Hiring a hoist and a shower chair for two weeks in a rented apartment, how far ahead does that need booking?

We've found an apartment that looks genuinely good, ground floor, level shower, wide doors, all confirmed with photos after reading the threads on here. The bit we haven't solved is equipment.

At home my wife uses a mobile hoist and a shower chair. Obviously neither is coming on a plane. So the plan is to hire both at the other end for the fortnight. What I don't know is how far ahead you book that sort of thing, whether they deliver to a holiday rental or whether you collect, and what it's likely to cost. Every website I've looked at wants me to ring for a quote, which always makes me think the number is bad.

Also, does anyone ask the apartment owner first? Feels like the sort of thing a landlord might not love, a hoist turning up.

Ask the owner. Definitely ask the owner. Not because they can say no exactly but because somebody has to let the delivery in, and if you've not warned them the driver turns up to a locked door and you lose your slot.

We hired a profiling bed once for my sister and the owner was lovely about it, moved the existing bed into the second room. But he needed a fortnight's notice to do that, and he said if we'd sprung it on him on arrival day it would have been a flat no.

Ring for a quote isn't always a bad sign, it's usually because the price depends on the delivery distance and how long you want it. When I hired a scooter for a week the phone price was less than I'd feared.

What I'd nail down on that call: delivery AND collection both included, what happens if it breaks at the weekend, and whether they show you how to use it or just leave it in the hall. Mine got dumped in the hall.

Neil, the direct answer on timing: for a hoist I would start looking 8 to 12 weeks out and have it confirmed no later than about 4 weeks before you fly, and for a shower chair 2 to 3 weeks is usually plenty. The gap between those two numbers is not fussiness, it is stock. Shower chairs and commodes are commodity items that most hire companies hold in quantity. Hoists are not: a company may hold only a few in a given area, they are seasonal, and in a busy resort in high summer they go early.

What it depends on, and this is the part that catches people, is that a hoist is not one item. You need the hoist itself, and a sling, and the sling has to be the right type and size for your wife, and slings and hoists from different makers are not always compatible. So when you ring, do not ask for a hoist, ask what model of hoist, what safe working load, what sling types they supply, and what sizes. Take a photograph of the sling she uses at home and the label on it, because the label carries the model and size and that one photo answers half their questions. Ask about the charger and the battery too if it is powered, and whether they leave a spare battery, since a flat hoist on a Sunday is a genuinely stuck situation.

Practical points on top of Sue's list, which is a good one. Ask whether they demonstrate on delivery or just leave the equipment, because an unfamiliar hoist and an unfamiliar sling is exactly where injuries happen, to the carer as much as the person being lifted. Ask what the callout is for a fault, and get a phone number that is answered outside office hours. And confirm the collection date in writing, because being charged for an extra week after you have flown home is a common and annoying way to end a holiday. The whole hire process, including what to check on arrival, is in hiring mobility equipment abroad, and the room measurements that decide whether a mobile hoist can even be used are in accessible accommodation.

One caution. A mobile hoist needs clearance under the bed for the legs and floor space to turn, and a rented apartment with a divan base or a bed against a wall can defeat it entirely, so ask the owner for a photo under the bed and of the space beside it. And the part that is not mine to answer from here: which hoist and which sling are appropriate for your wife, and whether you are safe to hoist her single handed in an unfamiliar room, are questions for the OT or therapist who knows her transfers. Please take the specifics to them before you commit to the booking rather than after.

The sling photo tip is quietly brilliant and I've never seen anyone say it before. Stealing that.

Only thing I'd add from a different angle, check the apartment's lift and door widths against the hoist's footprint before you hire, not after. A friend hired a lovely big hoist that would not fit through the bathroom door of the place he'd rented, which made it an expensive coat rack for a week.

Booked. Hoist confirmed for the fortnight, they had two in the area and one was already gone for our dates, so the 8 to 12 weeks warning was not an exaggeration.

Photographed the sling label, sent it over, and they've matched the size. Owner is fine with it and is meeting the driver himself. Shower chair coming from the same firm. Demonstration on delivery is included but I've asked for it in the email so there's a record.

Still waiting on a photo under the bed, which is now the only outstanding item and slightly haunting me. Will chase.