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.

And we build it into our budget that we replace towels, frying pans, wine glasses annually because of the speed they get damaged.

@lazylinguist

You stand there dripping, naked and cold while you dry your hair?? You wrap a damp towel around your body??? You let your still very wet hair drape all cold and wet down your neck after towel drying???? Ick.

Squeeze water out of hair before stepping out of shower. Towel hair for approx 4 seconds. Wrap only slightly damp towel (which will get immediately wet anyway on contact with skin) around body. The sheer number of non-issues that make MNers go 'Ick' (or sometimes shudder or retch) never ceases to astonish me. I have shoulder-length hair and never ever use two towels. Not even if I'm in a hotel where two are provided. It wouldn't even occur to me to do so tbh!

Shoulder length isn't long and your hair must be pretty fine to dry that quickly You aren't representative

My hair is very long and I normally dry my body and hair with one hand towel.

Not stayed in a holiday for many years, but I would agree with the full length mirror, and with having a socket near it, and to have a good enough overhead light.

I stayed somewhere with only a shaving mirror, and it was fixed to the wall at a height that meant I could only see the top of my head in. I'm not short.

After several places with blunt knives, we dont take our own knives, but take a knife sharpener. Takes up less space than knives (and cant poke yourself on it!)

I have bra strap length thick hair, to be comfortable (which is what we mainly want on holiday) I need a bath towel for it. Just because other people can dry themselves on one flannel between 8 doesn’t mean we all can or want to.
Yes yes to blackout blinds in a child’s room please.
And yes to PP, a good bed, decent bedding, hot water and fluffy towels, a corkscrew and directions to a good pub ( plus a cafetière please and a nice mug - not a sports direct one) and I’m pretty happy.

If there is a washing machine and washing line then please provide more than 10 pegs. We only consider holiday lets with a washing machine as we have 3 small dcs. Several times now we have done a load of washing, even the bedding after an accident, and there haven't been enough pegs to hang it out to dry. Even without washing there is usually swimming stuff and beach towels to air.

We self cater two or three times a year...also always pick 4 to 5 star/tick places

Always now take a couple of my fave knives
Always take extra hand / hair towels
Always take a spare sheet ....incase the sofa doesn't look as clean as I'd like lol
Always take a few sandwich bags and those clippits
Always take antibiac wipes for light switches tv remotes etc

I could dry my hair and body with one towel but I don't want to.

What is it with the competitive minimal towel usage?! If more than one towel per person is provided, you don't have to use them all. Fancy that.

@fiheka....I can’t comment on where you stay. But our 6 bed has two large lounges, a large open plan kitchen with table seating for 8, 3 bathrooms inc an en-suite, downstairs loo, utility and a separate study for home working. It does sleep 6 and live 6 very well. It’s great value.

Agreed @Polyethyl....I’m on IOW....I just couldn’t get there and back in a day.

@DramaAlpaca

If you are going to provide a bagged vacuum cleaner in the property, please make sure there is actually a bag in it. Thank you.

They are at MINE !! For some completely unfathomable reason 7 have turned up in my home ...

@Crocidura

One place in the Lake District had no lamps in the sitting room so you had to sit with the overhead light on.

😱😱 Not... not the OVERHEAD LIGHT?? Might be worth logging that with 101.

Eh? We’re not on gogglebox. That always annoys me. Who watches a horror film with the big light on 🤣

A plentiful supply of towels (large bath sheets, not skimpy bath towels) and a decent electric heated towel rail so that they are dry when we want to use them. As the heating is usually off in the summer, the towel rail should run off the electricity, not the central heating. I often resort to putting damp towels into the tumble dryer.
I have a 'holiday cottage' box in the garage, permanently packed with supplies including sharp knives, salt and pepper mills, dishwasher and washing powder tablets etc.

Ugh. Warmed up towels.

I'd much rather use a small one and then get a fresh clean one than some massive towel grubby one that's been kept warm.

The MN holiday let owners are going to be rubbing their hands with glee and declaring karma over my next comment.

I got the colander out of the cupboard tonight and whoever used it last didn’t wash it before putting it away as it was all crusty. There’s no dishwasher here so I assume they just showed it a running tap then slung it in the cupboard. Filthy cunts.

Just to clear up the towel thing from my POV, I use a bath sheet to dry my body and wrap a bath towel (not a hand towel) around my head to soak up water.

@KirstenBlest

Ugh. Warmed up towels.

I'd much rather use a small one and then get a fresh clean one than some massive towel grubby one that's been kept warm.

Are you one of those people who wash a towel after one use? 😊

I usually find that after a shower it's that it's damp enough to not reuse and it's probably got bits of skin on it, but I've been known to let it air dry.

The huge bath sheet that gets heated and then reused again and again in a shared bathrom a bit ick. Other users might have dried their bottoms and feet on it, and then people dry their hands on it. Ew!

I take a small self-catering travel kit for precisely this reason. A couple of small sharp knives (with covers!) - one of them serrated. My vegetable peeler. A corkscrew. A magiwhisk.

@KirstenBlest

I usually find that after a shower it's that it's damp enough to not reuse and it's probably got bits of skin on it, but I've been known to let it air dry.

The huge bath sheet that gets heated and then reused again and again in a shared bathrom a bit ick. Other users might have dried their bottoms and feet on it, and then people dry their hands on it. Ew!

Oh yes if it's shared then definitely not😊

One place in the Lake District had no lamps in the sitting room so you had to sit with the overhead light on.

I don't have any lamps in my living room - only overhead lights. I live on the edge of the Lake District too - maybe it's catching!

Shoulder length isn't long and your hair must be pretty fine to dry that quickly
You aren't representative

Representative of what? Do most women have thick, waist-length hair? And are they immune to the apparent horrors of drying their body with a towel that's a bit damp from drying their hair?

@Lotusmonster that sounds nice. Someone below your original comment says they have a cottage for 8 people, with 3 beds. I see that kind of advertising pretty often.

The competitive towel usage that’s cropped up as a by product of this thread is pretty funny. I had no idea that using a single face cloth for both your body and your hair then washing it in bleach was the expected norm but I guess every day is a school day!