Holiday cottage - What would make you feel welcome?

[DianaPrince]

We are moving to a house with a holiday cottage attached. Rural area two miles from beautiful coastline and two miles from nearest station. We have three young children and have our own ideas about what we need from a self catering cottage which is welcoming to a family. (DH would require an open fire - but there isn't one!) What is your list of requirements that would make a cottage really special for your holiday? From basics to luxury treats - we want to make it a real home from home for the whole family and obviously want people to recommend it and want to come back. What would do it for your family? Thanks for your thoughts.

Stayed in my share of cottages too and what I really would like (and is fairly rare IME) is a nice new kettle and toaster. Doesn't have to be expensive, a £7.99 double kit from Tesco is fine and dandy. So many people put their old 1970's stuff (with the fabricy flex) in the cottages and I detest them.

new kettle each time?

Based on the tennants you seem to attract Beetroot - yes!

lol mistlethrush

thank god I have a fabulous cleaner and handy man

LOL. When Sleddale Hall (Uncle Monty's cottage from Withnail and I) was on the market one of my friends was talking about buying and restoring it and renting it out as a holiday cottage. We were like 'Are you mad? Can you imagine the state the sort of tenants who want to go somewhere because it's Uncle Monty's cottage would leave it in? They'd be burning the furniture and blasting holes in the windows to re-enact scenes from the film'

Duvets not blankets! With nice covers rather than old dull granny colours. I am always annoyed when I stay in a B&B and all they can put together is a manky blanket and an orange duvet cover.

If you are going to provide blankets, get some lovely multicouloured knitted ones

We stayed in a wondeful cottage last year that had loads of thoughful touches.

Tea tray set with tea things and a locally made cake, milk in the fridge, cleaning supplies, including a few dishwasher tablets and washing up liquid.

Sharp knives and nice cooking equipment, decent pans/graters etc. Lovely linen including tablecloths.

Beautifully furnished in a not too precious way with some new/some older furniture. Fresh flowers from the garden in all main rooms.

Bookcase full of books, piles of toys , books and games for the children in their room and the main living space, including buckets and spades outside the back door for going to the beach.

Small outside garden for the cottage only, with a furniture set, small patch of lawn, and some pretty but robust planting.

Extra touches like bedside rugs, a dressing table in the main bedroom with extra lighting, a hairdryer etc. Storage space to put away suitcases/luggage, once we had unpacked.

One additional thing that I would love in holiday cottages is decent curtains/blinds that actually block the light out, especially in children's rooms.

No no no Beetroot! One new kettle every 10 years would do it, which is newer than a lot of the kettles I've seen!

here is mine

shamless I know but I have paid to advertise it on MN

Looks lovely Beetroot, but can't see the price! As someone else mentioned, I always look for this.

price is on Owners direct

here

Beetroot - Great photos on your website and cottage looks lovely - but can't see prices anywhere! And you're already booked up when we need to come down to that area for a family wedding

prices are on owners direct

redsock, I challenge you to a clean off!

Show me a house with dogs in that doesn't have dog poop bacteria, urine bacteria, willy wipeage on carpets, slobber hair under furniture etc and I'll....treat you to a week in a holiday cottge.

I look forward to reading this thread in a mo - we've been renting cottages for years and have seen all manner of good and bad ones.

For us the essential thing is a good website with plenty of photos and details.

And no being economical with the truth! For example, we once stayed in a great cottage - the major problem was the owner lived next door but it wasn't advertised on the website (in fact it wasn't even next door, the cottage had been divided into 2, adn it was a cheapo job)

Beetroot I think I may have perused yours on my annual 'Where oh where shall we go in Norfolk this year' jaunt around the tinternet.

DianaPrince - re what kathyis6incheshigh said about getting ratings from tourist boards: If you contact somewhere like English Country Cottages and say you are interested in renting through them (even if you are not) they will send you their info pack which is really useful about what they expect in rooms and in the kitchen in order to give the property a good rating, plus thay also have a sheet of info about tax stuff to do with furnished holiday lets as there's some different and quite useful things to know about the income tax on holiday lets that is different from regular income tax.

And since beetroot has done it (and I have paid to advertise on MN too) here is our holiday let.

Grrr, I always get the smileys wrong

Don't use the cottage when the renters are out - my parents rented a cottage years ago and the owners used to 'pop in' (they were living in a caravan in the garden) to do their washing when they thought we were out. Only we'd come back early as it was raining and caught them red-handed with the maching going around! That also had the skiddiest kitchen bench you could hope never to find, so sturdy furniture is a must.

Wilbur I want to live in your house forever

This is all incredibly helpful and very much appreciated. When we have actually moved in I will advertise on MN and post pics too. I will be sure to include honest and full descriptions of the cottage - I don't want people to feel misinformed or disappointed if possible. And definitely won't have chipped mugs, tin openers that don't work or manky old toys covered in crusty white substances - and mildewed copies of old Observer Guides to extinct wildlife. Also good point about more wine glasses than you might think - we often have friends calling in when on holiday - or make friends there and it;s nice to feel you can get them over for a chilled evening.

Beetroot and Wilbur - very nice places you have.

Alpacas - interesting - will look into that. We are going to rent a paddock and thinking about how to keep the grass down. Want to get chickens at least but will need more than chickens I think.

Like the bucket and spade idea.

Kathyis6... - intriguing name - and hilarious about Uncle Monty's place. Are they nuts?! The furniture will be on the fire on the first night. They'd have to provide plastic bags for wellies and leave a huge spade in the bath. Not to mention a hare suspended from the door and a fridge full of the finest wines available to humanity.

Wilbur - will keep in mind - looks wonderful!

The other thing I always want to know is exactly where the cottage is in terms of proximity to other people. I can't bear it when you see a cropped photo that shows just the cottage.

If it's part of a row of cottages or on an estate full of other cottages then please say so.

Equally, how near/far is it from a main road and other likely sources of noise?

We stayed at a beautiful house in France once, and none of the information that we had before went told us that it was right by a main road and that all the farming traffic would be racing past from 4.30 am onwards!

How about some pygmy goats for the paddock ? They are low maintenance (get a couple of wethers), and very social. Def do chickens so that you can offer egg collecting as an activity to the children

They won't keep the grass down - the only things that will do that are geese, but they can be a bit scary for little ones

Oh, yes, pygmy goats are fab. Would a couple of sheep keep the grass down?