Do you really want fluffy towels and new linens? What are your limits with country holiday lets?

[cottageinthecountry]

I'm about to renovate a cottage for letting out for holidays. It's in a very rural position and can withstand a lot of wear and tear regarding mud and wildlife. I'm letting it out on Airbnb which has been great but I'm quickly getting drawn into the competitive linen game.

It's a great place for children and pets to charge about in the mud and I'm almost certain this will be brought into the house on a regular basis - it's rural position is its charm. But how do I market something so that people don't expect it to be spotless as a spa resort and give me bad ratings and disgruntled reviews?

I would be grateful if you could tell me what you prefer - a bit of mud and insect life or a spotless haven? What are your boundaries?

Ok, a few more thoughts ...

I wouldn't have locked-up rooms with your family stuff in - people could be spooked out by it. Use one of the outbuildings for family stuff.

You need at least 2 full sets of bedding and towels so you can just do a swap and then work through washing the dirty stuff. Could you perhaps get your cleaner to wash and dry towels and just send the bedding to be laundered / ironed ?

You need a tv and dvd player in the living room. Doesn't matter that your family wouldn't watch it , you aren't paying to stay there.

Another dog thing - many cottages state that guests must bring their own dog bed and towels.

I agree with the locked doors etc. I had a gut feeling about that. OH is up there now clearing sheds to put the family stuff into.

Done a floorplan but it's american and all the furniture is massive, along with the doorways. Will probably pay for a conservation architect to do a proper drawing which will help us in the future for when the proper work takes place.

The reference originally came from someone from Crouch End who told me they stay in a really scuzzy old place for cheap but they liked it because it means that they don't worry about it getting dirty and don't have to keep telling their dcs off for smearing mud on walls or whatever it is these children do.

Well, I don't think that person is representative of north London in general.

What do people in Muswell Hill or Islington think?

Oh they're all one breed. As are the Hampstead and Highgate-ites, but they usually have their own second home so don't need to rent.

I thought it might be a useful niche market.

I'm quite glad I came on here to do my market research.

OK we've finally got it (almost finished) and have a couple of bookings as of next week!

www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/1982820

I still haven't bought towels and after going through all the bed linen some of which was my grandmother's have decided to use only top quality. The stuff you get for 7.99 in Tesco is atrocious and won't last.

Undecided about towels but will probably go for different coloured sets and two top quality but affordable.

If anyone is still interested I would welcome your comments on the bedrooms.

No dogs or pets. Something like 30% of the population have animal allergies. You've lost 30% of potential bookings if you allow this. I spend hours and hours searching for pet free accommodation because of very severe allergies.

No bunk beds

I've taken pets off the listing due to the sheep in nearby fields but we do bring our cats up here and I've mentioned that on the listing. It's not really an allergen free place generally, lots of wildlife and insects, pollen and fungi.

Do you need to mention the cats. We have cats, none of us are allergic but the fact that you've mentioned it on your listing would make me think that you don't clean properly and the place is going to be covered in cat hair ad so you're mentioning it as a disclaimer.

Hello, I had remembered your thread the other day and wondered how you were getting on.

I had a quick flick through your pictures - well done!

The two sofas look great and exactly what I would expect in terms of seating. The trunk is way better than the rattan table that was there before.

Bedrooms 1 and 2 look lovely - although the thing that comes to mind is hanging space?

Bedroom 3 is great, though I would be tempted to put a stair gate there anyway and just keep it clipped back.

The only thing that would worry me as a parent is - still no trampoline surround! Someone coming there might have fairly small children, if they are attracted to the play area in Bedroom 3 - so they would also want a safe trampoline.

The description is much more detailed and I think you set out a good amount of information about what to expect.

Yes, as soon as you mention the cats I feel a bit itchy thinking about the throws on the sofas.

I would avoid mentioning it, but say something like 'the cottage does not normally welcome pets and is cleaned to a high standard but may not be suitable for severe allergy sufferers - please ask for more details if this is a concern for you.'

Thanks my writing skills are a little direct, and slightly more tactful language about cats would probably be wise.

I'm glad you like it, still haven't done the front room properly but will be finished by the end of the week.

No.

I am always on a budget and got very pissed off a few years ago when UK holiday lets got all up market and started to charge silly money.

I want:

1. a house with enough room to accomodate a largish family so they don't end up killing each other in wet weather.
2. Cleanliness - it has to be properly cleaned so we don't spend the first hour cleaning before we move in!
3. Comfortable beds. Essential. Stayed in a holiday camp type place near hayle once where the beds were like concrete and had plastic covered mattresses so it was like being in a sweat box.
4. Good kitchen so cooking a meal isn't torture.
5. Nice shower and plenty of hot water.
6. Somewhere to dry clothes and towels.
7. Sufficient crockery and glassware (particularly wine glasses).
8. Somewhere pretty to sit outside.
9. Nice location otherwise why bother really.

Fluffy towels? Not bothered. The basics are far far more important. If not having fluffy towels makes it cheaper I am for doing without.

Oops ! Bit late!!!

Irian, not too late, this is why I started the thread initially, because I too don't give a stuff about fluffy towels and am more concerned with exactly the things you mentioned when I go away - things like a decent kitchen knife and a dishwasher. I am shallow though in that I like nice furniture, we stayed in a chintzy place once and it was all browns and beige and it made me feel ill.

What do you think about my pricing Irian, I have no idea what to charge really as I don't want a lot of people expecting gold plated everything and complaining but also want to actually make it worth my while financially.

Hanging space - there just isn't space for it but in the childrens room there's a large tall built in cupboard which can be used. I'm giving the double bedrooms a chest of drawers and a nice set of hooks and wooden hangers.

OK I've changed the wording about the trampoline and the cats.

Irian your point about the kids not killing each other on a rainy day - this is why I made the larges room a childrens room. Mine have hardly been out of it since it was done. Wifi has also helped.

We have stayed here and will be going back again. It has everything we want from a holiday house, comfortable and clean furnishings, lovely toiletries in every bathroom and toilet,wi fi, washer/dryer, nice garden and really good quality kitchen equipment even an Aga and a Kitchen Aid mixer and food processor (pity I don't cook when on holday really)
There is no extra charge for taking a dog which is nice and there are books, dvds, toys and games which is great if there are wet afternoons or for evening use oh and a full Sky package which ds likes so that he can watch the sport.

It's lovely!!

At 840 it's near the top end of what we'd pay for 5 of us. But of course it sleeps 6. Does it sleep 6 or 8? It says accomodates 8 but only has 6 beds?

BTW wifi is a brilliant idea!

insanity that's nice, but a much bigger property. Ours is tiny and a Kichenaid would take up half the kitchen. Reminds me though to get a new food processor, the one that's there is about 30 years old. I never thought about not having Sky for sports fans, we haven't even got a TV yet and are unlikely to as it would take up so much space it would change the look of the cottage. Most of our guests so far are couples with young children and my guess is they've all got gadgets with them for entertainment.

There is space for two extras on sofa beds, I'm getting plates and cups for 8 people.

I got to page 8- haven't read the last two pages. Anyway, as pp said ,socket covers are a danger, do not use them.
Otherwise. We have stayed in a lot of cottages, from the rural decrepit but interesting (bats flying around INSIDE at night, mouse poo in the toaster). To the gorgeousness that is the Landmark Trust. I suggest a weekend in a Landmark to get the feel of just how right it can be. Personally, I don't own a tumble drier, so towels can be not-so-fluffy, fine with me. Bed linen should be white, linen or cotton, and pristine. I can put up with lack of mod cons, I don't mind that at all, but I HATE a cheap mattress. That has ruined several holidays, and in one case , when I had slept on one so cheap and knackered that there were springs sticking up into my back, left me in pain for a week afterwards (dodgy back). Don't buy one so firm that it is like sleeping on the floor either, medium firmness suits most people. The other things that have spoiled a holiday are terrible lighting (stayed in Griff Rhys Jones's beatiful Welsh farmhouse, stunning, but the lighting so bad one could barely see to eat, clearly he had never slept there), terrible sofas ( GRJ again, a sofa with a really low back, nice to look at but no good for lounging and relaxing while i tried in vain to read in the gloom) And thin curtains that meant small children wouldn't sleep until 11 and then woke at dawn, hence grumpy for the entire holiday. Bedrooms should have curtains thick enough that mean a child can go to bed at 8 in the Summer and it be dark, and not just the children's designated room, as ours always sleep in with us. That is the basics covered. I like a decently stocked kitchen, as we tend to cook. I really like it if there is a bit of milk in the 'fridge, and some sugar/tea etc as we often forget to bring something. Warm on arrival in Winter is important with small children. Smoke and CO1 alarms. Info on nearest doc/A+E, vet etc. just in case! It obviously has to be clean, but I don't mind roughing it in other ways if the bed is lovely and the house warm enough.
In Summer check for wasps nests about the garden and deal with them, they can ruin a holiday, esp for me as I am allergic to the sting.
I like interesting books about the place, and enough loo roll to not have to run out and buy more on day two. A bar of soap in the basin (many places don't have any hand soap). But lack of soap or loo roll wouldn't put me off returning, a hard or knackered bed would.
Anyway, it is a beautiful house, so good luck !

Helly thanks for your feedback, in fact thanks to everyone as this is really useful. It does seem to be a case of do unto others etc, but it's so easy to forget as we have been coming here for years and roughing it it's hard to see it in the perspective of a paying guest.

We are not charging at the top price, without a major building overhaul we'd never get top quality to warrant it - there anyway, there are too many wonky windows and dodgy DIY jobs, dressing it up as any more luxurious would be all fur and no knickers as they say. We can't do it all in one go, we've gone a long way but the whole house needs new windows.

DP has done a huge amount of work and we must have done around 20 trips to the dump with 40 years of collected family clutter. One of the rooms we can't do because we removed cladding to find the original 500 year old timber beams, some with original bark still attached. Along with some random concrete blocks and bricks added in the 70s. At least we have a spare room in which to put the best family tat.

But excellent point about the curtains, we had the same problem when ours were little. The childrens room is quite dark but little ones might nap in the downstairs rooms. A good idea I saw was velcro blackout blinds (basically blackout fabric that you just attach to the window with velcro) It works brilliantly because it cuts all the light out and none seeps in from the sides. This would work for us as the proportions are small and to block out light properly a curtain would have to have a large overlap over the side of the windows.

In terms of pricing I'm as miffed as anyone by the upmarketising of the holiday cottage and find it all a bit wasteful and sad. I would much rather have people stay who don't mind the rustic nature and don't want to pander to those who expect the Hilton in what was originally intended to be a peasant cottage. I have tried to be clear about that in my description so as not to mislead people.

Interestingly though in my 'journey' about linens I have found hat quality is as much about durability and saving as it is about luxury. So I will go for quality linens for that reason. All polycotton has now been destroyed.

Good luck with it all.

I agree that not everything has to be pitched at the top niche - not everyone wants that. Safe, clean, comfortable is the bottom line.
I think your description conveys what it is pretty well, while the improvements you have made make it attractive to a much wider market.

Hanging space continued:

If I am on a weekend or week's break, I would be quite happy with some nice hooks and hangers - but peferably a couple of hooks for me and a separate couple of hooks for DH.