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

There was a massive pile of take a break style magazines in my last holiday home. The puzzles and the funny stories helped pass the rainy days

A tablet (The pill kind, not the electronic kind).
With a V on it.

A whole pile of underwear at the bottom of the wardrobe. (not envy)

We mentioned it to the 'manager' but she wasn't a bit put out.

Said she'd come back with a bin bag to collect the 'garments' but never did.

I wasn't going to touch them so we lived out of our suitcase for the week.

Rose petals strewn everywhere, empty bottles of fizz, a dozen red roses and a very expensive bottle of perfume. It was Feb 15th. They'd visited for Valentine's, got hammered, huge row and left separately in the middle of the night.

Dh’s special northern Irish bread that he loves. Realised as we were boarding the ferry.

Only left behind pj bottoms once, plus expensive toiletrees another time. Both annoying but didn't ask the owner to send them back which I probably should have!

We went to turkey last year for 21 nights , and my teenage daughter bought loads of clothes , when packing the realised that they had no room for their new stuff , so they emptied there holiday clothes and left it in a pile on the dresser.

When we went on holiday to a hotel on the Isle of Wight, my husband had some 'pleather' trainers, and after wearing them for 4 or 5 days the aroma coming from them was worse than the strongest Camembert, so we decided to leave them behind, the smell was so bad. We packed our cases, and didn't think any more about it.
The hotel helped you with your luggage, and having 2 small children it was a big help. When we got to the drop off point, we collected out luggage, only to find the fragrant trainers tied to the handle of the suitcase! (we went on the dispose of them in the nearest bin).

We found a big pair of black lacy knickers left on the kitchen island of our holiday home in Florida. I guess it got a bit hot in there...

We found a tiara at a holiday rental in Tuscany. My 4 year old insisted on wearing it for the whole holiday. She then left it behind, with no arguments, for the next little girl.

I left behind my favourite Kitchen Devils knife. I always take it with me when I go away as I like a sharp knife for cutting cheese/fruit, and most of them are serrated in holiday chalets/caravans.

We happened to stay in the same accommodation again a few months later and my knife was still there , so I took it home again

At a holiday home in France I once found an English paperback book which I'd read a few years earlier and enjoyed, so thought I'd read again. About a quarter of the way in I noticed that someone had made comments in the margins which seemed familiar and then I realised they were MINE!
I'd left the book at a DIFFERENT holiday home (from the same company) about three years previously, so someone was obviously doing the same circuit of houses as us!

I always take my £90 orthopedic pillow with me, accidentally left it at a hotel we where staying in for a wedding, luckily we had decided to extend the holiday and stay at another hotel about 20 miles away ..which is when I found it missing, so had a little extra trip fetching my pillow back. But i have found a creme egg hidden behind a cushion in a holiday let... week after Easter...maybe it was one of the other mumsneters who admit to leaving Easter eggs.

Lost: One whole box of French beer that we'd put in the cupboard under the sink and forgotten about.
Found: False teeth but just the bottom teeth, not the top - not sure how that came about

A drawer of soot in the kitchen..rather odd

Dan - they are much harder to cope with!

Car keys. They were left in a little pot on a shelf and the kids found them when doing the 'open every cupboard, investigate every nook' routine they do when we arrive. Thinking they must belong to the previous occupants (as who would leave car keys and not chase it up reasonably quickly?), we left them in the middle of the kitchen table when we left. Cue email from the owner asking if they were ours as no-one has aksed her about them and she had no idea who they might belong to. I found that really odd; losing car keys would result in immediate panic, retracing of steps and chasing by phone for me. Clearly someone just left them.

In a push wedding venue where we were staying: a massive, clean and ironed pair of white y-fronts folded neatly in a drawer.

Had a holiday in August in Scotland a few years back. Down south at the time it was boiling, really roasting - so, so hot.

Flew up and arrived in Scotland and it was flipping freezing and we didn't have remotely appropriate clothing. Went to a bargain basement clothes shop and did the best we could to supplement our ridiculously inadequate softy southerner clothes and then left most of it behind afterwards as they weren't things we wanted that much and we thought the next person staying might appreciate them too!

We hired a country house with extended family last year and found a Chelsea football shirt hanging in one of the bedroom wardrobes....dh and bil are bil football fans/rivals at the best of times supporting Liverpool and man utd, this football shirt kept being moved between the wardrobes every day of our holiday and batted backwards and forwards!

Nothing too strange, we've left behind medicines and first aid stuff, and haven't actually found anything which I'm quite disappointed about now! Haha

Fake eyelashes glued on the bathroom mirror and looked like a had a moustache when looked at myself lol

I have left a nightie behind which was posted back to me and my daughter has left a pair of socks. My husband is much more organised!

We once left behind a pair of lego themed crocs. I was a little relieved to have forgotten them to be honest, and I think they'd have been a bit of a marmite discovery for whoever came across them.

Managed to leave the dogs harness and lead on the side of the car when leaving a campsite in France last summer! Only realised too far away so next few hours were spent googling and finding a shop to replace them

Once left DH's driving licence on top of a wardrobe in a holiday let. I had put the passports and money up there for safety as there was no safety deposit box and came home without the licence. I actually thought I had lost it.

Booked the same apartment the year after and put the valuables up there again, only to find the driving licence still there.