To buy a fan heater? (Holiday home related)

[Splendud]

We arrived at a coastal UK holiday home last night. The owner has set up hive heating to only allow heating for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening, and the max temperature is set to 18C. We have paid just shy of £1,000 for this holiday accommodation.

There's a weather warning for wind and rain tomorrow and, knowing this, we planned a cosy reading and board games day tomorrow. Having no heating between 9am and 6pm is not an attractive option tomorrow.

WIBU to go to Argos and buy a fan heater?

I think a lot of people are missing the point. The OP is on holiday, she’s paid for holiday accommodation. The whole point of a holiday is to have the benefit of amenities all day everyday! I might be frugal with heating at home and stick on an extra jumper but on holiday I want to feel comfortable and relaxed ALL day because that’s what I’m paying. So to me that means hot heating available all day if I want it!

Exactly we rented a holiday home for a family get together last September and it was very mild but my 90 year old nan needed a cardigan and blanket on her knees all day and in the evening we needed to pop the heating on. The owners were more than accommodating when we could set it on ourselves and came and sorted it straight away.

OP, please mention it in your review. Lots of people can't handle cold weather for a variety of reasons.

Not Sykes by any chance is it?

Yeah I'd be leaving a bad review! That's really tight! Whatever miserable situations we might have to live in a home, when you're on holiday you should be able to enjoy a totally normal temperature of 21!

Not Sykes, been avoiding them since they completely mishandled the pandemic. It's Original Cottages. Really disappointed as we have used them a lot but when I rang this morning they were clearly using an offshore call centre and just referred me back to the owner.

I would book direct with owners but I am worried about getting ripped off.

Hope their electric bill goes sky high!

It’s 12 degrees here today - also expecting bad weather. The heating hasn’t gone on at all.
Isnt the saying, if you clod indoors go out and get moving to warm up? You get colder sitting down that walking
We have the heating on 1 hour in the mornings over winter and 1 hour before bed to warm the bedrooms. Maybe a little longer if it snowing .

Blankets, socks, snoodies all help.

As a PP has pointed out, 20 is the recommended minimum for indoor temp. Plus this is a holiday, and the OP wants to stay in and have a chilled day. She shouldn’t need to dress for an arctic expedition to ‘help’ with being uncomfortably cold.

Is there a wall thermostat somewhere? You can use it to boost the heating. There also might be a little white box by boiler with two buttons on, one of which will fire up the heating if pressed.

OR get a fan heater and relax in warmth on holiday that you e paid a lot of money for.

honestly there are some ridiculous posts on here. What you do at home is completely irrelevant to the OP’s situation.

Blankets, socks, snoodies all help

you don’t pay £1000 a week for accommodation, only to have to wrap up in outdoor clothes and use a blanket in the hope it “helps”.

put the oven on and open the door and enjoy the fan heater.

Absolutely appalling behaviour by the host.

Also if the hive thermometer is not locked in a box, turning the dial overrides the app.

@silvertulips that's advice for people who can't afford heating not for people trying to enjoy a not cheap holiday. Also are you suggesting she goes abs buys a load of extra blanket whilst on holiday. That's pretty daft.
My house at the moment us down to 16 degrees without heating which is pretty cold.
I would definitely complain to them again
And if they won't do anything I'd definitely buy the heater and be pretty annoyed about having to do so. Would definitely put it in the review afterwards.

I have the thermostat in my holiday rental set to 21.5 degrees. I reason that people tend to be colder/less comfortable when away from their own homes. I also leave a guide as to how to adjust it. But it does only come on twice daily. We can boost it if they ask.

I use my elderly and fussy mother as a guide wrt the comfort level of my holiday homes. If she would be comfortable/not complain then it will probably please most guests. So far so good!

Even if you weren't in all day but out for a blustery, rainy walk you'd want to come back to a cosy house. But if you want to stay in all day on holiday the house should be warm enough for you to do so.

DidnOP say she had booked with Airb&b anywhere?

Oh i cannot abide the "you don't need heating on in September" types.

Firstly, the month is completely irrelevant to the comfort. Secondly, why am I working in a professional job if I can't have a bloody radiator on? Nonsense.

This would make me so cross, 18deg is far too cold for me.
Enjoy your fan heaters and leave a stinky review.

What is the point of an agent if they tell you to contact the owner 🤷‍♀️

I'd agree with that partly - we have booked cottages many times through AirBnb, Sykes, Cottages .com and similar. If you have an issue with something like the boiler not working or an immediate maintenance issue you contact the owner. 9 times out of 10 the owner is brilliant - thinking of a time we rented a cottage in the Highlands one Easter and couldn't get any of the heating upstairs to work, called the owner who said the boiler had just been serviced and talked us through resetting it, and agreed that DH should bleed the radiators. All sorted. But if you try the owner and still don't get a response or a solution, then you escalate to whoever you booked with as your contract is with Sykes or whatever rather than with the owner.

You do not pay £1000 a week to be cold and have to sit under a blanket to watch the telly.