To think a fully equipped kitchen for 6 people must include...

[PenguinsAreAce]

...amongst other essentials the following items:
Wooden spoon or plastic/silicon equivalent
Whisk
Spatula
Scales
Large bowl big enough to make salad/ cake mix / whatever for six people
More than one tea towel (for 7 days)

Bonus points if you can guess what has inspired this.

As another property owner has said above, the challenge of renting out a holiday let is to keep enough equipment in it to satisfy everyone's needs, no matter how weird (someone somewhere clearly thought a melon baller was essential enough to put one in a drawer!) while not having too much clutter around, and simultaneously trying to keep on top of all the holiday makers who treat your property in a way they wouldn't treat their own stuff.

We put good sharp knives in our flat, they were gone half way through the first season. We put in a set of 8 of everything matching (plates, glasses, mugs, cutlery, etc) and kept a spare set of the same for breakages. Yet by the end of the first season most of it had been broken or somehow lost, and rather than the lovely matching sets we'd bought the cupboards were full of beer glasses stolen from the local pubs, towels monogrammed with the local spa and swimming pool's logos. One family removed all the batteries from TV remote controls and smoke detectors and also many of the light bulbs.

And don't get me started on the lost keys. If I had a pound for every key a tenant lost I could retire now!

People do this - is it any wonder your average holiday let owner puts just the basics in? We rent ours out to a long term tenant now. He's been there for 4 seasons, so we reckon he is unlikely to steal the towels.

NorthCoast - fwiw, in our holiday place we have a stovetop coffee maker, plus a small capuccino-style machine, and a cafetière (thanks to the whinging guest who clearly didn't know what the other two were). The pod things generate extra mess for the cleaner to deal with plus they're horrible.

Agoddess I like stove top coffee after dinner, but would prefer cafetière style for breakfast. All cappuccino style machines work differently. I'd have said the cafetière one would be the most useful/acceptable to everyone.
I think referring to guests as 'whinging' and suggesting they are beneath you for not being to operate the coffee machines you chose to include is not a great indicator of the sort of customer service you provide...

ASD I'm currently at CP and we have a cafetière and a pod machine!

penguins which Parc are you at because what you have in the kitchen sounds very different to the one I'm at!

Thanks all - will stick with just the cafetiere and save on worktop space!

Lady What type of lodge are you in? We are staying in a New Woodland lodge next week so it's should also have a pod. Aching, which brand is it?

We're in an exec ASD but we've stayed in new Woodland ones before and they've always been Tassimo machines.

Penguins Google American cake recipes. They bake by volume ()

Lady we are at Sherwood.

Here's what was just in my kitchen. Mmmm.

Some examples of pathetic "fully equipped" kitchens for 6 people:-

Oven with a single shelf,
2 slice toaster,
Total of 5 glasses,
4 person cutlery set.

@NorthCoast No to pod machine from me too. I loathe them on the basis of the plastic going into landfill. I have left my bean-to-cup machine for guests to use in my Airbnb, as well as the usual large cafetière 😇 and masses of baking stuff, scales x2, stick blender, magimix, nutribullet, every kind of pan, dish & bowl and a toast rack. Gutted that I have not provided an egg slicer 😳

You need to come to Whinfell Penguins better equipped kitchens! 😜 We've even got a wok this time - not had one here before.

Thanks Lady, will take some tassimo pods

This thread has actually become really helpful, as I am just equipping a cottage to let out. It has practically everything people have mentioned as I have given it a lot of thought, and stuck to things like the AA four star category lists, but I am now worried lots of the stuff will get nicked. I would hate that.

BTW I have provided two sets of scales (one digital), a ceramic wok, proper knives, steamer, small food processor, colander, baking things, means of cooking and serving a Christmas dinner, two sizes of cafetière, teapot and strainer, and German egg boiler, amongst other things. I really hope it's all still there when I need to use it!

Can I ask a question? Our cottage has River frontage. It's exceptionally beautiful but would this location stop you booking it with small children in tow if we provided an enclosed play garden? (wild swimming is possible from the jetty incidentally).

Yes - I've seen lovely cottages and then ruled them out because of nearby open water. We have a toddler, I'd worry less about the 7 yo, so it's only ruled out for a few years.

Ok, next question, what would we need to do to make you want to let it?

Currently we have the following: cot, high chair, small playroom with toys and books, baby equipment (baby bath, potty, plastic plates, plastic cutlery, plastic bins, step stools) and an honesty cupboard with nappies, bottles and toiletries, etc. Plus I am about to develop a toddler play garden near the playroom, that will be secure. It will have a mini climbing frame, swing, sandpit, playhouse, sit on toys and a bench for parents.

We could fence off around the house, like a day nursery might, but that would be pretty expensive, and I would have trouble persuading other family members.

Ideas?

Second year Airbnbing in France, second time we have only one very small slim chopping board - do the French not use big chopping boards?

Boffin quite honestly, it sounds so lovely I don't think you'llstruggle to get bookings so I wouldn't go to too much effort trying to cater for every eventuality. If you register with an agency they can often provide any cots/highchairs needed. I don't think we get babies/toddlers much as there are lots of steps, both approaching the house and in the garden. It wouldn't be much of a holiday if parents had to be on patrol over and above the normal, but when the dcs are beyond that age it's perfect. Likewise some people think they'll lose bookings if they don't cater for dogs, but lots of people prefer a place that hasn't been used by pets so it evens out.
As regards the nicking: in five or six years we've had a handmix (a gorgeous red one I stupidly paid £70 for) and a water jug (which I loved so should have kept it for my own house) taken. Just don't have anything small and portable that you'd be really sorry to lose. I subsequently replaced the Parlux hairdryer with a cheapie!
To the poster who inferred my customer service must be poor: I think it is a bit whingey to complain that one type of coffee maker is not provided when there are already two in the property. And I immediately supplied one, as I have with everything that guests have suggested, although we already had most things already mentioned here. I'd say tht was pretty good customer service.

Boffin, we have always rented self catering for our holidays (and now do home exchanges). Three kids. I love open water near wherever we go, but I would totally have avoided it when they were very young unless there was a lockable gate between the garden and the open water. But once they were a little older, it didn't matter at all. So, yes, open water will put people with young toddlers off but it shouldn't matter. If you have a lovely place, which is sounds like you do, you will get plenty of other families with older kids.

And to add to the discussion about kitchens in self catering, I also cook a lot on holiday. Partly due to dietary needs of the family and partly as I like cooking and hate paying lots for crappy food out. Kitchens are never well enough equipped for me and I do take coffee making equipment with me especially. However since we have moved to home exchanges, it is bliss! Because the kitchen is the owner's own kitchen so is properly equipped! Coffee making is hit and miss as it totally depends on whether the person we are exchanging with drink it, but I am happy to take my own.

Sounds wonderful Boffin for when children are older. Would be fine with my older two, but I would rule it out gates/fences or none with the younger ones. I won't care template being in such a location until the youngest is 8+yrs. We don't live near open water and it only takes a moment for an accident...