Lay My Hat

Thanks all. I think the bedding is cellophane wrapped to prevent it getting damp in storage, or picking up other smells. But at this time of year it is only in the wrapping for a few days at most as we've got back to back bookings. And the smell if not a damp or musty one (as you'd expect if it wasn...

Hi I'm just wondering if anyone has ever had issues with smelly bedding? All our bedding is laundered by a commercial company and stored wrapped in cellophane before each change and yet twice recently we have had problems with the bedding smelling like sour cheesy feet. The first time (that we know ...

Thank you, Charles. That's very interesting reading. This is our first full year trading, so it's difficult for us to draw any comparisons, but we've been surprised just how many bookings we've taken.

Hi Dave Yes we did. We parted on amicable terms because, as you say, they're lovely people, but they just seemed overwhelmed in what is now a highly competitive market. They never got to grips with their website (and clearly still haven't!), and they were having horrendous problems with the people t...

Hi Rich We're North Cornwall and, after a somewhat tempestuous year with a local agent, we have now signed up with Holiday Cottages. They're possibly a bigger company than you were looking to use, but they are based in Bideford so are local to the South West coast. So far we've been happy with how t...

Thanks, Nemo! Fortunately no lasting damage has been done and we're able to laugh about it. And it has taught us a lot of valuable lessons.

Very grateful to you and others on here who have helped us keep sane and realise it's not always like this!

For those of you who have helped us through our first year trading with what turned out to be disastrous local agency I thought you might like to hear what I hope is the last of the saga! You might recall the issues of broken website, wrong photos, poor communication, bins left un-emptied for three ...

The latest installment on the soap opera that is our letting agent, and I think the last straw has been reached! When we were first setting up the cleaning company they were using at the time didn't hire linen or towels so we went to considerable effort to choose our own, checking linen count, colou...

Thanks, Nemo. They have taken two Sunday lets back-to-back so they must be confident the cleaner (their jurisdiction!) is ok with that. Mustn't they?! I guess (and hope) they wouldn't do that if it hadn't been a fairly last-minute booking. I am a peculiar sort of laid-back control freak so I'm never...

Ok, so they ARE Sunday start dates done deliberately to get September bookings as that's what the guest requested. Won't affect the last week of August which is still unlet, and unlikely to be fully booked and therefore can be easily reset. Makes sense, I guess.

And breathe....

Yes, I was worried that might be the case, Bunny. Hell's bells; it's just been one thing after a flipping other lately! /bangs head repeatedly on desk...

Thanks, Felicity. We specified Saturday at the agreement of the agent, who recommended that start day, and all our August weeks have been Saturdays. I assumed it was a vagary when I saw the OD calendar, but it seems odd that TripAdvisor has now done the same. I'm afraid the agent is one person and a...

I've just noticed that separate weeks have been booked out on our Owners Direct and TripAdvisor pages for September (yay!) but oddly both show a start day for the week of Sunday, not Saturday. We don't control the pages, our agent does, and obviously I've begged the question with them but they're cu...

Who knows, jen! I have tried posting photos today, rather than just a link to our own Facebook page. Possibly location, or maybe bunny has special facilities that we lack? We currently don't take dogs, for example, and everyone looking for availability on there at the moment seems to be a dog owner!

Thanks, Booboo! You'd be very welcome!