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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Holiday let with inadequate curtains, AIBU?

316 replies

MyMarmite · 08/05/2023 08:00

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?

Holiday let with inadequate curtains, AIBU?
OP posts:
LizzieSiddal · 08/05/2023 08:51

Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Mitfordian · 08/05/2023 08:51

SayOrPay · 08/05/2023 08:03

You can't expect the rooms to be furnished to your taste. You should have looked at the photos.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.
Buy an eye mask like they used to give out on aeroplanes.

Batshit.

It's also a massive interior design faux pas not to have some kind of window dressing.

All the people suggesting it's not that bad must be the kind who can go back to sleep after being woken at a feasible wake time. If I'm woken after 5am, there's no way I'm going back to sleep.

WeAreTheHeroes · 08/05/2023 08:52

MooseBreath · 08/05/2023 08:03

I can't get too worked up about this, bit then I have no issue sleeping as the sun rises.

It's not like you're getting no sleep as even if you go to bed at midnight, you've still got 5 solid hours before the sunlight starts to creep in. So you are being a bit dramatic, really.

For a solution, can you switch bedrooms with your DH?

Your lack of empathy is astonishing.

Heronwatcher · 08/05/2023 08:52

I agree, bin bags or gro-blind, or try a different design of mask. Or DH wears ear-plugs and you sleep in the room near him.

Also it’s dark here by 9 and then not light until 5. I don’t know where you are but if it’s similar you can go to bed early and then chill out with a coffee in bed once you wake the next day. But you can absolutely get enough sleep in the “dark” times. I agree that it’s normal to have curtains or a blind, but it’s not normal to expect a holiday let to have pitch darkness until 8am- many simply don’t.

I very much doubt you’d get a refund for this and it seems a shame to miss the holiday.

FirstTimeNameChanger · 08/05/2023 08:55

@wildfirewonder yes, I too can cover my eyes with my hands 😁 it's the sleeping in that position that I would find difficult!

Cool that you've trained yourself to sleep through anything. My teen son is like that - could literally sleep through bombs going off.

TheKobayashiMaru · 08/05/2023 08:57

SayOrPay · 08/05/2023 08:03

You can't expect the rooms to be furnished to your taste. You should have looked at the photos.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.
Buy an eye mask like they used to give out on aeroplanes.

I've read some bollocks on MN in my time but this is up there with the best of them.

LittleBearPad · 08/05/2023 08:57

YABU

It’s 8am, even with curtains my bedroom is light and would have been getting light since 5am.

FirstTimeNameChanger · 08/05/2023 08:57

OP - I don't think you're unreasonable not to be able to sleep in bright sunlight (clearly not unreasonable, that's why curtains and blinds were invented!). Also, I don't think you should be fine with going to sleep at 9 in order to wake up at 5 on your holiday. I would not like to do that 😁

I'm finding this thread really funny though

ConstanceReid · 08/05/2023 08:58

Why not just get an eye mask on Prime?

HideTheCroissants · 08/05/2023 08:59

SayOrPay · 08/05/2023 08:03

You can't expect the rooms to be furnished to your taste. You should have looked at the photos.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.
Buy an eye mask like they used to give out on aeroplanes.

Rubbish! I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have curtains or blinds in bedrooms! Age doesn’t enter into it - they are for privacy, light blocking, and insulation (heat out in summer and in in winter).

Reallybadidea · 08/05/2023 09:00

I think @SayOrPay has done the MN thing of skim reading the OP and jumping to the wrong conclusion (that the issue is the decor, not the inability to sleep). Then in their desperate haste to show the OP that they're WRONG has made shit up.

FangsForTheMemory · 08/05/2023 09:00

Put brown paper over the windows.

SandLResources · 08/05/2023 09:00

It's not your house...why not just include a photo?

Premiumchange · 08/05/2023 09:00

SayOrPay · 08/05/2023 08:03

You can't expect the rooms to be furnished to your taste. You should have looked at the photos.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.
Buy an eye mask like they used to give out on aeroplanes.

You don't get out much I think. 😂

SparklyBlackKitten · 08/05/2023 09:04

So
... you can't sleep due to the light

But you also cant sleep with an eyemask...
Surely if you are that desperate to sleep :you'll just wear one

Or just stick some tin foil. And yes yes it is high. But those are all excuses. You CAN fix the problem
It just requires a bit of doing 😉

HolidayLetter · 08/05/2023 09:05

@MyMarmite As a PP suggests, do check that there isn't some kind of 'hidden' blind. I have one of these at one of my properties (the property came with it), and I had a guest who rang me to complain that there was no blind. It was all fine once I'd told her how to use it, obviously, but I then put some curtains up as well so as to avoid anyone else having the same problem. It might be worth calling the owner to ask if there's something you're missing. Sorry if you've already thought of this, but any decent owner will come up with a solution if it's bothering you (and an eye mask or putting up with it is not it!)

littleripper · 08/05/2023 09:07

SayOrPay · 08/05/2023 08:03

You can't expect the rooms to be furnished to your taste. You should have looked at the photos.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.
Buy an eye mask like they used to give out on aeroplanes.

😂😂😂

Iwasafool · 08/05/2023 09:09

Talipesmum · 08/05/2023 08:07

What? Curtains are not only for over 76’s 😂. I know blinds etc are growing in popularity but i don’t think just having nothing at the window to block the light is the normal choice of the under 76’s these days?!

Show quote history

I'm a mere 70 and I have curtains, am I 6 years to early?

Blossomtoes · 08/05/2023 09:11

Swap rooms with your bloke. Job done.

absnwpqimwest · 08/05/2023 09:11

Wet the window and stick a sheet of cheap tinfoil to it, works brilliantly for a short term solution for something like this.

Toddlerteaplease · 08/05/2023 09:13

Get a mask.

Blinkingheckythump · 08/05/2023 09:15

SayOrPay · 08/05/2023 08:03

You can't expect the rooms to be furnished to your taste. You should have looked at the photos.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.
Buy an eye mask like they used to give out on aeroplanes.

This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time, curtains not considered the thing to have in your house 😂😂 ok sure

Moveoverdarlin · 08/05/2023 09:21

This wouldn’t bother me at all. Guess the only options are nip out today and buy a sleep mask or stick up bin liners as other have suggested. Is there an existing pole or anything you could hang a sheet or dark towel or something??

WonderingWanda · 08/05/2023 09:22

SayOrPay · 08/05/2023 08:03

You can't expect the rooms to be furnished to your taste. You should have looked at the photos.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has curtains who isn't over the age of 76. It's not considered the thing to have in your house.
Buy an eye mask like they used to give out on aeroplanes.

Everyone whose house I have ever been in, who are all under the age of 76, has some form of curtains or blinds, especially in the bedroom to keep the light out. Do you live on the equator where it doesn't get light from 4 am in the summer?

quitefranklyabsurd · 08/05/2023 09:23

Fill the gap with tin foil