Melted cooking spatula

One of my tenants slightly melted the end of my cooking spatula and the handle. Do you charge the guest​? And how much to cover cost and travel?

@Yen1, a spatula is one of those things you need to chalk up as the cost of doing business. Just replace it.

If you decide you really do want to try to get the guest to pay for it, you need to make a claim against the security deposit (assuming you charged one). From there the guest will need to admit to ruining the item and agree to pay for a new one. I don’t think I’d bother trying to get them to pay for time, gas, tolls, that sort of thing, as they will most likely just laugh at you.

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Agree. You will look petty and the claim will not be worth the effort.

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:neutral_face: claiming for a spatula is a no go. I wouldn’t even dream of charging for your time going to the supermarket to buy a new one. Airbnb won’t even consider it seriously.

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@Yen1 - I imagine that you are a new host? If so, you’ll need to be prepared for wear and tear, items will be broken (usually accidentally), things will disappear (also accidentally), sheets and towels will be stained, toilets will be stopped up, windowpanes cracked…

Just be sure that your nightly price is enough to cover these eventualities.

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P.S. Be sure to replace it with a metal one!

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I prefer high grade silicone !! Metal scratches pans in the hands of the careless :slight_smile:

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One of the many reasons I no longer allow cooking in my rarely rented shared home Airbnb ($65-$75/night).
The cost of a something as simple as a spatula eats too far into my profit :slight_smile:
As others mentioned though, it’s part of doing business, and you can and should claim it as a loss on your taxes.
It’s not so bad if you have a high volume or high priced Airbnb.

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Accidents happen. Guests of ours broke a really lovely seasoned (aka well-used) pizza stone and wrote immediately to tell me. I told them not to give it another thought because I could tell they were genuinely upset. They sent $20 anyway.

I believe you said the spatula was slightly melted, so your guest may not have even realized they damaged it. I’d chock this up to the cost of doing business. Order a new one online and let it go.

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be prepared for much worse damage than a melted spatula!

Bleached out pillow cases, towels, stained linens, gouges in your hardwood floors and baseboards from luggage, tears in your furniture. broken glasses & bowls, broken coffee carafes, disappearing utensils. These are all generally considered standard wear and tear.

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I just bought a Calaphon spatula at HomeGoods for $1.99.

It’s too petty to claim for this. A polite guest would have left you a few bucks to cover it , though. I guess you could mention in the private feedback.

I’d get a metal one to replace it, unless you have non-stick cookware (which I personally would never have in a rental.). If you do have non-stick, the silicone spatulas are more heat resistant than plastic.

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I’ve had worse problems with guests’ treatment of cast iron cookware than non-stick. I have a couple of non-stick pans for eggs. I use metal spatulas on them all the time. Unless you’re pretty aggressive with the spatula it won’t scratch the non-stick coating. On the other hand, I had a guest cook dinner in my cast iron pan. He didn’t scrape out the pan, just filled it with water and left it on the burner (hob) overnight. Thankfully, it was my grandmother’s pan so it’s been very well seasoned over decades of use.

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I have bamboo! Love it :slight_smile:

You may be overestimating people’s common sense levels and cooking ability. I’ve seen some BUSTED non-stick pans in Airbnbs. It looked like they turned up the heat too high, so that whatever they were trying to cook stuck to the pan, and/or burned. Then they tried to use sharp, metal utensils to scrape off the residue.

Based on some of the atrocities I’ve seen at potluck dinners, there are a whole bunch of folks out there who really have no basic cooking skills. I’m not even a picky eater, but this stuff was too bad. Schools need to bring back home economics classes ASAP. (For everyone, not just girls.)

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‘Are you having a giraffe’?

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Doubt anyone speaks rhyming slang here :slight_smile:

I do! When I was a kid my dad used to say before tea ‘Come on then saucepans, get up them apples and wash yer germans.’

When I talk to him now he refers to my ‘skin and blister’ and my ‘currant bun’.

We still use it in the States. Things like ‘he’s gone for a pony’ and ‘did you get a gregory?’

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In fact, thinking about it I’m inclined to think that lots of people use it without realising that it’s rhyming slang. Words like titfer, ruby, tea leaf, butchers etc, :slight_smile:

Then ruder ones like James Hunt and merchant banker.

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Yep but they’re all Brits saying that - as are you :wink:

I read ‘are you having a giraffe’ and of course understood immediately. If I said : ‘have a butchers!’ You, me, @Helsi would get it … but I doubt the wider forum would. I could be wrong… and I’m very happy to be corrected but I really think it’s a uniquely British (working class) thing.

Ah see I had to go mention class - another British preoccupation !!

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Well actually I am not British @Zandra but I am a Londoner :slight_smile: