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

In one place my dh wrote out a long list of things that needed repairing / fixing to the place that looked great at first glance but had many things wrong with it ! I'd love to know if they did fix any of it and we also told them verbally, but apparently a lot had been overlooked ' because of lockdown' but I bet they just left a lot of it for the next people.

@TizerorFizz

im sorry you've only been half full.

it's a town house, so no good for anyone with mobility issues )my knees are sobbing at the thought) & off putting for people with young children

what sort of location is it & how convenient are the beach/city (whatever your selling point) does it have outside space?

It will be a combination of price + location/ not appearing on a search.

If it’s a town house, does that mean: terraced house (=hearing the neighbours through the bedroom walls), no garden, no parking?

@shams05 Unashamedly marketing here. It’s Port Isaac Bay Holidays - No 9 Castle Rock. We do have stairs to first and second floor.

I accept that I may be being a tad eccentric/fussy but I'd dearly love a bed description, other than the usual king/queen/double etc.

It seems to me that virtually all cottage owners (and a lot of hotels) buy from the same 'Hard As Rocks' bed company. some of them clearly bought them many years ago, because they also have little rocky lumps in them.

I'm currently staying in a cute cottage in Yorkshire and on my bed I have:

Four pillows sandwiched between a folded double duvet and a folded blanket. I sleep perched on the top, under a single duvet pinched from ds2's twin room. Fortunately I brought my own pillow from home.

If cottage and hotel owners would just describe the softness (or not) of their beds, I could at least plan ahead...

Six hours of cleaning??

Terrace. Patio at rear. Parking. Wi fi. However you get glorious views. Never heard neighbours. It’s a modern house.

Worst beds in any place are those very low down beds where you can see the dust balls.

Hotels usually offer 11am or 12pm checkout. I have not stayed in a hotel where you have to be out by 10am.

As someone who owns a holiday let, please can I just explain the 10am checkout/4pm check in? When you say 10am checkout, loads of people don't actually leave until half ten - eleven o'clock. They often leave it in a right state. Everything has to be cleaned perfectly, including the microwave and oven. We only have one person doing the cleaning (my husband!), and it really is a 4-hour job to get it right for the next person. You would not believe the state some people leave it in. Plus I would say once or twice a month, when we enter the property, something has been broken. We've had curtain rails pulled off walls, shower heads snapped off, even glass doors shattered - and people don't even tell you most of the time, they just leave! So this 5-6 hour window also frequently involves doing a serious repair job that we didn't expect to do, on top of cleaning. If we ever are able to offer people a late checkout or early check-in, we do. I hope you understand the need for it a bit more now!

We've just got back from Cornwall, never been before but dh says we'll definitely be back next year so I'm saving this!
Thanks

I don't mind emptying the bins but you need to make the set up really clear, when the bins go and where, what the local council recycling policy is etc etc.

I don't mind photos of roaring fires, scones on a plate, pebbles on a shelf (😁) etc as it draws you in to the atmosphere of the place you're booking, the ideal. I'm often booking an attractive period cottage not a purely functional space!

We recently stayed at a cottage. Check in was 4pm and they requested you did not try to get in earlier. We arrived in the town at 11.30 and found where it was, at 12pm, and i saw the cleaners were in. Luckily the cottage company text and said it was ready at 2.45pm.
Check out was 10am but the only requirements were to leave reasonably tidy and empty the bins , possibly the dishwasher - nothing too onerous. We were all out by 8.15am anyway, to avoid traffic jams on the way home

This re dogs! We had a really stressful experience earlier this year at a cottage that prided itself in being dog friendly. There was no mention of any restrictions at all either before or after we booked. It was only after we'd arrived, unpacked and settled in that we found the list of restrictions - on about page 5 of their information pack. Apparently the dog was only allowed in the living room and not in either bedroom, the bathroom or the kitchen. This was made more complicated by the fact that there was no door between the kitchen and living room, and the living room was tiny, so except for a small mat there was no floorspace - and of course the dog wasn't allowed on the furniture. We were supposed to confine him to what was essentially a space about 2m x 2m. Our dog is small but even so! By the time we read all this he'd been everywhere anyway...

I've no problem at all with owners having rules for their cottages but please be upfront about it and state what you mean by 'dog-friendly' before people book. If you are barely dog-tolerant, tell us before it's too late.

I have a 4 bed holiday cottage. It takes me and a cleaner nearly all that time to get it to the condition that guests like.
im more than happy to provide a floor plan but the house description is pretty good. I use an agency so their requirements to get me to a 4* are stringent.
I ask for beds to be stripped but won’t worry if you don’t. There’s a cordless vacuum if you want to tidy up for yourself, likewise with cleaning products. I just hope that guests will leave everywhere in good order or I really will struggle to be turned round by 4pm. The kitchen always takes hours anyway.
I do ask that you sort the recycling but surely you do that as you go during the week?

The answer is "with difficulty" and good cleaners are like gold dust. My cleaners are more important to my business than any other element. We are only 3 bedrooms but occasionally we need every minute of that 6 hour window to get the cottage ready for the next guests.

For those who want a late check out and early check in - would you be prepared to make your own beds on arrival? Have wet floors? Cleaning a whole house to deep clean standards is very different to cleaning a hotel room. There they don't have to wipe out cutlery drawers, remove crumbs from the toaster as well as wipe over sticky place mats etc etc. Each is a small job but takes time. If we have to deal with carpet stains and rubbish everywhere it takes longer before we can even start the clean.

Well if they say that dogs are welcome ( and that's pretty usual to mention if they are) then you can safely assume you won't like it

That’s easy- just look for ones which don’t allow dogs.

I've often thought that there could be a rate for Monday - Saturday or whatever combo of dates that gives the host a full day for cleaning before the next guest arrives.

It all boils down to money though I suppose. I'd be happy enough with 6 nights rather than 7 if I could just do the basics like emptying the bins and GO!

But I don't use SC accommodation anymore, only hotels. Did in the past though, and am long gone beyond all that faff now. Most hotels are clones so it's location that's important - for me anyway.

Photos of actual cups and glasses in the cupboards so I can see if I need to bring my own. I always take wine glasses/ flutes/ gin glasses.
And yes to proper photos of showers. I do not want a shitty electric shower.

I am currently looking for a cottage for next May in Yorkshire. I need a place that can sleep 6 - driving me mad that I cant search on bed sizes - I need somewhere where there are 2 double or king beds but I can only search on how many people it sleeps - there are so many where there are three bedrooms but 2 of the rooms are twins

Also why is everything Friday to Friday bookings

1 and 2 - nobody has ever asked us for this info so we don't provide it. If a customer requires more info they ask and we'll do our best to answer.
3 - 10 am checkout because we don't know how much of a mess the previous customer has left. We usually let the next customer know if the apartment's ready for them early.
We ask customers to empty the bins, wipe the surfaces and sweep the floor, personally I'd be ashamed of not doing this in someone else's property, it takes minutes. We only asked customers to strip the beds to protect our cleaners during Covid, we don't now.

So you’ve got to lug the food shopping up three flights of stairs to reach the kitchen?

I’d book a property like that for a weekend if it were next to great facilities, ie nice places to eat.

I wouldn’t book it for a week though. Sorry.

But one person’s take on firmness is going to be different to another! I have a holiday cottage and mattresses are med to firm I’d say. Never had anyone complain.

Well, surely if you're staying at home you do have to do the beds?