Would you expect these items in a holiday rental?

[hippospot]

Lemon squeezer?
Cheese grater?

I highlighted to a holiday host that these missing items would have been useful and she felt they weren't standard items.

What random items have you also expected but not had? Oven gloves are sometimes not provided. I've stayed in a place without a sieve.

😂😂👏👏

I've just bought one of those, it does a great job.

We're definitely in the minimal cooking camp when it comes to self-catering (despite having a ND child now adult with food issues). We look for places with plenty of options locally and supplement with Cook meals or BBQ, it's nice to have a break from proper cooking. I do buy lemons at home but don't tend to on holiday, I'll buy a pre-mixed salad dressing for example but it's very easy to get juice out with a spoon handle especially if you warm the lemon slightly first. I am suspicious of the cleanliness of other people's cheese graters and buy a grated bag, it's fine. As for egg cups, no one has used one in our house for about 20 years and they are just clutter. We don't use a grill pan either, toaster for toast, oven for everything else you might grill (bacon for example). In fact one of my bugbears is places that are so over equipped that there's no empty cupboard space to store food.

I work at a self catering holiday park. All 40 of them have cheese graters, only one has a lemon squeezer ( left behind by a guest)

Am I the only one on this thread who uses a lemon squeezer about every other day, and struggles to squeeze a lemon effectively without one? 😂

It's actually much more expensive than a hotel.
I book a three bedroomed house so adult DC and partners can join us. It's about the space, not the cost. We then have a living space and outdoor space to relax in but go out for meals.

if you roll it first, it should be easier 😊

Grater, yes, I’d probably expect one, I think. Probably wouldn’t use it but I’d think there’s usually one along with a colander/strainer and a veg peeler and a few spatulas and things.

Not a lemon squeezer though. You can just squeeze a lemon by hand. No equipment required.

Not that I’ve ever actually needed to squeeze a lemon on holiday.

So what, though? People are allowed to have expensive holidays if they can afford them.

I never cook on holiday. If we go self-catering we aren’t doing because we’re keen to save money. We’re doing it because we want to stay somewhere with more space to relax, make drinks, sit outside etc than we’d have in a hotel room, and where we don’t have to get up at a specific time for breakfast etc. So it’s not a case of ‘you might as well stay in a hotel’ - we don’t always want what a hotel offers, especially if we’re away for a week or two rather than a short city break.

We might buy bread, cheeses and some cold meat or something for one snacky dinner, and maybe breakfast pastries, but we don’t cook on holiday, ever.

This is us too - we buy in breakfast stuff and some snack or emergency hungry stuff but eat out. The most we ever use is a microwave.

This is exactly us. I don’t want to stop in a generic hotel, with its generic food, I don’t want AI, I don’t want go to supermarkets, I don’t want to be confined to a single room! If we go abroad, which we do often, I want to eat out in restaurants where I can sample local cuisines, not stand in a kitchen like at home and make tea so we book lovely Air BnBs - the same when we stay in the UK! For us, and our circumstances cost is irrelevant and experience matters most.

Fair enough. We have done this with adult DCs . Does everyone pay for themselves just out of interest? Or do you foot the bill for everyone?

I pay for everything but they always offer. They'll bring whatever they want in drinks, snacks and they might buy sandwiches for lunch, but I'll pay for the accommodation and evening meals.

Lemon squeezer? Use your hands
Cheese grater? You can buy it grated

How does everyone make their holiday margaritas without a lemon/lime squeezer? Maybe I drink too many.

cheaper to buy a block and grate it and less packaging though😀

sorry I’m a bit of a Penny pincher lol

Yeah I guess so, I’m very much a convenience over cost kind of girl.

But the idea of taking a cheese grater on a self catering holiday does seem like overkill

Yes we had one in last rental

There's really not a lot of difference on either packaging or cost for pre-grated cheese, maybe 50p and it's so convenient, that wins for me.

I think it depends a bit on the type of holiday rental and how much cooking people are expected to do there. A cheese grater and sieve are things I’d probably expect in a properly equipped self-catering kitchen, but I wouldn’t necessarily expect a lemon squeezer as it’s quite a specific item that not everyone would use. The things I notice most when they’re missing are usually the basics, like enough mugs, sharp knives, oven gloves, chopping boards and somewhere to dry dishes. We’ve stayed in places where the kitchen looked well equipped but then you realise you’re missing one small thing that makes cooking much harder.

We have always taken it in turns to cook which is tricky without the right equipment! I have found most places do have well equipped kitchens .

There's a huge difference in taste and texture

I will report back in a few weeks!

What I do expect is that in a rental that sleeps 4, that there will be sufficient plates, bowls, mugs, glasses and cutlery for the 4 people to sit down and have a meal together. It would be bonus if the stuff matched rather than looking like a job lot that the charity shop has rejected.

Yes, I learnt from a weekend early on in our holiday history to check the photos for a dining table, enough dining chairs, and enough soft seating for everyone.

Mugs, glasses, cutlery are more difficult to check, obviously. I've only had fewer than the number of people on one occasion, but multiple times there have been exactly the right number, so you have to wash up if you use one of the bowls or plates while you're cooking. And you have to wash up after every meal, even just breakfast toast.

Oh yes the potato peeler. We never cook on holiday however we sometimes have a buffet on the first night and always have carrots for dips. We never had a peeler at my parents growing up so i was thrilled in cookery at school to learn there was such a thing. I am always pleased when there is a peeler. I clock what else there is and am impressed but never use the stuff.