Holiday disaster

[Citygirl007]

We booked a last minute holiday in UK for £450 a night for three nights. Arranged via agent, owner is abroad, property managed by agent. We had three young kids with us. Property was a victorian house.
We arrived just as cold spell hit a few days ago.
On arrival the temperature was 12 degrees and heating turned to that temperature.
managed to get heating as far as 16 degrees for the first night and it was still that temperature on first morning. To be clear, the radiators were fully working once we turned them on and heating was on non-stop. Problem we think was that property wasn't heated for a while and it took ages to warm.
Spent all first day dealing with the issues (there were few others, loo not flushimg etc).
By evening of second night, the house was at 20.5 degrees so decided to stay.
In the morning, upstairs is lovely warm, downstairs back to freezing. The massive extension has only underfloor heating so back to 16 degrees.
Kids in coats etc.
So we left 24 hrs early after spending most of the time there dealing with issues.
I obviously have documented all this via emails.
Just about to write a complaint.
AIBU -we should have sucked it up?

We have stayed in lots of period properties and never had any issue like this 🙈

not at all. Just a spirited debate! 😊

I see you joined / name changed mumsnet a couple of mins and only to post on this thread sticking up for the OP
@Hello2368
interesting 🤔 hi OP

I feel like disaster is an overreaction tbh, but we all have different levels of reaction I suppose.

As a holiday let owner I always make sure the heating is turned on 24 hours before guests arrive, and give it an extra extra couple of hours on the day so the house is toasty warm. I also message them to explain how to boost it if they are cold.

Beds take time to heat up, and if the heating hasn’t been on in the previous 24 hours guests would have a miserable cold night (and for H&S I’m not allowed to supply hot water bottles).

I’m a member of a number of facebook groups and the number of owners whinging about heating is shocking - as far as I’m concerned it’s part of the running costs and I want happy guests. First impressions are so important.

So I’m fully with you @Citygirl007 - anyone renting out a house in January should accept that it must be properly heated.

Move around more, wear more layers, put a warm jumper on, use a blanket.

Of course if it were a less mobile/frailer person then a warmer room temp might be advisable.

Yes OP, you're fucking hard work.

How dare you take a mini break in the UK in January of all times. What were you thinking? Clearly the Maldives would have been better, clearly your 6ft, well built DH doesn't earn 6 figures. (Have you considered engaging duck protocol and LTB?)

And fancy having the expectation of being warm in a place you're paying £250 a night for! Don't you know Mumsnetters sit outside in their bikini's all day (size 6) basking in the minus temperatures?
A trampoline! Outside? In JANUARY? Good lord clutch those pearls. Amusingly there is another thread running where the OP lets her kids out on the trampoline in the rain and it's just fine on that thread.

You wont win here, it's the nature of the beast. I promise you every last one of them will keep goading, keep being contrary simply because it's some kind of fixation. They will argue over the sky being blue.

Personally, I'd block this thread and concentrate your headspace on complaining to the company. It's not acceptable at all, any normal person in the real world (not the MNet imaginary world) would have given up a day to try and sort it in an effort to save the rest of the break.
Good luck

Love that your husband fixed them. Mine takes his tool box when we go away 🤣

I’d find 16 too cold as well, glad it’s not just me 🥶 🥶 Ours is generally around 21-22.

Fully agree. We went away on a UK break in November. Ok not as cold as January but still winter. When we arrived it was toasty warm. This is what I would expect.
It's part of the service that you're paying for.

I’m a member of a number of facebook groups and the number of owners whinging about heating is shocking - as far as I’m concerned it’s part of the running costs and I want happy guests. First impressions are so important

Exactly - and at £450 a night you'd think they could afford it

I’m not sure why you’re getting a hard time, that’s a lovely house by the way, but I can imagine very difficult if it’s so cold and would take an age to heat up.

to be honest though I’m not sure I’d have been cancelling plans nd fixing doors.

I doubt you’ll get much compensation for those issues. There was heating, 16 degrees is not that cold, they sent someone to fix the heating quickly, you also had a fire, you had a working toilet and the other things are very minor. It wasn’t the standard you expected, you may get a goodwill token.
for people saying £450 a night is expensive it really depends on size and location of property! If it’s multiple bedrooms it’s not that expensive.
schools and workplaces certainly don’t automatically shut at 16 degrees nor is there a requirement to. My kid was sat with no heating, windows open and snow falling during covid 😆

16 deg C is cold for someone on holiday. That house @Citygirl007 linked to will be a beast to heat so should have been prepared in advance. You don’t go on holiday to sit around in extra thick woollies and long johns.

Tbh though they are not charging a huge amount for such a big house, mine is rather more (sleeps 12), but I don’t stint on the heating or anything else that makes for a lovely, relaxed holiday.

An awful lot of holiday lets are not especially commercial - many are second home just rented out for a few weeks to help with running costs, and the owners really don’t seem bothered about their customers.

Do you live with children? teens? have a partner? and all on board with 16 degrees?

any update OP? i’d be surprised if you got a refund for property not being heated up beforehand but working fine when you turned the radiators on

and one of two toilets not working properly

what happened in the end OP?

Fucking hell, please stop with the interrogation! OP sounds like she's got enough on her plate, she doesn't need you demanding answers to your stupid questions constantly. You're like a fucking dog with a bone

bloomin heck! I’ve come to fresh anew and late in the day strikes me as a reasonable enough question 🤷‍♀️

Yeah very reasonable, along with ALL her other posts questioning OP 🙄

Anyway, I hadn't read to the end and didn't realise that the last post was a few days ago so irrelevant anyway