Horrible holiday lets

We once stayed in a chalet, just for a half term break with our two boys when they were little and it was not filthy, but really grubby. It was not quite bad enough to leave, but we spent the majority of our time outdoors to get away from the musty pong that pervaded the place. It had plug-in air fresheners that barely covered the ingrained smell and to which I have a severe allergic response, so when we arrived The Wonderful Man had to pack me off to the car while he unplugged them and opened all the windows.

Sounds horrible grannyactivist. Apparently air fresheners, whether people have an allergic reaction to them or not, are a danger to health.

The smell of Jif/Cif cream cleaner always reminds me of holidays spent in Wales in a mobile home on a farm belonging to friends. They were lovely people and we always had great fun especially as our children were all the same age but it never ocurred to them to actually CLEAN the caravan for us.

I would spend the whole of the first day scrubbing the kitchen and small loo and shower room so they were fit to use. One year we took my brother and his very young family. They slept in a tent and we had all the small kids in with us.

I should have opted for the tent!!!

Our one and only (static) caravan holiday took place in 1979 near Herne Bay in Kent. I was seven months pregnant with baby no 2. I hadn't realised using the loo at night meant a scary walk on my own through long grass in the dark with just a torch, and then having to enter a toilet block populated by creepy-crawlies.

I cannot recall what we did about bathing, although we were visiting nearby relative's so maybe we used their facilities.

Honestly, seven months pregnant - what were we thinking? I've had no desire to go near caravan or canvas ever since.

Sorry, rogue apostrophe in relatives!

We rented a cottage in Launceston Cornwall it was converted from farm out buildings the interior walls were bare stone and were home to various creepy crawlies. I was pregnant with my first at the time. We took my mum and the dog with us. There was two three inches of dust and an old shoe under our bed. The kitchen was clean though. We did however have cows sticking their heads over the fence that ran alongside the patio.

I have a holiday let & am in the process of setting up two more. Standards are definitely higher now than in the past, generally speaking anyway! I've stayed in some right horrors over the years. I missed the tumble dryer thread, I'll have to look it up. I don't supply one, years of being a landlord have taught me that used incorrectly they break with alarming speed & lots of people don't know how to use them correctly. I stopped putting them in my residential lets years ago for that reason, they were costing me a fortune to keep replacing.

When my second baby was a few weeks old my husband suggested we go away for the break we hadn't managed to have because I was so ill with morning sickness during my pregnancy.

We rented what looked like a nice cottage in an idyllic setting in Devon. It turned out to be a grubby bungalow on a farm and was, consequently, full of flies and insects. One horrendous morning we woke to find ducks walking around the kitchen on which floor they had copiously pooped. Heating was nonexistant and the furntiure consisted of wartime utility items. There were no mod cons at all.

Never again. We are very boring holiday types now and go for comfort and familiarity. Unlike our friends who all jet off for long haul holidays and regale us with stories of illness, delays, breakdowns, no air-con in super-hot conditions and other 'pleasures' we head off to our own place in Devon for five star accommodation, a three hour journey door to door, food from Waitrose, heat, hot water, stunning coast and countryside and luxury. The mortgage costs us what they spend on one long haul a year for four.

Not a holiday let but a B&B. The beds had not been changed from the previous occupant so we had to sleep on top (crumbs etc). We were shown round by the daughter so had not met the owner and we were going to complain in the morning but the owner turned out to be a 6'2" Glaswegian brick built s* house. So we wolfed down breakfast and beat a hasty retreat.

Trip Advisor! If not listed there at all, then I'd be worried. Everyone has an opinion. So don't just go by the agency's comments. They usually only publish the good parts, if they publish any at all.

Just a week ago my daughter went to Pontins for a short break. It is fairly near to me so I booked and paid for it for her, to have time with the GC. I had specified that my GD is disabled with low immune system and they promised a 'deep clean'and assured me that the site was for families and very popular etc.

Suffice it to say, the place was filthy, peanuts on the floor, hairs in the plug holes, stinking carpet (wee we think) terrible beds. They left as soon as they could.

When I looked on Trip Advisor I saw hundreds of other people shocked int he same way by this company, this isn't an unfortunate event, this is a business model.

Calls to complaints are 13p per minute and you just get left hanging, on and on and on. I should think they make most of their profit on the phone lines.

Moral of this tale is check Trip Advisor before you book and be prepared...........

We recently hired a bungalow just outside Tenby. It was a great lesson to us to read the reviews and read between the lines in the brochure. On paper everything looked fine. The blurb said the owners lived next door but what we found was in fact they lived in the same house but had divided it up, the boiler and heating controls were on their side so we had to keep asking for heating to be put on- we had read the phrase ' all electricity included' and thought that meant heating too- we were cold and miserable. A review said that the beds were uncomfortable and the sofas sagging and uncomfortable. The owner had responded that she had put mattress toppers on- I pulled the bedding back to find an old duvet over a stained mattress. The sofas had been propped up with old cushions and blankets. After two days my back was agony. It wasn't actually dirty but it wasn't clean either. The owner had provided one J cloth and 2 toilet rolls for the week and said she was expecting four of us. The advertised welcome basket was a small loaf and a pint of milk! We were just so uncomfortable we went home after a few days. It was over £500 so we weren't pleased.

Even using agencies you have used succesfully before you can get a 'rogue'Rent3d a three bed cittage in Newlyn last tear Not so much dirty as underequipped and things kept going wrong-I opened our bedroom door one morning abd must have pulled a bit hard Couldn't get door to close properly again and spent rest of week sidling round it. Said double bedroom could accommodate only the bed .No wardrobe or even a chest (the description did not mention this )
The house was old but there is a point at which quirky becomes annoying
I'be used the well -known agency before and stayed recently in another of their cottages a friend had booked (lovely)
The above wasn't cheap either

We booked a gite in France once. Our party consisted of 4 adults and 2 small children. The picture in the brochure showed a beautiful white washed cottage. When we arrived it was a shock. It was filthy. You couldn't see out of the windows for dirt. There were fly papers hanging from the ceiling covered in flies. There was a hole in the kitchen floor which had been covered with lino. The shower was full of bricks. The sheets on the bed were wet with damp. We took the sheets off the bed and went into the 'garden' to try to dry them out on the line. The garden was littered with cans, bottles and cow pats. They had advertised a barbecue which was two house bricks on one side and three on the other with a rack from an oven laid across them! We had to stay one night as we were in a rural area and there was nowhere else to go. During the night we could hear something scratching at the door. It was horrendous. The next day we had to find alternative accommodation and pay again. On returning home, we did manage to get our money back eventually. The owner said 'no one else has complained, you must have very high standards'!!! REALLY?

When we first married we went an stayed in a caravan in Wales. It was in the middle of a field and was very very damp indeed. When we left we were supposed to empty the elsan into a slurry pit a few fields away. Being lazy, we just decided to heave the contents over the hedge (naughty, naughty!) on the grounds that no-one would know. We had not bargained for the elegant bits of pink toilet paper that were left hanging from the hedge!!

Good morning ladies! Was thinking............ can we turn this conversation round to our advantage and please tell each other of SUCCESSFUL and WELL MAINTAINED lets so that we don't have to rely on money-making websites or business people? Yes please!

Some years ago we rented an 'upmarket' country house, with two other families. Altogether we were 6 adults, 4 teenage boys and twin babies. We paid a fair bit through an agency, in order to get extra facilities, games room and grounds. On booking, in October, we paid a large deposit. After Christmas the owners decided that they would not honour our booking, unless we paid £500 damage retainer. We objected to this and a solicitors letter, regarding the initial contract was sent and they relented.

In the summer we arrived to a lovely house, full of antiques. But they had left all their personal things about, shampoo etc in the bathrooms, family photos and personal greeting cards! But the worst was the crockery, it was chipped, broken and glued together. We had to eat at two sittings so that we had enough plates! There was also a gardener and cleaner, who appeared creepily at different times of day and night!

KatyK you were lucky they had hung fly papers. If you rent a gite in the French countryside you are going to get livestock. We stayed in a very large, very expensive house a couple of years ago and we had snakes and scorpions.

harrigran We have stayed in many gites in France, some of which had livestock in the surrounding fields. Apart from the one I mentioned above, they were all lovely and spotless. This was a hovel. I took pictures with a view to a refund and I still have them. The place was unbelievable. Oh no snakes and scorpions! I would have been on the first ferry home.

We have usually been lucky but two incidents come to mind. The first was Hawick on the borders. It was an expensive let compared to our second week cottage in Inverness so we expected it to be quite good. When we got there the place was filthy. The two things I remember are baked bean deposits in the saucepan and toenail clippings in the bed! Owners were the farmers on the site
When we complained she said previous occupants had been friends and she had trusted them to clean. She brought us her saucepans and that was that. Oh and there was a mouse hole in the bathroom. We endured rather than enjoyed and would have gone home if not for the second week booking. The cheap cottage at Inverness was delightful.
The second was a gite near Annecy. It was crammed full of the owner's spare furniture and possessions, was dusty and immediately triggered my asthma. Worse was to come. The stairs were rotten. The bedroom was crammed full of beds. The double was a small bed with a double mattress so we kept falling off. Tried the single but that had broken slats. We stayed awake all night in the kitchen. Also, less easy to complain about, the whole place had a malevolent feel. An English couple lived in the village and when we told them brought round the Mairie who was shocked. The couple then kindly put us up for a couple of nights in their luxurious house until Gites de France found us an alternative.

What horror stories! Must be awful when you fork out hundreds of pounds and the place is almost uninhabitable.
I must have been very lucky. most of the times I've holidayed in rented apartments etc have been in the Whitby area and have been beyond excellent. There are several blocks of purpose built newish apartments in the harbour area and the ones I have rented have been beautiful - the owners' tastes were even reflected in such items as the lamps and even a few tasteful ornaments. I thought the days of grotty holiday lets was over.

Having experienced all the horrors of rented holiday accommodation we now opt for 3 and 4* hotels. That way we know what we're getting and paying for. However there has been one noteworthy exception which I can thoroughly recommend because we had a great holiday there in a beautiful part of the country. Have a look at

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw9tTuDe7PE

You won't be disappointed

So agree Radicalnan, we also went to Pontins (at Southport), we left after 3 days, the floor was so sticky we wiped our feet on the way out. So interesting that they didn't contact us after reading the feedback sheet!

Dd and family had a similar experience at Pontins at Camber Sands with dirty sheets and damp coming in through the walls.I don't know how they get away with it .Are they never checked ?