Holiday let with inadequate curtains, AIBU?

[MyMarmite]

We’ve paid £1,000 for 7 nights in a holiday let. The master bedroom has no curtains or blinds in about 4ft of window and so I am awake early as it’s bright. diagram attached.

it’s an awkward window but I still think it’s unreasonable not to cover it if you’re letting it. This is a professional holiday let.

There are 2 other double bedrooms but dh is in one of them and they are 2 floors down, deliberately, as I snore. So I can’t use the other one as then he won’t sleep because of my snoring.

I’d rather go home than not sleep all week. It’s 2.5 hours away. AIBU?

Used a towel over a window at a holiday let and secured it with drawing pins. Lamppost right outside the window.

I'd blotted it out of my memory forgotten, but I rented a flat in Europe and the door to the bathroom had a completely clear big window in it. The landlord lived in the flat upstairs and sometimes let himself in - he retained one room near the door to keep his stuff in.

A big bath sheet went straight up over that window and never moved until I left a few months later!

You'd think a handyman would be there to fix things that had broken or consumables that needed to be replaced - not to bodge over standard furnishings that the owner hadn't bothered to sort out in the first place.

Good that it solved the problem, but i's hardly going to add to the beautiful ambience of the place, with parcel paper taped over the windows.

@SayOrPay i think you’ve set mumsnet alight with your bizarre assertion that anyone under the age of 76 has decided that getting undressed in the dark, lack of privacy and bare windows is the fashionable thing to do 😂

😂That's not actually what I said though is it! I said that I, personally, do not know anyone under the age of 76 who has curtains. Curtains are definitely not common where I live 🤷‍♀️ And for those worrying about my DC, we live on the top floor and are not overlooked.

I don't know anyone of ANY age who doesn't have curtains!

So why you getting undressed in the dark then? 😂

And are you getting up at 5am to get dressed in the dark?

Curtains are definitely not common where I live

Well obviously, the river water causes mould.

@SayOrPay Denmark is the country for you lovely! Not only do they not do curtains- it seems they rarely did blinds either! We ended up with lots of rather lovely voile sheer nets kind of thing in bedrooms plus black out roller blinds - but huge bare lounge windows- I kind of got used to it - they have bizzare arrangements with lighting too, that you take it all with you and the cords go back into the ceiling - so even if you rent a home you have to have all new light fittings and someone to connect up if you aren't an electrician! - ikea made a mint from us!

Out of curiosity I looked on Rightmove at flats in a development near where I live. There are new, new flats, with show home pictures and "old" flats that are being sold on having been occupied. The show homes do not have curtains or blinds or curtain rails. The ones being sold on all have either curtains or blinds on all windows. A PP was correct, the show homes don't have toilet roll holders either, £650 000 and no toilet roll holder!

I lived on the 25th floor of a tower block in the US a few years ago, most definitely not overlooked on one side; the buildings across the street have three floors. We had blinds on all the windows, otherwise it would have been roasting hot in summer and too bright as well. The bedrooms had double blinds - a sunshade and a blackout blind.

YANBU, I HATE when hotels/airbnbs don’t have proper dark curtains. I do sleep with an eye mask but it’s super annoying with DC. As a result we travel with a role of bin liners + masking tape (obviously always make sure we arent damaging anything). Works great and once we can’t reuse the bin liners for windows we use them for bins so no waste.

Curtain rails are not standard in new builds and we don't have any in our

Curtain rolls have never been standard when you buy a new property.
You have to put them up yourself or get someone to do it.
We've lived in 3 new builds over the years and none came with them. We paid a 'handyman' to put them up in the last two places, got my uncle and dad to do them in our first new build (25+ years ago).

Newbuilds also don't come with lots of things that you'd expect to find in a house/flat.

Flooring isn't always included; usually an optional extra to buy from there or sort your own.
Bathroom fittings such as towel rails, curtain poles, door hooks, toilet roll holders, mirrors, etc.
Light fittings aren't standard when you buy a new build - just a bare bulb or some spotlights in a kitchen.
Picture hooks, TV aerials, Sky dishes, etc are all not standard when you buy new.

However - it doesn't mean that many of those things are the norm in most houses. You just pay to buy your own and either fit them yourself or pay someone to do it for you.

Why do you get dressed in the dark then?

Busted bullshitter!!!!!

I consider voiles to be 'curtains'. We have them in the living room

@SayOrPay This is the strangest comment in the history of MN.

@bellac11 so do I - but we had to put them in- in a rented house!!

I have to have my bedroom completely dark, It 's fine at home as we have those continental style exterior shutters, but holidays were a nightmare.
Thankfully Poundland sell black paper tablecloths around Halloween, so I always take a couple of those along with some jumbo pegs in my case.p
They work a treat!

My husband is Danish. I've been in a lot of Danish houses, whilst curtains are unusual, there's nearly always blinds or some sort of window covering in bedrooms.

That would annoy me so much OP! I hate it when places have rubbish blinds or thin curtains, can’t imagine just nothing at all! I always say in reviews if I think the place needs better curtains - and I’m grateful to read it so I know to avoid places!
I have never been anywhere where people don’t have anything at all covering a window, even crappy student accommodation manages it.

@UnaLaguna Yep- I was suprised we had to put our own in though. I'm right though aren't I that they don't usually have them in living areas? I found that kind of odd initially but it grew on me

Yes, it's reasonably common not to have anything in kitchens/lounge/living areas. Think of the fire risk with all the candles!

To be honest, when we bought this house the last owners curtains were literally about 50 years old. Old dusty and sun faded. I ripped them all out the first day, with the poles, down stairs, hallways, kitchen etc, bedrooms we kept and replaced with blinds asap, within weeks, but we spent about 5 years with nothing on all the rest of the windows as I just couldn’t decide what I wanted. We then put Roman blinds in gorgeous velvets and silks throughout and shutters in the kitchen.

every night now I shut the blinds and occasionally wonder what I was thinking that we went so long without. I can’t imagine though having nothing in the bedrooms, I’m not over looked but I’d feel so exposed. And I’d hate the light coming in early in the morning.

I can’t decide if the poster who said they aren’t the done thing if you’re under 76 was taking the piss or not, I really hope they were as otherwise what an odd thought, 😂

Too easy. 🤣