Holiday home - what are your top 5 must haves - in order?

[Laiste]

Lighthearted, inspired by thread about bed size.

So mine are:

1. Area. We have one specific area when holidaying in uk.
2. Number of bedrooms.
3. Number of parking spaces and must be off street.
4. Garden.
5. No pets.

Honestly don't think to check for king or double bed size!

What's your top 5 in order?

Hot tubs aren't a must have for me but I would like one, but not the electric heated, water never seems to get changed kind of hot tub, but a proper wood heated barrel hot tub, where you put fresh water each time and heat it with fire. Like in this picture.

My uncle had one and I love it when I visit him. Though you really need to plan ahead to use it, as it takes quite a while to heat up.

@FKAT

You weren't confronted with the taste of the owner.

Or their deceased elderly relatives! We absolutely hate places that are too "personalised" with family photos left on the wall, granny's old crockery in the kitchen, Auntie Flo's china in a display cabinet, etc. Quite a few owners think it's acceptable just to leave their old relatives' junk in the home when they inherit it or move the old junk into a newly bought home. Likewise old furniture that's inherited or bought from a charity shop with old fashioned colours/patterns.

Also, hate those where it's clear the owners live there and just move out for a few weeks/months and rent out their home. Where they still have their clothes in drawers and wardrobes, personal photos/photo albums in the sideboard cupboards, etc., or even worse, an underwear drawer complete with a sex toy! The kind of places where they leave a note to say they've cleared the top drawer of the bedroom chest of drawers and the left hand wardrobe. Urgh!!

We scrutinise the photos before we book anywhere to look for signs of "personalisation" or inheritances. If there aren't plenty of photos, we won't risk it and won't book. Had to many uncomfortable places in the past.

I twisted an ankle last year in a holiday home where the only bathroom/loo was on a different floor from the bedrooms - the stair had an angled bottom step and the light switches were badly located. The ankle is still giving me twinges. This holiday house also had one bedroom off the other , not obvious from the listing. I'd love to get floorplans but have never seen one for a holiday cottage.

So I'd say, in order, going for things you can tell from the listing and not things you can't (like 3 forks for 4 people in our last stay!)

• separate bedrooms as needed, with proper beds not sofabeds, doors on all bedrooms and no walkthrough bedrooms
• a dining table with enough chairs for everyone
• an area of comfy seating with enough soft seats (sofas or chairs) to seat everyone
• no pub or all night cafe right outside
• a bit of character in the buildings and/or the furnishings. I don't like staring at empty white walls and brown leather furniture on holiday

Going more for things I notice when I arrive…
Not just a load of random bits of furniture clearly left over from someone’s main home.
decent chopping board and sharp knives
normal sized mugs and glasses
some board games for kids
a bottle of wine

Number of bedrooms
Two bathrooms
Private outside space
Beautiful view
Temperature control air con/heating

Re: seeing floor plans - if you're not seeing one for a house you like on a Cottage holiday website, for example, check it out on air b&b. Sometimes the listing has different/extra details. And vice-versa i guess!

That's what I did to find out more about parking this year @Laiste. The house was listed over a number of websites.

Location is everything for us: next to the sea, river, stunning views, it needs to be special. We are staying in Whitby soon in a flat overlooking the estuary.

Parking off road. Have had some tiny spaces when we had a big car though!

Dishwasher and washing machine

Outdoor space

Pubs within walking distance.