Help me make my holiday let awesome!

[Kracken]

Hi all, we welcome our first guests into our holiday let in a week! I will obviously be cleaning and gardening madly all week but I wanted to ask you wise folk what you need from a holiday home to make sure I haven't missed anything!

Kitchen equipment is all new and I've made sure there is plenty of everything and sharp knives as I hate it when all you can find are blunt rubbish ones when on holiday. I am doing a quick guide to all appliances, boiler etc plus info on local area etc. Decor is very neutral. I plan to put flowers in main rooms.

What has 'made' a self catering holiday for you? What would drive you mad if it wasn't there? What would you expect to have in your welcome groceries, am planning milk, tea, coffee, sugar, bread and some dishwasher and laundry tabs, couple of loo rolls and one kitchen roll. Debating leaving wine and should I bake something?!

Any thoughts really welcome, thank you. I am starting to panic!

A chair in each bedroom for clothes and/or towels. We stayed in a let last year that had nowhere but the floor to put either. Especially irritating as there was a basin and shower cubicle in the room.

www.mitrelinen.com/products/bathrooms/towels-and-bath-mats/luxury/henley/
This is where we bought our towels and bedding from for our holiday let
We've had many compliments about the lovely towels
( I'm the one who hates black towels there might be a spider on there that I can't see )

We have just returned from a fabulous week in a very comfortable cottage that ticked nearly all the right boxes.

The few niggles we had were:

1. The entrance to the parking area was small, and as we drive a Mondeo which is a very long car, we had to do a 20 point turn just to park straight.

2. No Wi-Fi, and a black spot for mobile signals and mobile data. We ended up joining the local library so OH could check his work emails (he is self employed and can't afford to miss anything important)

3. The fittings in the house were aimed at short people. OH kept banging his head on the hood over the hob and on the light fitting in the hall, and I had to bend my knees when using the mirror while drying my hair. And we aren't excessively tall - OH is 6'2" and I am 5'7".

4. The dishwasher didn't work. And there were no instructions.

I really wouldn't bother with wine or beer as most people have particular tastes. OH is a wine enthusiast and wouldn't thank you for a cheap bottle of plonk - not that we buy expensive wines.

Instructions about what can be recycled and where would be useful. We were told not to put bottles in the bin, but not where the recycling bins were in the town we were in.

Definitely have a folder with instructions on how to use all the appliances.

A gas hob. I hate cooking on electric hobs. I was thrilled to be able to use a gas hob in the cottage we have just stayed in. Every other place we have stayed in has been all electric.

I just want to know the details of the OP's place so I can send visiting relatives there.

The kid stuff makes a massive difference. We've had a couple recently that had really thoughtful touches for families; those are the ones we'll go back to.

Personally what makes a holiday let fab if if it includes the following-
Wifi connection
Enough kitchen implements - decent knives, cheese grater, proper mugs etc
Somewhere to dry wet clothes - eg airer
Things to make sitting in the living room comfortable - cushions, footstool
Local books and info on the area
Some games, DVDs and books for rainy days
Garden furniture - picnic table, couple of lounger chairs for good weather.

I would not like black towels, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker as long as they were soft and fluffy. We stayed in a holiday let where the towels were stiff as a board. And there weren't enough of them.

Nice china mugs and decent wine glasses does it for me. I would happily drink the wine you left!!!

The black towels wouldn't bother me, in fact I've just come back from a holiday let and bought the same (primark!) coloured towels they had as they were great.
They'd upcycled all their furniture to match, made canvas pictures from wrapping paper and wallpaper so it looked great.
I'm not a drinker finding tea, coffee, milk and cleaning stuff is nice anything else is a bonus. I always replace what I've used anyway. The last one I stayed in had lots of dog related stuff too (towels, bowls, poo bags etc) and flasks etc for picnics. Plenty of drying space (ideally if you can provide outside drying in addition it will save your house and bills).
Good local info pack (hospitals, walk in, chemists, vets, as well as shops & fun stuff), last one had printed out trip advisor reviews and added their own, guests then added more. They had feather pillows on the bed and man made in the wardrobe. Also be breezy if your meeting them (everything's in the pack, numbers there, leave your keys here when you go, enjoy your stay, bye), it always feels a bit awkward when all you want to do is get settled have a nosey and the kettle on!

Good luck, I'm very envious!

the holiday let i just came from operated a bar - you paid for what you drank. so they left beers and a range of wine.

enough bin liners, washing up liquid, cleaning products, dishwasher tabs to last the week. forget the flowers - spend that money on cleaning products. people don't want to spend their holiday buying this stuff. there should be enough in the house to last the week and it doesn't cost the earth. just a small bit of generosity.

loo roll and kitchen roll, 2 x kitchen roll and 2 spare loo rolls in each loo should do it.

finally - i don't really like home made stuff when i don't know the person who made it. sorry - just feels weird to me. leave some tea bags, coffee and a packet of biscuits.

otherwise i think you've covered all bases. sounds great!

I like it when there are basic herbs spices and condiments
A fresh jar of mayo, ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, sugar, oil
Pint of milk in fridge and first box of coffee pods
Loo rolls
New kitchen clothes
Bottle of cold wine/water
Bowl of fruit

When we had our holiday cottage our welcome pack included: milk, eggs, bread, butter, marmalade, water, local cider, plus a small bowl of anything that was in season in the garden. I agree with everything the others have said about good kitchen equipment and I always left plenty of cleaning materials (to encourage cleaning!).
The worst bit of changeover day is cleaning hairs out of the shower trap.
If you are on site you will learn to gauge whether people want to talk or be left alone. I used to check all was OK on Sunday morning, then try to avoid seeing them for a bit.
Most people are lovely, a very small minority are a pain.
The Lay My Hat forum is a wonderful source of support and advice.
Good luck!

have you every slept in the place yourself? I can't recommend it enough. Spend a night there, use the bathroom in the morning, and you will soon see if there are essentials missing.

It's the same for the spare bedroom in people's homes. That's when you spot that there is no mirror, or the bedside light can't be reached from the bed, and so on.

The black towels would put me off a bit too. Sorry! I'd assume it was because you were trying to hide any stains!

The holiday let we stayed in last year suggested we arrange a Tesco delivery for the evening we arrived which was a brilliant idea and not something I would have thought to do.

I like when there are plenty of cloths and some antibac spray so we can clean as we go.

Good luck. I'm sure your guests will love you place. You sound very thoughtful.

You sound like a lovely holiday landlady!

Colour of towels is irrelevant to me.

If you have a big enough freezer there, a couple of freezer packs for cool bag would be a good idea....you may need to write the name of your property on them with a sharpie to remind people not to take them home.

Things that have been appreciated by us:

Details of local doctor/ minor injuries
Location of supermarket
Good local info which is up to date and not millions of the same leaflet
Free map if tourist info give them out
Biscuits/ milk
Clean cleaning cloths
Personal recommendation of nice place to eat ( and if someone has told us of a decent place for veggies we are especially grateful)

definitely cooking oil, and if you have non-stick pans make sure there are wooden or plastic implements. No metal flippers etc unless you want your pans wrecked.

a few herbs and spices, make sure they look fresh and not years old.

to the person who wants a gas hob; not everywhere has mains gas, and a bottled gas setup is not always practical.

That was me. I realise that specialsubject, but some places we have stayed at had gas CH and all electric cooking facilities.

a pint of milk and some tea bags ...

bunbaker this may be because it would simply cost too much to fit a gas hob. (which I agree with you, I prefer).

there is also a cost for a gas safe certificate, although if the property has gas heating anyway it wouldn't need much extra.

ps I LOVE staying in places where there are books. The more random the better!

Hello again, thanks so much for all of the wonderful suggestions!

I am writing my house guide in my lunchbreak at work and am using loads of the tips and suggestions that I have got from this thread so you really are saving me!

We have a gas hob, phew! If we get feedback about the water pressure in the shower we will consider doing something to increase the pressure. We are a bit hampered by the Victorian pipework according to our plumber which will only allow a certain amount of water through the system and so affects the quantity of output.

I have reverted from home made stuff to naice biscuits! Which will save me baking time!

What is scary is how much this all costs to set up. Really hoping that the lettings go OK so we can recoup the expenses and start to see some profit! Thankfully some friends of ours are renting the house from us in the Autumn until Christmas whilst they have some work done on their house so that will help a lot.

Some posters wanted to see the place, it's here on airbnb: www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/3453312

Any feedback really welcome!! I need to replace some of the photos as the beds in two of the rooms weren't properly made up when I did the photography (as we hadn't bought all the bedding at that point).

wow! i don't think you have anything to worry about.

the portrait photos are letting you down as the website is showing them with massive grey patches either side. lets down your photo. so i'd redo all the portrait ones, and retake the bedroom ones with bedding.

i'd be very surprised if you don't get very positive feedback. it all looks clean and new. the living room is a bit bare - maybe the odd cushion could soften it. also put the lights on when you take the photo.

Ah it's lovely. Really pretty home
The let I stayed in had the same tiles in the bathroom and had black and bright yellow towels in the bathroom looked really good stacked up.

Have you some ornaments for the fire place? Are you happy for people to use the fire?