Mumsnet users share with HomeAway the strangest thing they've found or left behind in a holiday home

[EllieMumsnet]

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The chance to spend time away from home and in a new environment is a treat that many of us look forward to. Occasionally, however, we can forget to take everything back home with us once the holiday is over. HomeAway would love to hear about the strangest things that you have left behind or found from former guests in a holiday home.

Here is what HomeAway has to say: “HomeAway offers more than 2 million unique places to stay in over 190 countries around the world, from villas to cottages, from beach houses to tree houses, from mountain cabins to even castles! Over one-third of HomeAway's nearly 1.5 million online bookable listings are now instantly bookable, with no wait for confirmation. The holiday home expert’s mission is to provide families and groups of travellers with the perfect match holiday home to create unforgettable memories together. Not only do holiday homes provide excellent value for travelling families and group of friends, booking a whole house also guarantees more space and flexibility than a hotel or resorts.

Ever wondered how much your home could earn for you? HomeAway is here to help you learn what it takes to rent your home and invite travellers in for unforgettable experiences. Click here to find out more.”

Have you ever found unusual items in the fridge? Maybe you managed to leave just one shoe in the wardrobe? Or your underwear in a strange location? Perhaps you’ve even found something as random as a walking stick or a diary? Share them all on the thread below...no matter how strange!

Everyone who comments on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

I now do a thorough sweep of all drawers and cupboards myself, but when I used to leave some of them to DH we've left behind a knee splint, dog toys, toiletries & one exceedingly comfy but very old and scruffy slipper! Thankfully I managed to pay to have the knee splint returned. I wasn't too fussed about the dog toys or toiletries, & I was waaaay too ashamed to ask for the return of the scruffy old slipper!!

Stayed in a holiday let in scotland a few years ago . Had a large fitted wardrobe and one end was full of the owners clothes.
The bathroom cabinet was full of half used tubes and lots of things like denture fixative and germolene. Whether they'd been left behind by other guests or belonged to the owner we didn't know.

Our suspicion was that the property had belonged to a deceased relative of the owner or was her old home and she'd just left stuff there.

I found a book that I immediately recognised as belonging to DSD- she had clearly left it there the year before and not realised

I found what I thought was a funnel in the bedroom of a holiday home and took it down to the kitchen. It was then my sister in law pointed out it was a mooncup!

A list from an obviously low individual justifying her worth, which made sad reading

We stayed ten nights on a Scottish island costing £1100(had to clean surfaces and floors as were grubby, fine) got home and rebooked for the following year for a fortnight @£1300,
realised ds had left his DS and emailed the owner. No worries she would post it - included in the email was her bank deposit and for the £2.80 postage!! Was livid!!

We once found a gimp mask in a drawer at an Airbnb we stayed in

We stayed in an Air BNB let once that the owner he just left all their stuff lying about - credit cards on the hall table, slippers under the coffee table, contact lenses by the bed...

I found a dirty sock tangled up in the bedding of a b and B. It was pretty rank.

Not the strangest of this list, but we lost a couple (!!) of the tomy squeaky eggs when we were on holiday last week. No idea where the blasted things went but they'll make a nice surprise for the cleaner or next guest! (Given that we've now lost three of the six - you'd think we'd have been more careful after the first one - it's time to get a replacement as the little one loves them...).

When I went to Cornwall, the previous holiday-er had left behind some creepy preserved crocodile foot and a handbag filled with condoms, food due and foot cream.

Our house used to be a holiday home and wasnt cleared out properly when we moved in so we found a cupboard with 1970s board games and a tumble dryer with white/greyed mens y fronts
There was loads of other weird stuff like a painting of the last supper and lacy doilies

Nasty , skiddy, pair of greyish nylon underpants stuck to one of those sticky insect traps, under the bed in the main bedroom. This wss in a cottsge in Fife. Bleurgh!!

All my dirty pants in a careful pile just underneath the equally careful stripping of all the bed linen, doneto be so helpful.

Also, all our most treasued tapes (1990s) after I'd given less than perfect feedback, due to the owners having shouted at us when we were loading up go home ( the only time you could have your car in front of the multiplex cottages ( still don't know why, just doing what everyone else was doing).
Got onto motorway and realised too late that all our music was there, and mentioned in feedback we'd been shouted at by owners.
It was a race for time that we humbly asked them to send it all back (included p and packing costs) before they found our sniffy comment in the visitors book and quite reasonably thought 'Sod you, not doing that). But they send it back. Was shouted at yes, but still cringe and feel humble

Little blue man..the toy our son loved most!

We recently went on rugby tour with our son and the previous caravan occupants had left tea in th spot and scrambled egg in a saucepan! 🤢

A used king size vibrating penis ring in a drawer, and about 6 cockroaches eating a marshmallow, both in a self catering hotel in Spain.

We used to take disposable bed mats and a spare sheet to go over the top when our daughter wasn't reliably dry at night. Have left a few of those behind in different places.

I returned from a stay in a holiday apartment in Germany to find a shoe horn in my handbag. Still don't know how it got there.

I've left some (nice, expensive) toiletries behind before which proved annoying.

And I once found some bikini bottoms left in a wardrobe - I'm guessing the owner of them would have been annoyed by that too!

Looking to place my bag in the draw, I found a garden gnome inside...

I found a large collection of lacy pants in a holiday home in the Lakes. Felt sorry for the lady who'd left them, clearly expensive undies. Must be most annoying to get home and find you are without underwear.

Once in a self catering lodge, going back to when key could be left under the doormat and Euros were not yet legal tender, we found the monopoly money had been replaced by Italian lira! Left it as we couldn't use it assumed when they realised their mistake they would be requesting the owner to post it.