The Great French Booking Debacle

When Lee started his new job, I knew there'd be two holiday-related disadvantages: 1) we'd have less money to spend on holidays; and 2) we'd have less time to actually go on holiday. What I didn't expect, however, was limitations on those six weeks. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Lee is working on a project, timing is crucial, and he was told he wasn't allowed any leave in the months leading up to the system going live. Even worse, the goalposts have been constantly moving since he started. Initially, he was told no leave in January, February or March. This wasn't too bad - it meant we couldn't go away in February half-term but it still left us the Easter holidays and May half-term. Then it was changed - no leave in March, April or May. Well, May was too late, as we'd already booked something for half-term. But this meant we couldn't go anywhere in the Easter holidays. It gave us back February half-term, of course - but by this point, it was already February and a bit late to book anything. We managed one day's leave and a night in London (see London - a budget-break blog). Then the goalposts moved yet again - no leave in May, June or July. This gave us back the (preferred) opportunity to go away at Easter, rather than throw away the leave altogether - but it was less than two weeks until the Easter holidays...

This is how we found ourselves, with ten days to go, trying desperately to book a cottage in France. Initially I was looking in the UK. I remembered the extremely cheap Welsh cottage (Don't judge a book - or a house - by its cover) that we stayed in last year (because that's another thing - we haven't actually got any money for a holiday), and had a look to see if it was available. It wasn't. Then I thought about Travelodges - we stayed in one for £25 a night a couple of years back. Sadly, I couldn't find any for less than £35 a night - still cheap, of course, but when you add on breakfasts and dinners out, it becomes rather less budget. Then Lee reminded me we had some ferry vouchers to use (one of the perks of being part of a winning quiz team!) so we started looking at France. And that's where it got more complicated...

I scanned rental websites, initially looking at the Nord Pas de Calais region - we didn't want to spend too long travelling if we were only going for a few days. There wasn't a lot that was big enough and cheap enough, and what there was wasn't overly appealing. I extended my search to Normandy and Belgium and finally found something. It was a pretty little cottage in Normandy, with beautiful gardens, and it was just £37 a night. I clicked on 'make an enquiry' and, in my best French, asked if we could book the cottage for our chosen dates.

On the plus side, booking last-minute means you may get a bargain. On the downside, there is less available. Another downside, which we hadn't considered, is the difficulty in paying. Hotels are easy - you book and pay online, then and there, and it's all sorted. Cottages, however, are less straightforward - you normally pay a deposit in advance and the balance nearer the time. You also usually need a damage deposit. When we've booked cottages in the UK in the past, we've always paid by cheque. I wracked my brains, trying to remember what we've done when we've hired cottages in France before. Hopefully, the owner of the cottage would soon reply and tell us what we needed to do.

She replied early the next morning. The cottage was available. We could pay in cash on arrival. Perfect. We would also need to pay the deposit in cash (Euros), which she'd return on departure. Not so perfect - it would be a struggle getting hold of €250, even if we were going to get it back, plus we would lose on exchange fees changing it up and changing it back again. Still, it wasn't as if our English chequebook would be valid, so it was fair enough. She also asked to see a copy of our holiday insurance certificate.

I thought this was a little odd. I've never been asked for an insurance certificate before when renting a cottage. I replied that I was confused - we have travel insurance through our bank, but it covers us for accidents, missed flights, etc. Why did she want to see it? She replied that we needed civil liability insurance to cover the property and her neighbours in case we caused any damage or harm. You must remember, at this point, that our conversations were in French. Hey, I got an A at French GCSE and can order lunch with the best of them, but this was getting beyond my capabilities. I didn't understand the concept, let alone the French - surely it was up to her to insure her property and not us? Lee and I read through the emails and suddenly it clicked - if we had insurance, we didn't have to worry about the deposit. I emailed her back and asked if I had interpreted correctly. Apparently, I hadn't.

At this point, I started researching whether this was usual (it didn't seem to be), and called in the help of a couple of French friends. They confirmed that she wanted a certificate of civil liability in addition to a deposit. I didn't want to pay for insurance on top of the rental, but thought I'd check through my travel insurance policy just in case. And there it was: third party liability. They would pay up to £2 million for damage or injury caused to property or persons by me. Perfect. This was what she wanted. I'd never been asked for it before, but it was obviously a standard part of holiday insurance and she just wanted to check we were covered in case we burned the house down or murdered her neighbours. Relieved that I'd finally gotten to the bottom of it and we could get on with looking forward to the holiday, I attached our policy summary to my next email and started researching the area. Then she emailed back. No, that wasn't sufficient. She wanted to see a certificate with my name on it, stating that I was covered for a stay at her particular property for the relevant travel dates, as well as my birth certificate, wedding photos, A-level results and a letter from my mother. 

Needless to say I was fed up by this point. I emailed to say we didn't have such a certificate and that we would have to cancel the booking, She didn't even reply. This left us with just eight days until our ferry left from Dover (I posted the ferry vouchers on the Tuesday afternoon and had a confirmation email Wednesday morning - can't fault P&O for efficiency!). At this rate we were going to be sleeping in the car.

I started scrolling back through the original rental website, as well as lots of others. The problem now, in addition to finding the perfect cottage with availability in a week's time, was finding somewhere we could actually book quickly. We didn't want to enquire and then wait for the owner to get back to us. We didn't want to email back and forth about insurance certificates and payments. We wanted to book and pay instantly and know it was all sorted out. I soon noticed on the HomeAway page that some properties had a 'book now' button rather than an 'enquire now' button. You could book and pay online, with no worries about changing up money or bloody insurance certificates. This was what we wanted. We eventually found the perfect property with a 'book now' button. It only had one bedroom, so Lee & I would be on the sofa bed in the lounge, but it was part of a château and in a perfect location - and it was cheap. I clicked 'book now' and input our details. I was a little concerned that it only wanted a deposit for the payment - it looked like we'd still have to pay the balance and the damage deposit in cash on arrival. Still, it all looked more straightforward than the last cottage. I clicked 'enter'. 'Thank you for your booking,' it told me. 'The owner now has 24 hours in which to accept or reject the booking.' What??? I thought we'd booked! I thought we were safe! I went to bed crossing my fingers. I woke up in the morning and checked my messages straight away, hoping to find a confirmation. Nothing. Twenty-four hours and sixteen minutes (not that I was counting) after we submitted the booking, I got an email. 'We are sorry, we have not been able to obtain confirmation from the owner, so your booking has been cancelled.' Noooooo!!!! This time the following week, we would be in France. With nowhere to stay.

We decided to try a different tack: Airbnb. We'd never used it before, but we knew people who had, all successfully. Time to branch out. We decided to look a little closer to home again in Nord Pas de Calais. We looked through a few - not only did we want the perfect, AVAILABLE house, but we also wanted one with a few reviews. I know everyone has to start somewhere and I'm all for giving people a chance, but maybe not the first time we use Airbnb and maybe not with less than a week to go. We finally found somewhere. 'Book it, quick!' I said to Lee. He pressed 'book'. 'What? It needs a photo!' he wailed. 'That's to make it a bit more personal,' I replied. 'Come on!' 'I'll do it in the morning,' he said, and went to bed. Needless to say, I didn't have the best night's sleep - six days and counting...

The following morning when I got up, Lee had submitted a photo. Apparently, he'd had a few goes at taking a selfie and actually managed one that didn't make him look like a serial killer - I hoped this would bode well for our reservation being accepted. He clicked 'book'. 'The owner has 24 hours... blah, blah, blah...' We'd been here before. This whole stupid idea was beginning to feel doomed (well, okay, it had felt doomed since the first email about insurance). On the plus side, we could pay for it all in one go and there was no damage deposit to worry about - making it extra important for Lee to look trustworthy in his photo!

I spent the rest of the day on tenterhooks. Every time Lee's phone buzzed, I asked 'Is it them?' We spent the afternoon in Folkestone, and I was constantly looking out over the sea wondering whether or not we'd actually be in France this time the following week. Finally, we got the email. Booking accepted. Phew! Now all we had to worry about was catching the ferry, finding the apartment and hoping the owner wasn't a serial killer. Hopefully this time next week, I'll be enjoying our French apartment, planning a blog about the advantages of Airbnb.

Incidentally, I received an email this morning from the owner of the château apartment. It wasn't available. Er, yeah - a bit late if it had been! Funnily enough, I haven't heard anything more from the owner of the original cottage, but I wish her luck with her civil liability insurance. Still wondering if it's standard practice for some people or if she just didn't like the sound of us - and that was without having seen Lee's psychopath selfie...

London - a budget-break blog

If you read my last blog (Sick of holidays?), you'll know my short break in London wasn't exactly a roaring success. To be fair, this was more to do with whingeing, tired, sicky children than anything else. If you want a cheap break in winter, London is actually a pretty good bet. Yes, you can stay in plenty of other places for cheaper (although London accommodation is surprisingly reasonable if you do your research). And in the summer, or even spring or Autumn, these other places might be a great option - country walks, lounging on the beach, picnics in the park and general wandering are all lovely ways to spend the day when the weather is good. But in winter, when you don't really want to be outside, cheap options are pretty limited - which is where London comes into its own. London has plenty to offer on a sunny day too, of course - wanders along the South Bank, around Camden, up Shooter's Hill or around Highgate Cemetery are all nice ways to spend an afternoon. And there are plenty of places, such as Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament, that are worth seeing from the outside - we popped past the Monument, the ruins of St Dunstan in the East and St Paul's Cathedral during this particular break. But the museums are what really make London the perfect winter budget destination.

The Monument to the Great Fire of London

St Paul's Cathedral

Entertainment

The beauty of London is the large amount of free museums. If I'm feeling flush, I will happily put some money in the visitor donation boxes, but it's good to know there are plenty of free options for leaner times. There are many well-known museums that you can visit for free, such as the Natural History Museum, the V&A, the Science Museum and the Tate Modern (a comprehensive list can be found here). As anyone who's visited any of these will know, we're not talking amateur museums that you wouldn't even pay 50p for - these are large, historical buildings, holding impressive collections, interactive displays and everything you need to keep you interested for a day or more. There are also many lesser-known free museums in London, so you can keep coming back and there will always be something new to see - although, to be fair, you could visit the Natural History Museum alone a hundred times and still not see everything.

Another such museum, holding over 3.5 million objects in its collection, is the British Museum. This is a museum we have visited several times, and decided to go back to on this trip because Finn has been studying the Saxons and wanted to see the Sutton Hoo hoard. The museum is so vast that it is a little overwhelming, and although it has plenty for children to see, it is not as family-friendly as, say, the Science or Natural History Museums. It reminds me of the Louvre in Paris, both in terms of its size and its collections, and I find it is best to visit with an idea of what you want to see and leave the rest for another day.

Inside the British Museum

Imitating art

Imitating art

Helmet from Sutton Hoo burial

Shield from Sutton Hoo burial

The British Museum tired the children out, having travelled up that morning, and we spent the rest of the day wandering and checking into the hotel. The following day, we visited the Museum of London, a rather different type of museum. It's much smaller than the British Museum and in a modern building, but I'm still surprised that it is not more well-known. It basically takes you on a walk through history, with a particular - though not exclusive - focus on London. There are lots of artefacts to see but also lots of information boards and interactive displays. It appeals to the same part of me that likes Ikea, because there is a logical route and progression through the museum. It is more family-friendly, and the scale means that it is actually possible to see everything - having said that, we only got as far as 1666 and the Great Fire of London before the children were ready to leave and move on to something else.

Great Fire of London exhibit

Dylan being a 17th century fireman

We finished our second day with a visit to the Tate Britain. I first discovered this by accident, embarrassingly enough, when I was aiming to go to the Tate Modern and walked in the wrong direction along the South Bank (I should probably add that it isn't actually on the south bank at all - I really was very lost). As you might imagine, the Tate Britain is a smaller, more manageable version of the Tate Modern. There are plenty of interesting paintings, sculptures and installations, from the well-known (Tracey Emin's Unmade Bed was a highlight, if not necessarily for the right reasons!) to the unknown. I find art galleries are actually a surprisingly good destination for my children, as art can be appreciated (or not) on any level - they are quick to give their opinions on what they see, and enjoy interpreting some of the less obvious works. An hour or two here rounded off our day nicely - although, as always, I found myself wishing I could spend a bit longer without 'Can we go now?' in my ear.

Tracey Emin's Unmade Bed

Travel

In terms of getting to London, the more people you are, the cheaper it is to go by car. The train fare for one person may not be too much different from the fuel costs (or possibly cheaper, depending on where you live - train fares from Kent, however, are sadly not good value). However, once you start adding fares for a family of four - children don't go free on Southeastern Trains - driving becomes a far cheaper option. Of course, driving to London is one thing, but driving around London is another - not to mention the exorbitant parking. A frequent option for us on day trips is to drive to the O2 and park at the train station there (NOT the O2 car park, which also has exorbitant prices!). It's right next to North Greenwich tube station and costs £11 to park all day (and only £6 on Sundays!). This is not such a good option for an overnighter, so this time we drove to Eltham and parked for free on the street nearish Eltham train station. The only downside is that, although children are free on the Underground, they are not free on the train, so we had to pay for tickets for them to travel into London and back - this was still slightly cheaper than a day's parking, though! Once you're in London, travel is easy. As I mentioned already, children travel free on the tube, which is brilliant. We used our contactless bank cards as the equivalent of Oyster cards - much less hassle and slightly cheaper than buying travelcards. If you only want to make one small journey in London, the tube prices aren't so good but if, like us, you're travelling around, one price for all your travel makes lots of sense and works out pretty reasonable - our journey from Eltham was included in this too.

Food

Let's be honest, eating out is rarely cheap, and a large chunk of any holiday spending usually goes on meals. This is another time when you're at a disadvantage going somewhere in winter, as summer picnics are a cheap option, whether bringing along a packed lunch or buying a sandwich or a pasty form a bakery or supermarket once you're there. Another great option for London in dry/not-cold weather is to grab some street food from Camden Lock market - there are loads of little kiosks selling a variety of different cuisines for not much money. On this break, to keep costs down, we did stop at a supermarket to buy lunch, which we ate while walking. Not the most luxurious lunch, and a bit chilly, but it did the job. We also made sure we filled up at breakfast so that we weren't too hungry. Breakfast turned out to be a very good deal - for just £9 on top of our hotel price, all four of us ate as much breakfast as we wanted. It has to be the best budget hotel breakfast I've ever had, with a big selection of hot and cold food, so none of us were feeling too hungry at lunchtime.

Dinner was probably the most expensive part of the weekend, as we decided we deserved to treat ourselves a little. That said, we still made sure we saved where possible. There are no doubt plenty of cheap and delicious one-off restaurants in London, but I'm not a 'regular' enough to know about them! Plus sometimes, when you're dining with children, it is just easier to go for the chains, where you know they're family-friendly, have kids' menus and provide some sort of activity sheet. We opted for TGI Fridays. The main reason for this was because it had been my birthday a few days before, and I got an email from TGIs, offering me free desserts for my birthday. Sadly, the offer only extended to adults - however, a couple of days later, I got an email with a half-term children's offer for free dessert if they could name ten famous bears (having spent ages thinking up at least 20, in case they needed ten each, no one ever actually asked us!). As we haven't got a local TGIs, there was pulled pork on the menu and the free desserts were huge, we were happy with this. I would recommend signing up to all the chain restaurants, if you can cope with the emails, as there are often offers for money off, two for one or something free. It's also worth checking Facebook pages in advance, especially for smaller/non-chain restaurants. I would also recommend getting hold of a Tastecard or similar if you eat out regularly - we have a Gourmet Society card, which has various offers for various restaurants. They're often not valid for evenings or weekends, and you usually have to book in advance, but you can still get some good deals, and we've more than saved on the cost. Cafe Rouge is one restaurant using the scheme where offers are valid every day and you don't need to book in advance, so we stopped there for dinner at Bluewater on our way home, and got 25% off our bill.

Accommodation

When it comes to staying in London on the cheap, my hotel preference matches my choice of family restaurant - chains are safer. I've stayed in many cheap-but-still-lovely hotels and B&Bs around the country and outside of it, but I've learned that, in London, cheap is usually cheap for a reason. Again, it matters slightly less when you don't have children, but when you're travelling with your family it's extra important that your room is clean and not too small and that your hotel isn't in an undesirable area - or, worse, full of undesirable guests. At least with a chain, you know what you're getting. It may not be cute or quaint, it won't surprise you, but you know you're getting a certain standard. You know it will be clean and comfortable, you know you'll have a TV and a kettle, you know your breakfast is unlikely to give you food-poisoning. I've often stayed in Travelodges in London for reasonable prices, but over the last year or so, I've noticed Holiday Inns are also pricing competitively. It's worth doing lots of research with Travelodge, Holiday Inn and Premier Inn to see what you can find for a reasonable price. The other advantage of the afore-mentioned chains is that all rooms accommodate up to two children for no extra cost, so they're particularly good options for families. The beauty of London is that most places are easy to get to on the tube, so it is worth staying slightly out of the centre for the sake of saving a small fortune. On this occasion, we stayed at the Holiday Inn: London - West, near North Acton tube station, for just £54 for the night (plus our £9 breakfast!). To illustrate what a bargain our room was, I've included my Trip Advisor review below. Of course, I've left out the bit about Finn throwing up all over the bathroom and me having to spend the night on the kids' sofa bed!

Rather grey view from our hotel room - spot The Shard!

We stayed here for a night in February and were very pleased. The check-in was straightforward and friendly. The room was a reasonable size, with a comfy bed and pillows. We stayed as a family, so the sofa bed was made up into a double for the children - not quite so comfy but good enough! There was a flat-screen TV with all the usual Freeview channels (and a little welcome message!) and tea/coffee-making facilities. The bathroom was clean with a large walk-in shower rather than a bath. We couldn't fault breakfast at all - a hot and cold buffet with a large selection including pancakes (always a winner!). It is a little on the outskirts of London but just a couple of minutes walk from North Acton station, which is only 15 minutes from Oxford Circus on the central line. There is also a Tesco Express, a Subway and a couple of other places between the station and the hotel, which is handy. And the hotel's still close enough to central London to get some good views from the higher floors! I've bumped my rating up to 5/5 because of the bargain price we paid - just £63 including breakfast, and the children stayed and ate free. You'd struggle to get a better deal than that in London!