Open every cupboard: what your flat should come with

Don't unpack yet. What's included in a serviced apartment is, in practice, whatever's in the cupboards when you open them, and inventories vary more than the listing photos let on. Spend the first hour looking, because a missing saucepan reported on day one gets replaced, while a broken one reported on day six can look like yours.

Kitchen and bathroom

You should find a hob and oven, a fridge with a bit of freezer space, a microwave, a kettle and a toaster. Most one-bedroom flats and up have a dishwasher. Studios often don't, and tend to get a compact kitchen with an under-counter fridge instead, so check if that matters to you.

Open every drawer, too. You're after a sharp knife and a chopping board, a colander, a baking tray, a roasting tin and a saucepan big enough to do pasta for everyone. Count plates, glasses, mugs and cutlery against the number of guests, not the number of beds.

In the bathroom there should be a bath towel and a hand towel for each guest and a bath mat per bathroom, and most residences put a hairdryer in. Toiletries run from full-size bottles to a lone bar of soap, and the loo roll is usually a starter supply rather than a week's worth. Run the shower for a minute, since pressure and temperature are the two things you can't fix yourself, and top-floor flats in period buildings are where they suffer most. Check the extractor fan as well: a windowless bathroom depends on it, and a fan that's quietly died is how mould gets going on a long stay.

Bedrooms, and somewhere to work

Beds should be made, with a spare duvet and pillows in a cupboard somewhere, and you want blackout curtains or blinds, proper hanging space with enough hangers, a bedside light and a socket you can reach from the bed. If there's a sofa bed, find out whether it's made up already or the linen's in a cupboard. Cots and high chairs are normally on request rather than waiting in the flat.

The living room should have a sofa, a dining table with a chair for everyone, a TV and the Wi-Fi details, usually on a card or in a welcome folder. Then there's the household kit: iron and ironing board, a vacuum, a washing machine or washer-dryer and a drying rack.

If you're working, look for a table at desk height and a chair that isn't a bar stool. Lots of flats have a dining table and nothing else, which is fine for two days and hard on the back over two weeks. Ask before you arrive if you need a proper desk, because some residences can bring one in.

The first-hour checklist

Photograph anything that's already damaged, with the timestamp showing, then work through this.

• Hot water comes through within a minute at the kitchen tap and the shower
• The heating responds to the thermostat, and so does the air conditioning if there is any (about half the residences we list have it)
• The Wi-Fi password works, and the signal holds where you'll actually sit
• The fridge is cold and the freezer is freezing
• Oven, hob, microwave and dishwasher all switch on
• Plates, glasses and cutlery for every guest, plus a knife that cuts
• Towels for each guest and bedding for every bed, sofa bed included
• Windows lock and the blackout blinds close all the way
• There's a smoke alarm
• You know where the fuse box, the stopcock and the bins are

Report anything missing the same day by email or message, with photos, so there's a record. In a building with a staffed front desk, and roughly half have one, a missing pan or a dead bulb is often sorted within hours. In a key-safe flat run by a small team it might be the next day.

For anything you really can't do without, such as a cot, a desk chair or a blender for a particular diet, ask for the inventory before you book rather than after you arrive.

What's actually in the nightly rate

Read the cleaning line on a quote before anything else. The basics are simple enough, with the flat and its furniture, every household bill, Wi-Fi, bed linen and towels, and cleaning on a set schedule all inside the nightly rate, but beyond that, from a gym to a doorman, it depends on the building, and in London the spread is wider than most people think.

Electricity, gas, water, heating and council tax are the residence's problem, and you never see a meter reading. On a stay of a month or two, that's the biggest practical difference from renting a furnished flat, where the tenant sets up and pays every account. Air conditioning is another matter. About half the residences we list have it, and where it's fitted, running it is in the rate; where it isn't, you get a fan and an open window, which in a top-floor flat in late July is worth thinking about.

Wi-Fi is included everywhere, but speeds aren't standard. If you'll be on calls all day, ask what the connection is and whether there's a wired port, because thick walls in a Victorian mansion block can leave a back bedroom with one bar. Most flats have a smart TV, so bring your own streaming log-ins and remember to sign out when you leave.

Beds are made when you arrive, with bath and hand towels, tea towels and bath mats. Most residences leave a starter pack of washing-up liquid, dishwasher tablets, loo roll and bin bags, sometimes with tea, coffee and milk, which covers the first evening rather than the first week. Toiletries vary from full-size bottles to a bar of soap, so pack your own if it matters, and the same goes for laundry detergent, which starter packs often leave out.

Cleaning is the inclusion most worth reading on a quote, because it varies the most. Only a minority of residences mention a maid service, so the hotel habit of fresh towels every morning is the exception; weekly cleaning with a linen change is common, twice-weekly turns up in better-staffed buildings, and short stays may get no mid-stay visit at all. Extra cleans can almost always be booked at a charge. Ask the price upfront, and get the cleaning frequency in writing with the quote, since it's the line people most often assume and least often check.

Just over half of residences have a lift, and about as many have a reception or front desk. Laundry and gyms are less common, fewer still take pets or have any outside space, whether a garden, terrace or balcony, and parking and pools are properly rare. Use that as a filter. If a pool or a parking space is non-negotiable, it knocks out most of the list, so start there, whereas if all you need is a lift you've still got plenty of choice.

Extra cleaning, parking where there is any, pet fees, airport transfers, a grocery shop before you arrive and laundry service are the usual add-ons. Cots and high chairs are often free but in short supply, so ask for them with the booking. Early check-in and late check-out are normally charged or subject to availability, though guests who book direct are sometimes offered them for nothing. On a family booking, check the maximum occupancy too: a two-bed quoted for four adults may charge for a fifth on the sofa bed, and some residences count a baby in a cot while others don't.

Longer bookings tend to come with a different package, with weekly cleaning rather than more frequent visits, a fuller linen change and a lower nightly rate. There's also a VAT point. In buildings HMRC treats like hotels, VAT from the 29th night of a continuous stay applies only to the non-accommodation part of the bill, so check the quote reflects it.