What would you expect in a welcome basket?

[GoodNewsAndBadNews]

Am about to start to let a holiday property in a fairly rural part of Wales. Nearest shop is a short drive away. I was thinking of bread, milk, jam, butter, wine, tea and coffee. What other things would you expect? The property was left to me by a relative, and we want to be able to use it as a family but hoping to offset some of the costs by sharing it with holiday makers.

I'd expect cleaning supplies for both me and the Cottage that would last the week. Self catering means you cook for yourself not that you can't wash up

whats Wrong with a kettle?

I don’t know a single person who uses a tea pot, even my nan in her 80s doesn’t use one.

I very much doubt they want you to leave behind your cutlery.

@YellowstoneNa - it’s a bit hard to make loose leaf tea with just a kettle. A kettle only heats the water. You need a tea pot, or tea loose leaf individual container or strainer to actually make the tea once kettle boiled.
We have a teapot, tea infuser and tea strainer both in our home and guest rental. They are just as essential as other cutlery imo.

We live abroad. Not many people actually drink black tea here, but herbal loose leaf is very popular. We make and dry our own mint and herbal teas from garden. And import lots of loose leaf black teas

yellowstoneNa well, fancy that, I don't know anyone who doesn't.

It’s not cutlery and a pot of tea is a pleasant thing to have rather than bunging a bag in a mug.

Probably your age range.

If The locations didn’t have one in the first place I’m sure they don’t want peoples tat left behind.
Take a tea pot with you but don’t buy it and leave it to clutter up their rentals. It’s just something they have to bin after you leave.

Every one I have stayed in has provided tea, ground coffee, biscuits, milk.

Then a few bits of local stuff - juice, fudge in Devon. Muesli in Germany. Nice bread and local jam in various places. Wine is in there about 50% of the time, but honestly I often don’t drink it as it’s usually a bottle of red.

Totally agree about supplying enough dishwasher tablets/washing machine tabs - there’s nothing worse than having to ration it towards the end of the holiday. One dishwasher tab per day, and 2-3 washing tabs per week. And enough toilet paper for at least a few days.

To channel my inner hotel inspector you need to cost out how much it is to put on your holiday cottage per night.

The standard of your welcome basket will depend on the luxuriousness and how much you are charging.

On a recent stay semi skimmed milk was provided which we didn’t use. Tea, Coffee and Hot Chocolate provided, condiment sachets, washing up liquid, laundry powder and washing up sponge. The added luxury was a £1.50 packet of biscuits which were really nice.

The house had PlayStation, WiFi, Alexa’s, tvs, blankets, leaflets and load of games! It was just right.

and plenty of loo roll!

I disagree. I grew up wiht self-cateringin the Eighties and my mum packed everything each time so she didn't have to buy anything. It was a military operation.

I think nowadays there is plenty of competition for holiday makers who don't want to pack like that and I prefer paying slightly more for a properly outfitted accomodation.

I wouldnt expect anything tbh. Except maybe a jar of locally produced jam or honey. But vegans of course wont want honey so scrap that idea.
Welcome baskets must be a new thing......... We stayed at lots of rural places in the 80s and 90s never did they ever have such a thing. And nor did we expect one. We would just collect groceries from a shop enroute.

I do.

I mostly drink coffee but if I'm making tea it goes in a tea pot.

My dad does the same.

i’ll up the toilet roll and remove the wine! Realistically, would 6 toilet rolls for a family of 4 be enough? For a week? Would hate it if lack of toilet roll gave me a bad review.

No!

And thank you all so much for your input, all the cleaning things were going to be included anyway, and the welcome basket of food doesn’t seem necessary except for the basics - and if they don’t get used it’s not the end of the world.

I wouldn't complain if there wasn't enough for a long stay. If I was staying somewhere a week I'd probably be nipping out for a top up shop anyway.
I would expect there to be enough for 2-3 days though (although I'm a paranoid pessimist so usually pack my own anyway) but if you are looking for extras that make people happy then bog standard (lol), not fancy, loo roll in generous quantities would be a better spend than a bottle of wine IMO.
It's like buying washing up liquid. It's not very expensive just annoying to have to think about when you are on holiday.

I think 6 is enough. I always add 5 for a week ( 1 new on holder, 4 fit in under sink drawer fit ). There’s always some left.
for longer bookings I change towels etc anyway and just top up toilet rolls to 5 again.
I would say 2-3 go on average a week.