Can anyone recommend a holiday rental provider with accurate listings?

[mydamnfootstuckinthedoor]

As the title says - I am so sick of holiday rentals that do not match up to expectations. I have used Airbnb, verb and booking.com in the past, and been soooooo disappointed, It's not that the accommodation is very different fro the photos, just that the photos were probably taken when the place had just been decorated. and from a VERY advantageous angle. Add to this "2 mins from beach" (yes, if you run) :"view of the sea" (yes, from upstairs rear bedroom window), "restaurants on site" (where is "site'????). My last "luxury studio rental" only had access across a shitty (literally- there were ducks roaming wild and leaving little gifts for everyone) unpaved car park.
Does anyone know of an accommodation provider that actually shows accurate photos and details? Even many of the reviews I read are rather optimistic in their assessment. I don't think of myself as overly picky, but I'd rather not stay somewhere that offers only one knife and fork per guest!
Help me find a holiday rental provider I can trust!!!! Please ....

that should have said VRBO - not "verb"

For holiday weekly rentals often use Cottages.com to get a good idea, then use a discount I get through work to book via Hoseasons (they use the same platform and are basically the same site). Never had one that we didn’t like with them, even the £300 Welsh caravan we booked a couple of years ago wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be for the price.

For short breaks I often use Hotels.com find a hotel and then book direct if I can.

I avoid an AirB&B as never hear good things. Used to use Booking.com a lot but also find them quite poor now as they aren’t very good at shutting down the scams.

Reading your experience here OP - I think you need to be doing a little more double checking before you book. A lot of those things could have been checked out by reference to Google maps on street view. Obviously on those platforms any photos are taken by the owner not the advertising platform but it’s an idea to cross reference a property across platforms and check all the reviews - read between the lines as to what people say, not just look at the star ratings.

Most of the below are regional but when I've used them the listings have always been accurate and the properties high quality:

UK:
Www.classic.co.uk

Wales and borders:
https://www.underthethatch.co.uk/
https://www.cottage-holiday-wales.co.uk/

South West England:
https://www.helpfulholidays.co.uk/
https://www.forevercornwall.co.uk/

Well I've stayed in AirBnBs all over the world and have never had this problem - hopefully not jinxed myself for this summer now. I think reviews give more detail than the listing itself so I read those very carefully, looking out for issues that are of particular importance to me. You can filter reviews by key words now, which is helpful. If there are no or very few recent reviews then I won't book, especially if it's for more than a night or two.

I have more often found places are better than I expected if anything, but perhaps I am easily pleased. I stayed somewhere in Vienna that had amazing polished parquet flooring throughout and someone had complained in their review that the floor was uneven! I've just come back from a place in Germany that was just as described but also had amazingly high ceilings with beautiful ceiling roses that hadn't been mentioned. However, a couple of tiles in the bathroom were cracked but I really didn't care about it while I know for some people that would be an issue. Having to walk across a carpark that had ducks (and their poo) in it would not bother me in the slightest and it wouldn't even register that it was unpaved I don't think, but I know that's not the point.

I do sometimes use Booking.com but I think you do have to be more careful with it because they tend to show multiple pictures of different rooms so you can't be sure which one you are actually getting. With that if something is important to you it may be better to contact the hotel or whatever directly.

The Landmark Trust not only offers some wonderful properties but supplies a great deal of accurate information on its website. It is recommended by Which, as are the National Trust holiday lets.