How to – Furnish a Holiday Home

It’s a slightly different How to Friday this week. A friend of mine recently got a job working with people who own holiday cottages on the Isle of Wight (amongst other places) and she started asking me for advice on which appliances are best for holiday homes and self catering hotels. So this post is “how to choose an appliance for a holiday cottage.”

I’m very aware that I’ve already written one huge post this week in “Can you beat a VAT rise?” and don’t want to go over the top so I’ve limited this discussion to fridge freezers, washing machines and cookers. Much thanks to Helen for her invaluable insight into the world of running a small business and access to her exhaustive knowledge of UK tourism (specifically Solent Coast holidays).

Simplicity – Not something you have to worry about for fridges but definitely worth bearing in mind for washing machines and cookers; no one wants to spend the first day of a holiday trying to figure out how to turn things on. As far as washing machines go they don’t come much more simple than the Indesit Moon. Whether you find a gas, electric or dual fuel cooker easier to use largely depends on what you have at home. For a simple but decent cooker you should look for something like the Cannon C60DHWF which doesn’t have loads of special features but isn’t lacking anything either.

Durability – While you can’t always guarantee that your guests will treat the house and fittings with respect, you can improve the chances that they will survive by having durable appliances. The easiest way to do this is to look for models with an extended warranty so take a look at our washing machines with a 5 year warranty, fridge freezers with a two year warranty and cookers with a 5 year warranty.

Cost - When you buy something for your home you only have to consider what you expect from it. When buying for a holiday cottage your fittings are an asset to your business so you want them to be impressive without actually costing that much. To that end you can find range cookers like the Flavel AP10FRKP and American fridge freezers like the Samsung RSA1WTMH at reasonable prices.