Holiday Letting Tips: Child Friendly Cottages

With the growing staycation trend, many holidaymakers now actively search for child friendly cottages.

Ensuring the whole family is catered for is extremely important, and helps parents to relax a bit more while on holiday.

Check out our top tips below for suggestions on how to make your existing holiday let child-friendly…

Interior Safety

Child friendly holiday letting must follow some basic safety guidelines to protect little ones from every day hazards. Things to consider are:

• Doors & windows – doorstops and hinge guards can protect little fingers getting trapped, and window catches can stop children from opening the windows themselves. Blind cords should be securely attached to a wall connector
• Secure your furniture – make sure all loose furniture pieces are secure and can’t topple over.
• Lockable cupboards – any hazardous materials such as cleaning products or medicines/first aid kits should be safely put away in a locked cupboard, or well out of reach of any children.
• Kitchen drawers & cupboards – you could also consider child-proof catches on drawers and cupboards to stop little ones from routing around and potentially harming themselves.
• Electrical items – ensure all electrical cords are safely tucked away out of reach, and consider fitting plug socket covers in any sockets not in use.
• Fireplaces – if your property has an open fire or log burner, make sure to keep fire tools out of children’s reach and supply a fire guard to be used at all times.
• Upstairs – non-slip bath mats are a great addition to child friendly cottages, and maybe even a stair gate for extra safety.

Exterior Safety

Don’t forget about the exterior areas of your holiday property when thinking about being child-friendly. A few ideas include:

• Gardens – create a secure, enclosed garden area that children can enjoy. This could mean putting up a wall, gate, fence or hedge to provide privacy as well as safety.
• Ponds / swimming pools – if you have a pond, swimming pool, or stream in your garden, make sure it is fenced off and can’t be reached by any little ones unsupervised.
• Decking – consider removing any existing decking if possible – it can be a hazard even to adults, becoming extremely slippery when wet.
• Gravel paths – replace gravel paths with paving stones or concrete pathways, to eliminate the risk of children choking on small stones.
• Plants – what plants does your garden contain? It’s best to double check there’s nothing poisonous or sharp (for example foxgloves or rose thorns) and remove these from child friendly cottages wherever possible.
• Hot tubs – we recommend no children under the age of 8 years using hot tubs for health and safety reasons. Make sure your guests are aware of this by putting notices around the hot tub and in your property welcome folder too.

Additional Features for Child Friendly Cottages

Child friendly cottages should not only consider the health and safety of families, but also recognise how to make things easier for them during their holiday. Some things to think about could be:

• Cots & beds – travel cots are usually best for holiday cottages as they don’t take up too much room and can be packed away if guests don’t require them. You could also think about having at least one room with twin beds, or smaller children’s beds for those that are too big for a cot.
• Highchairs – bulky items like these are difficult to bring on holiday, so guests would greatly appreciate it if they were provided in their holiday home. Ensure you get a highchair with safety straps and regularly check for any damage, replacing immediately if any part is broken.
• Storage space – when catering for families, remember to provide plenty of room to store prams and carriers (such as a large entrance hall, utility room, or secure porch). It’s also helpful to have a bit of extra cupboard space in the kitchen for baby food & bottles.
• Toys & games – a selection of children’s books, games and DVD’s are perfect for keeping little ones occupied on rainy days. Outdoor toys are also great fun if you’ve got the garden space.
• Night lights – some properties are in rural locations with no street lighting, so if little ones wake in the night we recommend plug in sensor lights especially near stairs/steps

Read more helpful advice with our blog on How to childproof your holiday home 

Making sure your holiday let is child-friendly doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult – Just doing a few small tweaks to your existing property can make a big difference! To help you with a risk assessment and plan of action for your property, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has resources for businesses.

If  you would like more information or are interested in joining Lakelovers, please contact us on 015394 88855 or email us at owners@lakelovers.co.uk.

Disclaimer

As a holiday letting owner you are responsible for compliance with health & safety laws, regulations and guidance, and for having suitable insurances in place (not Sykes Holiday Cottages or its brands (Sykes)). From time to time, Sykes shares information with you on the topic of health and safety and insurance. When it does so, it is not providing you with advice (legal, financial, tax or otherwise); please seek your own as you see fit. In addition, it is not making any representations or warranties about the information being complete or free from errors or inaccuracies. Sykes shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising under or in connection with your reliance on it.