Why don't holiday cottage companies do these things? AIBU?

[TheStroppyFeminist]

I have been searching for a holiday cottage for next year and so far haven't found the right one but FGS, why don't cottage companies:

1. Show you a floor plan? I want to see where each bedroom is in relation to other bedrooms because of snoring etc
2. Show you the bathrooms properly? I want a huge walk in shower and I want a separate attachment as well but you can hardly ever see whether there is one
3. Insist on a 10am checkout and a 4pm or later check in? It's annoying and we sometimes leave the day before to avoid getting up early

I also won't empty bins or strip beds, I'm on holiday! AIBU? What are your self catering hates?

YABU, understandable, they CBA
YANBU, they really should provide this info

I want to add crappy towels to the list too. At home I have enormous clean, white fluffy bath sheets, they're huge. So I usually take one because the towels are never nice enough.

I mostly only look at booking.com and airbnb when booking accommodation. Are you on there?

I don't mind holidays , but there isn't anything better than coming home to your own bed and towels and shower.
Nothing really comes close ( unless you can afford the Ritz or something like that and I'm sure that has its faults too! Not that I'd know😂)
They can be a faff especially if the accommodation isn't up to much or it's just not what you expected.

I don't think we've been asked to strip beds or empty dishwasher recently. We do the washing up or leave the dishwasher on if there is one. Put the rubbish out if we can work out how, or at least most of it (wouldn't necessarily empty every last bin at the very last moment that we leave). Would wipe/remove any really obvious mess especially in bathroom, kitchen surfaces. But not anything like a proper clean. Also don't leave food as that's really annoying to deal with (memories of cleaning self catering cottages myself 30 years ago as a holiday job).

@HoopLaLah Im not changing agents based on one photo. The sofas sit 6. The snug is additional. As in many smaller properties we do have to consider how we fit furniture into the space but we have not had complaints about seating. I will take another photo when I next go there. Thank you for your feedback.

When they say X number of bedrooms but it’s actually (for example) two bedrooms plus a pull out in the living room. Got badly caught out by that in France once and I felt so bad. There was five of us in a flat which had one double room, one single room and a pull out sofa. Two of the kids had to share the pull out and they weren’t impressed. I now scour the ad and the pictures to see what we’re actually getting. I was fuming.

No, it's definitely morphed within society.
It annoys me because I much prefer the original definition.

It's ridiculous the number of times I filter for dog-free properties only to read in the small print the surcharge for dogs.

Me too. Frustrates me when I hear it being used the ‘wrong’ way.

@TizerorFizz Your house looks beautiful. And not very expensive for the size, location, seaviews (though I can only see Sept prices, not summer). But personally I'd be very unlikely to book a family sized for a week in summer that didn't have more outside space. The one photo of the balcony isn't very clear but it looks as though there isn't enough space for everyone to sit outside and eat - just a couple of chairs and small table for a drink. But maybe for the price that is too much to expect and everyone has different priorities. I wouldn't be bothered by the stairs that someone else mentioned, for example.

I always thought that ' stay cation ' was stay at home , but have some days out somewhere but come home again.
Someone once said they were having a ' window sill bay ' holiday as not going anywhere , but it's not a well known expression like 'stay cation 'is.

On one occasion it worked ok as there were many hands on deck as a big group of friends and their children plus mine were babysitting there’s as older. The last time we went away with another set of friends and it was manic as I was the only one not nursing a hangover and one friend is so laid back that they don’t start to do anything until 30 minutes prior to exit time! I actually think it works well if the party of people staying is large. The only downside to that was one bossy male friend that has a senior job and is used to running the show - that got a bit wearing!

Theirs not there’s(?)

I find it hard to find boutique agencies, most of them seem to list on cottages.com or quality cottages and it's much easier to search on there. Often you end up dealing with a smaller agency obv.

Which agency do you list on?

Look at Port Isaac Bay holidays. They list elsewhere but they HAVE to.

@pinkspeakers We do have outside seating but not full dining. Yes it’s a small patio, but lots of the cottages are the same in the village. It’s what it is. If it was detached with a bigger garden, it would be more money. A lot more!

Yes, agent puts heating on for guests in the colder months!

places with several cottages but no way of telling which one is yours

Yep, had this one. We were told the location but not the exact address and when we got there the row of holiday cottages didn't have numbers or any other clues. You'd think the agency/owner would put a sign up or be clearer. We had to ring the agent on arrival as there was no-one around to help and it took a while to get a response so we had to wait in the car. Just daft that they don't think about that IMO.

I must say I fell down on the towel thing. Started out with standard sized (albeit 600gsm) bath towels, then after a suggestion from a guest I replaced them with bath sheets. I stayed at www.phoeniciamalta.com earlier this year and their towels weren’t a patch on mine!

It takes us way longer to leave a holiday cottage from getting up than 1 and a quarter hours. I would never stop for breakfast. That is why you are paying for a cottage.

Reading all your common gripes it would suggest to me that AirBnb and B.com do not have the same standards as some of the agencies. I am inspected annually and I have to physically point out all the kitchen equipment to the inspector. I have to have double cutlery and crockery to allow for the dishwasher. I have to have wine, prosecco, tumblers and beer glasses. No sofabeds in the person capacity. Dining table and chairs for everyone, likewise sofa and chair seating in the sitting room. Towels, beds, linen, mattress protectors etc are checked for quality.
Anyone can set up an Airbnb. Many, I know, are fabulous but too many - according to you - are very lacking.

Reading all your common gripes it would suggest to me that AirBnb and B.com do not have the same standards as some of the agencies.

I'm not sure how you've come to that conclusion from reading this thread, most people haven't even mentioned the booking platform they use.

We stayed somewhere last week, there was willow pattern crockery, all very beautiful/vintage, but only tiny cups/bowls, suitable for small children. We went to the nearest supermarket to buy decent mugs. It was that or have multiple thimble size slurps!

After trying a couple of times, I'd never use AirBNB again, as both occasions were pretty disappointing and incredibly expensive for the poor standard.

I tend to use cottages.com or sykes, but have booked directly where a holiday let owner has there own quality website. I usually do a google search with parameters of the location, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc., i.e. "cotswolds cottage, 3 bed, 2 bath, luxury" and the results are usually pretty good when the owner has a professional website with good SEO and does sometimes throw up some good accommodation not on the directory websites.

I always check for the same via booking.com as sometimes they have offers or are cheaper than the exact same place on sykes/cottages.com or the owners own website.

Also always read as many reviews as possible and will actively avoid any with few or no reviews.

Well said. I hate it when the listing says "coffee machine" but there's no picture so you don't know whether to take your own pods with you, or whether you'll have to buy some if it's a different type, or even whether they supply a few starter pods.

Likewise we end up taking our own tea pot because lots of places don't provide one!

One place didn't even have an oven trays so we had to cook the food directly on the wire shelves in the oven!

Another annoying one was a large place for 8 people that only had a crappy cheap 2 slice toaster! So breakfasts and any lunch that was "something on toast" took forever to prepare! It wasn't just that you could only do two slices at once, it was also painfully slow.