Our Air bnb is rated 4.64 out of 5 and yet..

[PurpleBaskets]

…it is dirty, it’s noisy, it smells. There are hardly any kitchen utensils, no baking trays etc. The windows don’t shut properly. I have had to put pieces of cardboard in the huge gap in the front door because it was rattling. It’s so cold. The house creaks and rattles, the road outside sounds like it is in the living room and bedrooms. Everywhere is sticky and dirty.
Yet it is rated so highly! Over 100 reviews. It wasn’t cheap either. This keeps happening to us, maybe I’m just expecting too much?

If I've booked a place with a "fully equipped" kitchen, as we like the option to eat in, I expect to be able to cook a meal so a baking tray, spatula etc but I have to admit they are sometimes missing.

That's reminded me, last year we had to buy a potato peeler and another utensil. The peeler presumably was to replace the one we had to purchase our first year (2014). If places are charging top whack then the facilities need to reflect this. I didn't overly object the first year but last year when people were paying significantly more than there should have been much more attention to detail.

The kitchen equipment should be an easy thing to get right. We've stayed for years in other UK self catering places and they all seem to work off a generic list from about 1950 which randomly includes a teapot, egg cups and a toast rack.

We've had good experiences with airBnb. We've had little niggles, and we bring our own towels, but we've never stayed anywhere without a single ovenproof baking tray/grill pan/casserole dish.

We've stayed for years in other UK self catering places and they all seem to work off a generic list from about 1950 which randomly includes a teapot, egg cups and a toast rack

When I was very young as a family we stayed in a little flat (1 bed for 5 of us) there was no eggcups, Mum used to stuff paper into a cup to hold the egg in place. It was very very cheap though.