that you do like. Most websites have multiple photos of the accommodation and you just scroll through and find the ones you like. After disappointment in previous years we know research everything really well and discount any that don't suit. We've not had a bad holiday cottage in years now.

Someone must like the ones you and I would reject. Someone chooses them I guess.

It's miss matched bedding and frills that get me. 😧

You get what you pay for!

If you look at the higher end of the market you'll get more luxurious/up to date furnishings. Most low to mid range places won't be making big profits on the rentals so furnish with old/secondhand stuff that they don't mind being broken or having stuff spilt on it. We have a holiday home that we rented out for one summer - never again. So much stuff got ruined (we had to replace two expensive rugs bc a dog - despite us being a pet free rental - peed on them) that we didn't bother again. It's really not a lucrative business for your average 2nd home owner/air bnb-er.

I do not agree that low to mid range places have poor stuff and more expensive places have nice stuff. There are plenty of low to mid range places with nice furniture.

Agree. I only ever use a small handful of companies now because I know they only handle 5* properties with quality bedding etc, and have usually been interior designed.

The best ones are Boutique Retreats, Unique Homestays and Cool Stays.

So book one of them? If there are plenty to choose from what’s the issue?

I just wouldn’t stay in one like that. I look at the photos and the minute I see decor I don’t like I keep looking. It needs to be stylish…

I do agree the more expensive places so have nicer decor in general.

The horrible coloured furniture your grandparents used to have hide stains better so they last longer 🤷‍♀️

I’m sure there must be a market for frills and polyester. I had a holiday cottage and had a lot of solid oak and stone floors ( with underfloor heating.) white walls so easy to repaint all fairly indestructible and people loved it. White bedding is a complete pain in the arse though as it gets ruined by sunscreen stains in summer. It doesn’t make financial sense anymore.

Tbh I’m not really bothered about the furnishi gs as long as they are comfortable and functional. The location of the cottage is much more important to me.

If I’m going to rent a holiday cottage, I want it to be t least as comfortable as home. We look carefully, but we’ve come unstuck once or twice and it really spoils the break.

I once briefly went out with a bloke who had a seaside holiday home he let out. I knew from his own home he had a pretty questionable taste in interiors but this holiday home really took the biscuit. It was a mixture of heavy, dark antique furniture, chintz and random pieces of formica and office furniture which looked like it had been retrieved from a skip when the local job centre closed down. It still makes me laugh when I recall the horrified. visceral reaction I had to his furniture when I walked in as if I stumbled into a crime scene!

It makes my flesh crawl if the furnishings are horrible. I was once physically sick in a cottage.

I opened a drawer that had tinfoil and rolls of bags in it. It was full of mould. I threw up it made me fell so icked out.

I agree with you - it's hard to find places that are nice and if I go away I want somewhere that's as nice or nicer than home. So many are awful and I discount them when I see the photos and they're awful or ugly.

I want at least 2 en-suites, probably 3 or 4 bedrooms and bathrooms, decent bedlinen, a huge kitchen, good appliances, a great view, good beds, fast wi-fi, at least one good television, big enough, decent towels.

No this isn’t true. I can’t afford 5 star cottages, but akways manage to find some that are nicely furnished and clean.

I have a friend who furnished her holiday cottage exclusively with cast-offs from her own house. Once something wasn't good enough for her anymore, off if went to the cottage.

It comes down to what you can or are willing to pay really.

Just like you get different grades of accommodation if you go to Butlins, you get different grades of holiday cottage.

I've done my fair share of shite furnished holidays over the years and am now fortunate enough to be able to afford the nicer accommodation. I would struggle to choose somewhere not nicely furnished nowadays, I must admit, so I accept I'm a bit of a holiday snob now.

If it was a choice, however, of slightly dodgy furnishings or no holiday at all, I think I'd stick with the dodgy furnishings...

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow did you puke because of ugly furniture? Or a drawer with mould? Unclean drawer is not an interior design issue, it’s just crap property management.

Lots of holiday house owners seem to furnish them with stuff otherwise destined for the tip. Or junk from marketplace.

Yes some have weird interiors but it's likely that older generations have more time and money to spend money on holidays, so their style is catered for, plus some people really do want money for minimal effort and outlay.

After a really shit holiday last Christmas booked by OH as a 'surprise' I now vet them all. I think guys are a bit less bothered by decor and are more enthusiatic about the location.

We did book a really nice cottage last year and the nice decor made such a difference.

😂

It's the reverse here. My house has all the hol let cast offs.

@antelopevalley It's true that some places are very badly presented - but there are loads of places that are lovely. Some of the badly presented ones are in such a great location that people are happy to overlook the chintzy beds and such like. There's a market for everything. The best thing really (as photos can be deceptive) is to read the reviews as they give you a very good sense of what a place is actually like. I would also start off by searching only for properties with a 5/5 rating (or whatever the equivalent is, depending on the website).

I completely agree with you, and I’ve seen even expensive properties which have got really shit furniture in so it’s not about what you pay

I don't even have very high standards. A decent kitchen that does not look ancient. Ordinary table and chairs that looks reasonably good condition. Clean and bright looking. Sofas that are fairly ordinary.
IKEA showrooms are better than most of these. So I am not even looking for high-end furnishings.

I puked because:

Although it looked nice on the website, when we arrived it wasn’t. It was OK, but not brilliant. It was a combination of that, disgust at the mould and disgust at the spider webs.

Its making me🤢just talking about it.