Dear holiday cottage owners

[SylHellais]

We’re in one, and I felt the need to post a note to all holiday cottage owners as the following issues appear to be inherent.

• for the love of god, just buy a whole set of matching cutlery, plates and glasses. They are not expensive and it’s massively annoying to see a cupboard full of random glasses and bits of crockery you don’t want in your own house.

• sharpen your fucking knives.

• buy a set of three non stick saucepans and two non stock frying pans, one small and one large. They don’t have to be expensive.

• when women wash their hair, they need an additional bath towel.

• a plug socket, near a mirror. Thank you please.

• bin bags. And tell guests which bin is for what.

• can you please fix all the small things like the seal around the wood burner which fills the cottage with smoke, or the pedal bin which doesn’t pedal, or the radiator which is stuck on full chat because the valve is broken, or the oven which is impossible to work out how to operate.

Your guests will thank you.

@SunflowersAndLavender - I think as we are catered mainly towards families, most people also tend to have children and put them to bed and just use the patio to relax with a drink or dinner themselves. Otherwise it’s elderly out of season travellers.
It’s not really a ‘party’ area, so anyone hoping to go out out would go elsewhere. I’m sure we do miss out on a % of potential customers, but it suits us.

We had our baby last summer, and several guests on site were so sweet leaving keys at check out with a little card for him.

Obviously there are bad owners AND bad guests! My pet peeve is that we are a family of 5 and of course we say that when we book and only book properties that state it's ok but so often they forget to provide a fifth chair, plate or, on one occasion, bed linen! If you're charging for 5 I expect it to be equipped for 5!

As a holiday home owner myself I'm shocked by the lack of attention to detail mentioned, though have heard it before.

Advice to Owners: from time to time stay in your holiday home yourself with a guest hat on - and write lists. Action the lists.

Returning to thread. I'm a holiday cottage owner who had an eye popping experience last week. Went to stay in Edinburgh. Beautiful New Town apartment. But slept six and supplied exactly six mugs, two of which were chipped, dirty crockery, dusty skirting boards, tiny TV (we didn't watch it but it was an illustration of the the cheapness of the furnishing generally). The floors hadn't been hoovered. Mould in the bathroom. Now the thing that got me is that we're just out of lockdown and that place should have been sparkling. Shudder!
I'm seeing my cleaner tomorrow and will heal praise on her for the sparkling job she does of ours!

We are staying in ours this weekend - to enjoy the place but also to check things. We are also having a few touch ups done in a couple of weeks and are staying the weekend after the trades have gone to check it's all been done well and we can happily have guests stay.

I thought of this thread when we were staying in a holiday cottage last week; I did wonder before we went if I would get a towel for hair-drying. There were no towels at all, nor pillows. The cottage particulars said that soft furnishings had been removed for '[y]our safety' so I was surprised to see cushions and throws on the sofa. Apparently soft furnishings refer to pillows and cushions which was news to me.