If you are planning to buy a rental home, or you're thinking about what to do with one you have just acquired, this is the place for any questions about starting out in the rentals business.
Hi, I've been lurking for a while! and soaking up all the invaluable help and information on this site. I'm hoping you can help with a decision....
We recently purchased a 2 bed small cottage on the I.O.W. as a holiday home, initially for us but in the future (when we have done some work) we will holiday rent. The first job is the bathroom. We are shower people and if it was just for us, we would replace the bath for a larger than average shower.
What are people's opinions? Bath with shower over or large shower? I think it will be marketed as more of a couple's holiday (v. small 2nd bedroom) doggie friendly (we have a dog).
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated
Just starting out! Second home to start, with a view to holiday let in the future!
However, during holidays, I do like to take a long bath with a glass of wine and a book. it is a luxury I don't have time for normally. But would never take a bath in a holiday let which has a shower above. Only in a stand-alone separate bath, as it somehow feels more hygienic (I know it is all probably in my head).
So this is a long way of saying that it would be best if you could somehow clevery fit in a bathtub and a separate shower. But if not, a walk-in shower would be more appealing, to us at least.
I would choose the shower over bath option. Although I mostly shower at home love a bath when away. The more options to have on offer IMO increases booking potential and people like to have options especially when on holiday
If you have a small second bedroom, it is possible it might just appeal to a couple with a young baby or toddler. Although not impossible to use the shower for them, a bath is easier.
Big shower for me every time. We have one in our barn that is 180cm x 120cm - so the space would have easily been big enough for a bath, but the shower has much more of a 'wow!' factor. (And I mean that quite literally, because it's what almost everybody says when they first see it!). Our market is couples and I describe our shower on our website as 'big enough for 2'.
I have a personal dislike of showers in baths, which I can never really relax in (I somehow think I'm going to fall out when I reach for the shampoo!) - they always feel like a compromise to me.
Showers are also much more environment friendly in that they use a lot less water, which was also a big consideration for us: 2 people having (possibly) 2 baths each a day is an awful lot of water ....
I do like a bath when I'm on holiday, particularly if it is a big one that I can lounge in. I've only got a shower in my apartment, with no room for a bath, and I would love a soak occasionally.
I think your location is relevant. If you were in a hot country then a shower makes more sense. However as you are in sunny UK (well you are certainly sunnier than other parts of the UK ), then I think you should go with a bath plus shower above.
It will appeal to couples with a child, as well as just adults, and I think is also more appealing in the winter months, if you plan to let all year round. Lots of british people love baths, far more than our European counterparts and I suspect your market will be mainly Brits?
Both would be great but I suspect you can't fit both in and as happylady says, you are decreasing options available to your guests if you only have a shower.
I love showers, but my wife insists on a bath and would not book if there were not one. So unfortunately, when I come to your new place, I'll have to bring my mistress, but even though she prefers a shower, she seems to be washing her hair every weekend now ??
Anyway, my point is that you're unlikely to lose any business if you have shower-in-tub and not a huge walk in, but you may lose business if you do not have a tub (e.g. families with babies or Helen and my wide on a girlie weekend).
I undestand that if you replace a bath with a shower or wet-room you generally decrease the value of your house. Which implies that baths are more popular than showers alone.
I'm all for not reducing options - for some a bath is an essential.
Then again it's your house. If you want a big shower, and if the rental side is a bonus rather than your reason for buying, then why not have it the way you want it?
Best compromise: a P shaped bath with shower over. The shape of the bath provides a good showering area, and you can get semi-circular glass screens in two pieces that can fully enclose the shower.
Then add a whirlpool to the bath if remotely possible - the bath itself won't cost a huge amount more, but there is the electrical supply to think about. It's what we have, and very popular with guests. There's a photo of what I'm trying to describe on one of our website pages here (sorry - can't link directly to the enlarged photo, but if you click on the 1st one in the 2nd row it should enlarge).
BUT - above all, make sure the shower has decent pressure and not one of those electric dribblers where you have to simulate a shower by running around under it.
Like you we did give it a lot of thought - we have a lot of families and I think mostly it's the shower that's used by adults but kids do like a bubbly bath (I can tell the bath is used a lot because the shower curtain often has remnants of bubble bath on the bottom of it; so get plenty of spare shower curtains if you go for this option .
We had problems with the shower screen on both our p shape baths, the curved ones just leak like buckets, so if you are thinking of a P bath the best solution that we found in the end (after a much head banging) was a small screen at the shower end (ie about 1ft of glass plus a weighted shower curtain. the glass screen closes the gap between wall and curtain and the curtain can be put inside the bath rim and stops the water leaks on the floor element of it all.
The thing with wet rooms (if they are upstairs) is that the smallest leak becomes a real problem to fix. Baths tend to not be leaky (although we've had THAT problem too (bath taps were not connected under the bath properly) but it was fairly easily fixed).
The curved shower screens were a REAL problem too (we tried all sorts of seals but nothing worked) but since we dumped them and went for the option above, we've had no more wet floors and ceilings!
The other thing to bear in mind though when considering bath v shower is whether or not you have sufficient hot water for lots of baths - if you are relying on tanks heating up or immersion heathers (expensive) then shower only would be best option. you don't want to create a situation where guests complain there isn't sufficient hot water!
Nightowl
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
Why halve your potential customer base by offering only one option ?
For example, I like a shower but my wife prefers a bath, and when we are looking to rent somewhere for our own holiday I will only book somewhere that has both options.
A shower over a bath is fine, it doesn't need to be separate.
), then I think you should go with a bath plus shower above.
