We have rules - but no one pays attention - and I have given up. I live in a house of men and I have learned to adapt. I bought a cheap Dacor hard leather set from BJ's Wholesale for $1000 in 2005 for my beach house. We had just purchased the house and I couldn't afford more at the time. Considering I got a sofa, loveseat, and chair I figured it would not last too long but would give me time to save some money. It in no way matches the comfort or style of my 2 bradington young soft leather sofas at home (which 3 friends also bought after sitting on). BUT - IT HAS ENDURED BEAUTIFULLY. Hard use? You bet. I never fussed over the stuff, my kids and friends sit sandy, wet and lotioned. I have 3 boys who are HARD on furniture and who love to bring their friends to the beach house (last weekend we had 19 boys there so both the sofa and love seat were slept on). Any way - it works. My sister's newer white slip covered sofa is trashed. When this set goes (and I think the frames will go before the leather) I will get BY but I don't know about the soft leather. I would suggest you find the leather sofa you love - get some swatchs from the manufacturer, and rub them with water, sand and lotion to see how they hold up. Bradington Young sent me samples when I was shopping. Good Luck!

In this price range I think Palliser makes a nice product. It is made in Canada and Mexico and is carried by many retailers and can be purchased online,.

Excellent points dcarch and jessyf !! I hadn't even thought of just asking the rental company what they expect the house to have, LOL. I will send them an email now. I guess the point of the exercise is a little of both ... We do want the five star rating. Our house is brand new in 2011 and rents near the upper end of the market for rental rate, so one would expect the most expensive houses to have the highest ratings. Also, the houses with the highest ratings are going to be the most desired houses. (assuming they are priced competitively and have not priced themselves sky high out of the market) But also, we do want the house to have the things the guests need. We spent five years designing this house before we built and had all kinds of lists of things we needed to remember to include. We had one guest tell us that everything she looked for, we had. We want every guest to feel that way, that our home exceeds their expectations. My husband and I are not gourmet cooks by any stretch of the imagination. We sometimes go literally months without cooking anything more than an occasional breakfast. We are on a cooking kick right one, but as I said, when we cook it is fairly plain and very easy stuff. Therefore, we really have no idea what kind of tools gourmet cooks use. We don't want it to be a frustrating experience cooking in our kitchen. We want our house to be well stocked with things people regularly use! We even want to include some of the occasional use items if they are not too expensive, for example maybe a garlic press is not a regular use item but they are used fairly often and are not very expensive so it would be a nice thing to include. However, we don't want to waste money on the specialty things that everyday gourmet cooks rarely use. It sounds like the sous vide falls in that category, LOL. There may be other things that are hardly ever used that we would not want to waste money on, no matter how inexpensive they are. (ok, maybe garlic press is not a good example as starting price on one that gets higher than 2 star rating is around $10 and quickly goes up from there) I am very interested to hear what other things you guys would expect to find in a house advertised as having a gourmet kitchen.

Check Room & Board, which has more modern styles than others. Be sure to click on each sofa option because they are generally available in multiple sizes, including down to twin and double beds. http://www.roomandboard.com/catalog/living/sleeper-sofas Lots of options in leather and fabric. I highly recommend looking specifically at the ones that are made by "American Upholstery/American Leather", because they are as comfortable as a regular bed but also good as a sofa. We have the Berin, and have no problem having friends and family sleep on it (at worst, they describe it as similar to a "firm" mattress). It's in our study, and i often hang out on it as a sofa - and it is very comfortable. American Upholstery is generally considered the gold standard of comfortable sleeper sofas, so their venture with R&B (a modernist store) is probably exactly what you're looking for.