Lodge or cottage: which suits a family break better?

What do you actually get in a lodge that a cottage does not?

One floor. Every home we let is single storey, so there are no stairs between a sleeping child and the kitchen, and nothing to carry up.

The car at the door. Parking for two cars on the plot. That matters more than it sounds on the day you arrive with a full boot and a restless dog.

A deck you can use. All twelve have one, and six have doors that open straight onto it. On a wet week that deck is where the boots live, and on a dry one it is where you eat.

And facilities without driving. Each park has its own, and what there is to do on the park goes through them park by park.

Where does a cottage win?

Walking out of the front door into somewhere. A cottage in a village puts a pub, a shop and a church within a few minutes on foot. A park puts a managed estate around you instead, and however good the grounds are, that is a different thing.

Character, if you want it. Beams, flagstones, a fireplace that has been there two hundred years. A lodge is a well-built modern box with good glazing, and it is honest about that.

And privacy. Homes on a park are closer together than houses in a field. If what you want is nobody within a hundred yards, book the cottage.

Which is better with a dog?

Usually the lodge, for reasons that are practical rather than sentimental. Eleven of the twelve homes take dogs, two per home, at a single fee for the whole stay rather than per night. It is £30 at Marwell Court and £25 at the other two parks.

The floors are hard through the living space and there is somewhere to put a wet coat and a wet dog. Nothing in a lodge is irreplaceable, which changes how relaxed you are about a wet tail near it.

A cottage can be excellent with a dog and many are. What you are checking for is whether the garden is actually enclosed, because that is the single thing that decides how the week goes. Taking a dog covers the rest.

Which works better for two families?

It depends entirely on bathrooms, and this is the question people get wrong. Our homes run from one bathroom to three, and the two that sleep ten have three.

Two families in a four-bedroom home with three bathrooms works. Two families in a four-bedroom cottage with one bathroom and a downstairs loo does not, however pretty the cottage is. Count bathrooms before bedrooms.

The other thing to count is living space. Large lodges here are open-plan, which is good for one group and harder for two who want a quiet corner each. A cottage with two separate rooms downstairs can be better for that, and it is worth thinking about before you book either.

How do the costs compare?

Compare the total rather than the headline, because the two are priced differently. Our rate starts at £129 a night and includes the clean between guests, linen made up, towels, parking, full-fibre wifi and every utility. There is no changeover fee and no damage deposit.

Cottage lets commonly add a cleaning fee and hold a deposit, and some meter the electricity or charge for oil. None of that makes a cottage worse value. It makes the two headline figures not comparable, which is a different problem.

Write down what each one will actually cost you for the week, including the dog and the clean. Then decide on the thing you were really choosing between, which was never the money.