Inadequate kitchen equipment in holiday accommodation.

vegansrock

We always take our own sharp knives, a large wok and extra tea towels as there are never enough in holiday homes. This includes the v expensive CenterParcs which had a tiny frig in a 4 bedroom villa. My OH also takes his toolbox , as he often ends up mending something in the house.

That was very poignant for me vegansrock , my late DH always took his toolkit and it was nearly always needed! I don’t drive so self catering holidays are now by train and with family - they don’t take kitchen knives, tea towels pillows or tool kits as we used to !

We always take our own sharp knives, a large wok and extra tea towels as there are never enough in holiday homes. This includes the v expensive CenterParcs which had a tiny frig in a 4 bedroom villa. My OH also takes his toolbox , as he often ends up mending something in the house.

Ok..lol.hardly world shattering..lol...you had to use 2 saucepans??? NO...that is terrible..Im sorry...but self catering is not for yoU!!

Always notify the owner immediately you find something missing or inadequate. If a guest doesn't speak up then the problem carries on. I had an excellent review recently but they commented about the awful tin opener which surprised me until I discovered that my fabulous new one had been stolen by a previous guest. Thanks for that.
I have a big fridge freezer for my sleeps 8 which had all the drawers washed last week. I forgot to check the little built in fridge ice box until I was leaving and realised that it was a bit iced up - still usable but didn't look very nice. Oops. First job for me next friday I think!
I welcome all constructive criticism. I want my guests to have the best holiday.

What I can't stand about holiday lets are the sofas nearly always faux leather. I always take throws with me to make them more comfortable.

We recently stayed in an air b and b, kitchen quite well eauipped but the washing machine drawer black and slimy and the tunble dryer wouldn't dry the clothes. When I opened the filter drawer it was completely jammed up with lint and damp. Needless to say I left a strong message about the horrendous fire risk this was.

One place we went was disgusting ... oven was full of cobwebs! Kitchen coated in grease. Beds .... words fail me! The teenagers slept on the floor it was that disgusting!
We left the next day.
It had been advertised in the local mag by a couple who were solicitors .... we gave up trying to get pur money back!

That is disgraceful and so disappointing. Definitely complain and leave all your comments on their website.
We have rented large properties for special celebrations in the past with reputable companies, and were never disappointed.
Hopefully, you will get a well deserved refund, but this doesn’t compensate for your disappointment.

We regularly find accommodation online that says (say) sleeps 10 but the only dining table clearly only seats 6.

I have been looking this week for large properties and see this again and again.

Last year though we stayed in a very well equipped holiday house with everything in it.
garlic press, French press and coffee pod machine, teapot, decent knives, stick blender...

I didn't need my kitchen knives!

We usually choose an apartment a couple of days in advance as we travel around so we take pot luck, often we get really nice discounted apartments occasionally sub standard. So it's all part of the adventure for us, to be honest as long as we have a microwave and a kettle it's OK

In the UK we choose a Premier Inn, at around £75 a night they are pretty good, everything else gets compared to that.

JaneJudge

Not having a compatible frying pan is really poor.

Yes. Do you know, that is the one item we replaced every six months because I'm sure people used them at the beach to build mud castles. They were always scratched and bent, apart from the le creuset one, which I assume was too heavy to use! 😆

Not having a compatible frying pan is really poor.

I’m going to suggest that it might have had some really serviceable, good quality cookwear……….that was stolen by a holiday maker!
Your best course of action is to complaint to the owners of the property, if they use a cleaning company they might not be aware of the problem if they hadn’t cleaned and inspected themselves.
You might get lucky and get compensated but why didn’t you complain at the time?

Many years ago we stayed at a very nice holiday house, supposedly for four people. There was only one saucepan, so we bought more, which we obviously took home with us. There were no kitchen knives, but several pizza cutters, a baking tin for reheating pizzas and a list of pizza restaurants and take aways in the vicinity! We just laughed and bought what we needed. We used what we’d bought in our caravan!

We stay self catering because of the dogs. We do cook and take ready prepared veg, marinated meat, something quick for the first night. We also take everything kitchen wise we will need. We prefer to use our own, it's all excellent quality, sharp knives etc and I know who used it last and how well it has been washed. If only I could take my own sofa! The ones in most holiday lets are uncomfortable to say the least. We used to caravan and motorhome but sadly had to give ut up when it became too much for my husband.

winterwhite

That sounds very poor, but renting holiday houses when the DC were young this was almost part of the fun. I learned to always take a sieve, a wooden spoon and a cheese grater. There were never enough bedside lights so we always ended up buying at least one. And there were always dainty tea cups and saucers. Buying our holiday mugs on day 1 was always looked forward to..

TBH I don’t think of it as fun, not after paying ££££ for what was supposed to be the highest rated accommodation.

At least we have plenty of mugs! But I remember having to go and buy some in France, when all they had provided was teeny little demi-tasse cups!

I would have expected the lack of kitchen equipment to have lost it its 5 star status. Did it occur to you when you got back to check whether the 5 star rating was genuine. We once went away at very short notice, booked a 4 star hotel and it was OK but certainly not 4 star. We checked with Visit England when we got home and they had no record of the hotel. It was a very big grand Victorian hotel that had probably been 4 star 10 or 20 years previously and their website and sign boards still said it was 4 star.

I would have been on to the agency demanding a return of some of my rental money as the property was not equipped as stated.

We usually go on self catering holidays and have usually found the kitchens well stocked, I do, however always travel with a sharp knife and a small knife sharpener.

Thanks for all comments.
There will definitely be a critical review! It was rented through an agency, not directly from the owner,

We would have bought a compatible frying pan today, but it’s Sunday and the only hardware shop for a long way, is closed.
I bought an egg lifter-upper the other day, but I’ll be taking it home with me as a spare!
I will certainly not be leaving any kitchen equipment we have been obliged to buy!

I would definitely be contacting the owners /company you booked with while I am there to let them know you are not happy with everything, they may find a way to put things right. But if no effort is made I would definitely leave a bad review .

That’s not as it should be for sure. We’ve had rentals over many years. Most have been well equipped, those which haven’t have had deficiencies rectified as soon as the owner or agent knew. On one occasion we were told items had left with the previous guests and on another than the owner didn't expect guests to do anything other than eat out. Always best to let them know immediately.

Talking of visitors bringing basic essentials to holiday lets.

A couple staying at our place obviously thought we didn’t provide a mirror. I was cleaning up after they left and found a large mirror about 2.5 ft tall and maybe 2ft wide. It looked like it had been ripped off an old wooden bathroom cabinet. The mirror was very worn and it was all really tatty.

I messaged them to ask what it was and she said “oh that’s our mirror but you can keep it.” 🤣. I binned it. Never seen such a piece of old tat.

A couple of years ago I booked a place for 6 for me and my family of 4 . When my DD and family arrived ahead of me they were greeted with a freezer totally frozen up and the door ajar. There was barely enough crockery for one meal setting, so the dishwasher had to be set after each meal, and very few pans . We complained to the agent plus a few other issues such as loose tiles on the shower floor and 2 of the bedrooms were unacceptably small . It was expensive and I felt did not match up to the price. They gave us an extra night free but I noticed my very underrated review did not appear on the website!

That sounds very poor, but renting holiday houses when the DC were young this was almost part of the fun. I learned to always take a sieve, a wooden spoon and a cheese grater. There were never enough bedside lights so we always ended up buying at least one. And there were always dainty tea cups and saucers. Buying our holiday mugs on day 1 was always looked forward to..

That doesn't sound very good to me. There should be sufficient equipment fir the number of people, I assume there's 8 chairs to sit on?!

We had a full set of le creuset saucepans and casseroles, plus stainless steel ones and Tefal frying pans in our holiday houses. Enough cutlery and crockery to have one set in the dishwasher and another in the drawer.
You've paid good money, so you should expect good quality. I'd leave a very average review.

We used to find it was the other way round! The equipment in the kitchen and the kitchen itself were always far superior to anything we had at home!