What have you learnt from renting other people's properties

[Marchehelen]

We recently stayed in italian run accomodation in Puglia & I had completely forgotten about the 1 thing lots of Italians don't provide in small accomodation-a sofa! This wouldn't have been so bad if it had just been me & the hubby but we had my aged p's as well- my dad is disabled & found it very difficult not having anywhere to relax. The first night we were there they had a family party 10 metres from our front door but luckily we were all so knackered that we slept anyway. the kitchen had half the things missing (my dad did a full inventory while we went to the supermarket!) The only supplies we were given was salt, pepper, some dried rosemary & 1 toilet roll.We spent the first 3 days trying to pay them then 2 days before we left the owner said could we pay as his wife was going away (we had to pay her) for 3 days- she never went anywhere, and then when I went to pay she tried to flog me some jewellery. Then to top it all off the day before we left they asked if we could leave by 9am (checkout time was 10am) as they had to clean for the next guests. I almost sat there until 10am just to spite them but in fact we left at 8am cos we wanted to get home. So what did I learn?
1. It annoys guests if you plan a party on the first night & don't give tell them so they can decide whether they still want to come on that date
2. Lying to your guests is not a good idea- they are not stupid enough not to notice that your wife hasn't gone anywhere
3. If you state that guests must pay for items that go missing you should do a full inventory before they arrive
4. Don't try to flog your guests jewllery (unless it is something you have made) it makes you look dodgy
But most importantly
5. Our guests are very well looked- they get a welcome pack, supplies, a sofa, we don't have parties while they are here & we don't ask them to leave early!

[Margaret]

Sofas are not all that common in holiday apartments in Germany and when they do exist they are often uncomfortable sofa beds. But this is a cultural thing - Germans tend to spend all evening sat at a table when they have guests. Also, it is common for German holiday apartments to have a combined kitchen/living room, so the seating tends to be at the table. There is also the problem of finding comfortable sofas in German shops - they are mostly very hard - I assume the Germans just like them that way.
We also hate not having a comfortable sofa when we are away and emphasize our comfy sofas on our website!

[Christine Kenyon]

Message to self: remove sofa next time Italians or Germans are staying in cottage .

[Margaret]

That's the funny thing: Germans love our English style furnishings with comfy sofas!

[apexblue]

We stayed in Cartmel in the Lakes this year and had the most uncomfortable sofa and no hand soap - it was listed as 4 star too - on arrival we were the only ones there for the weekend - country house estate empty with cottages at the back also empty - eerie - would‘ve been nice to be forewarned - just had conversation with possible new booking emphasising our very comfy m&s sofas

www.northwalesholidaylets.co.uk

[Windy]

We stayed in Cartmel in the Lakes this year and had the most uncomfortable sofa and no hand soap

Should have come to Troutbeck



We have soap as well!

[Jenroy]

It is a long time since we rented any holiday accommodation, apart from B & B, but the long standing memory is of very uncomfortable beds/mattresses, where they were inevitably small 4ft, but if lucky 4ft 6in.

When we fitted out our holiday let we made sure they were full size and the mattresses were of very good quality. We do offer a sofa bed and again this was chosen with comfort in mind and we tried it out just to make sure!!

[Christine Kenyon]

Hi Windy. Glad to hear that there is now soap south of the Pass!!

[Windy]

Glad to hear that there is now soap south of the Pass!!

Life is just one long soap here in Troutbeck Christine

[Giddy Goat]

... and you're the villain, right Winds?

[Windy]

That's me GG1

- the Dirty Den of Troutbeck.

(And no comments about that being my lodge please - I have a VERY good cleaner!)

[Christine Kenyon]

That just confirms that it really is a SOAP opera .... .

[Giddy Goat]

Which sort Christine, Lux, Palmolive - or Simple!!!!

[pambon]

While working for the local Italian Language School I was interested to see that they insisted that their students found, on arrival at the accomodation loo paper and a bottle of water in the fridge.

Four years later when preparing our rental I now ensure that together with everything else those 2 items are always there. Can you imagine arriving after long hours travelling - wanting to dash to the loo and not finding paper...what a nightmare

I have the place stocked just about on a par with Margaret including microwave equipment, plus we have a comfortable sofa (I haven't visited an Italian home without one... ) and a free-view sat. flat screen TV in both the living area and a smaller one in the bedroom (which, although has just the normal Italian channels does get used as we find it left on stand-by!)

I also have handy a large box containing scrap paper (for noting down addresses & phone numbers etc), sellotape, pens, paper clips etc which seems to have encountered favour with guests.

[Partridge]

Having just stayed at an English rental property a number of things bothered me as a first timer on the 'other side'

1) Lack of communication i.e 'money transferred, please confirm receipt of payment' which was replied to with 'thankyou' & I had to chase up a week later to confirm it was cleared.

2) Only one toilet brush between 3 toilets, never realised how important those little things are

3) Only salt & pepper available (pepper empty) meaning that I didn't get my eggs & bacon in the morning.

4) On deciding to have a boiled egg instead, found there were no egg cups (had cake tins though ??)

5) Took our laptop (internet connection advertised) but no info in apt folder so used our 3g card. Eventually found a wireless thingy in a cupboard but no code or instructions were ever given to us so it didn't get used.

6) Waited patiently for the 'we will call you one week before arrival to provide the entry code'.....gave up and e-mailed 36 hours before arrival to politely request the information.

Don't get me wrong, the lady was lovely but it was an eye opener to see how totally ruthlessly efficient most LMH'ers are