To ask why people do this when staying in holiday cottages

[TellerTuesday]

I look after and clean a holiday cottage for a family friend.

I'm having to take an early lunch at the minute while I wait for a friend to come and help me because - for reasons known only to themselves - the guests that have left this morning decided that the massive set of double drawers would be better on the next floor up.

You honestly would not believe how often something like this happens! It's ridiculous!

Once, I walked in to find the dining table and 4 chairs missing from the kitchen, they'd been moved up a tight set of stairs (with a turn) and plonked in the middle of the living room.

Please, please, please if you're staying in a holiday cottage, leave the furniture where you find it.

And if you really can't bear the current arrangement and insist on moving things around..... put them back before you leave!

Where on earth do you book then as that is pretty standard, and was pre covid too, although I recal check in may have been 3ish in some places

Yes to the plug ins, we whip those out straight away

A friend of mine has a holiday cottage and is super conscious of safety as she has young kids herself. She has an open plan living room at the top of a staircase, so kept the furniture away from the bannisters for safety reasons as a child could easily climb over otherwise.

She said multiple times she's been in after people have stayed, the sofa's been moved right next to the stairs! She finds it very annoying and assumes that people don't put it back because they're trying to hint that it would be better where they've selected, but obviously aren't considering the safety aspect.

She'd be better child proofing the bannisters with floor to ceiling spindles/cables I think and conceding that people prefer the sofa by them!

But a dining table being moved to another floor?? That's bonkers!

I have moved furniture on a few occasions in holiday cottages, but I'll always put it back to where it was before I go.

@spanieleyes
We got back to discover he had popped into the nearest town, bought some paint and painted the cottage door!
did you ask your dad why? that's bizarre!

in your position i wouldn't be moving anything at all, get the owner to bill the guests for having to get someone in to do it.

I would guess that they moved the table because they found they couldn't actually all fit round it in the kitchen, which is the kind of thing photos don't show well. They absolutely should have moved it back, though.

My late DH was in a wheelchair, places used to advertise themselves as accessible, in reality often when you got in them they weren't! I regularly had to move things around.

Now I find myself sometimes having to move furniture to fit in a travel cot! But I do usually move things back.

Lack of lamps is also a bugbear of mine! What's the point in a lovely holiday cottage which is then lit by a 100W bulb like a bus station? I'm ALWAYS moving them.

Some holiday cottages do have stupid furniture layouts. Recently stayed in one which had six bedrooms (so up to 12 adults) and TWO lounges with seating for 4 in each lounge. It was so annoying - literally no single space for us all to sit together. I'm not surprised people move things!

Did they explain why?!

Presumably it was your dad who did the explaining to the owner. What on earth did he say? That is really bizarre behaviour. How on earth did he think it was acceptable?

That's just plain rude and arrogant.

Oh god, hotel rooms and lighting when trying to put makeup on.

55 light switches and the combined effect is that of single a 40w bulb.

Don't get me on hotel rooms and make-up. Spend a fortune on a beautiful room but not a single mirror in a place where I can see myself without my glasses on, and without balancing all my make-up on the floor. And no plugs near mirrors for hairdryers... MEN designed all that shit

And then you go downstairs and the light switch pops off when you are half way down a flight.

Yes yes very environmentally friendly, but personally seeing/not falling down stairs is not to be underrated.

Really want to know what the cottage owners thought of their painted door...

I'm always trying to remember exactly where the plates etc were kept! (Also... we often leave with the dishwasher running... is that ok?)

I’ve moved loads of stuff over the years, including a sofa. If you advertise a cottage for 8, there should be 8 places to sit in the sitting room, not 6 and a sofa in a bedroom. There should be 8 seats around the table, not 6 plus a bedroom chair and a funny stool in the hallway. Beds should have bedside tables with lamps. Sitting rooms should have lamps, there should be a surface in the bedroom for hairbrushes and wash bags. There should be surfaces in the sitting room to set down a cup and preferably a table for games and/or snacks. Also there should be enough glassware/crockey/cutlery for each person to have more than one set. You shouldn’t have to wash dishes between courses. I do, however, always return things to the original place and wash the dishes, sweep the floor etc - I never leave a dirty/messy house. If stuff is being moved a lot it’s because the current set up doesn’t work.

Yep. Just like the glass bathroom walls and doors that are becoming the norm in hotel rooms. Must be a man.

Agreed that they probably have children and something about the cottage was impractical.

I've done this before with ornaments in a holiday cottage....it was probably annoying for the cleaner to have to spend time putting them out again after I'd put them all in drawers out of toddlers reach....but it was also annoying for me to have to spend so much time putting away random ornaments at toddler level, when the host knew I was bringing a toddler!

I find many UK holiday cottages put style over substance. Hosts focus on decor over practicality and cleanliness - I find NT cottages especially bad in this respect.

I’m so conflicted, I want to find all of us who have ever moved anything in holiday cottages annoying, but they are always set up to look presentable but not be practical. Big bowls of plastic fruit taking up the space where you are meant to eat, trays set up with champagne flutes and ice buckets somewhere impractical like the bed, or bowls and cups set up to dress the place. When you sit on the sofa, the sun catches the tv in the wrong place. No good storage for clothes is a common one and could explain the drawers being moved, most like to unpack for their stay. Also kitchen cupboards full of years of kitchen wear and no empty ones in which to put your food, it’s a bit like desire paths, maybe holiday cottage owners should take note of where things are repositioned. Apart from the twat upthread that moved the kitchen island because they thought it looked better, arrogant twunt, but in terms of practicality, maybe guests are right.

Also love the painting of the door, my dads like that, always looking in things, fiddling with loose handles etc then fixing them, it’s quite sweet and helpful and always at times when he should be sitting down 😂

We had to move lamps on our last night in one property as the lighting circuit blew when we got back from a meal out- just as it was getting dark. The elderly couple next door were caretakers but were out. Luckily the sockets were working so we just moved lamps and told the caretaker when we returned the keys next morning. We had put the lamps back but not sure they were in the right places!

@AChickenPooAndABiscuit

Oh, it got worse.
He did the garden furniture too.

I stopped leaving him in the cottage on his own, I had no idea what he would do next!

He genuinely thought he was being helpful to the owners!
And he liked being busy. He mowed the grass as well!

To be honest, the owners were great!

THIIIIIIIISSSSSS!!!!!

So, put the mirror above the sink, which means you cant lean in close to it to see what you're doing, no storage around the sink to put make up or toiletries while doing this

Ok, theres another big mirror, above a fireplace or shelf in the main bedroom, lovely, but wait, its opposite the window, which means as I look into the mirror I block out all the light and cannot see bugger all.

WTF!

I wouldn’t move a thing, or leave anything dirty - I’d be too worried about not getting my deposit back!

I thought I was going to have to repaint four bedroom walls once, in a lovely holiday cottage, I had seen spare paint in the utility room, luckily.

One of my small children had taken a magnetic letter, and rubbed it up and down, making a lovely pattern around the whole room, the morning we were due to leave.

Luckily I tried some kitchen cleaner and a cloth first, and it took off all the grey magnetic scratching, and didn’t leave a mark, we were so lucky