Do any of you experience missing cutlery? I always do an inventory after a guest checks out. I bought a new cutlery set for my Airbnb and want a matched set, not a mismatched set. This is the second time that a guest has taken cutlery. I usually message the with a note stating that I am missing cutlery and that they may have accidentally packed my fork (spoon, ect) with their own things when they checked out. So annoying.
Checked the trash? Often found cutlery tossed with takeout containers…
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Another reason to provide disposable cutlery.
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You could have a bag of mismatched secondhand cutlery and ask guests to please use those if they are going to take any cutlery out of the house.
I picture guests driving off for the day eating a yoghurt or something, and the cutlery just gets left in the car.
It would be the same idea as providing beach towels so guests don’t take the good bath towels to the beach, or a pile of old towels to wipe down muddy or wet dogs.
And I don’t know how people manage to be so inattentive as to throw cutlery in the garbage, but they sometimes do.
Losing cutlery in the hospitality business is a given
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I checked the garbage, messaged the guest and he returned the cutlery before he left town.
Yes, I get that. I have a very nice set that I prefer not to taken. I think I will put disposable in the suite as I have tons.
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One guest sent a profuse apology for accidentally taking a spoon, said they would mail it back, and never did.
I bought two identical sets on sale for just this reason.
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It’s really best to have nothing at all in your rental that you desperately don’t want to lose or to get damaged.
There are some quite nice cutlery sets that aren’t expensive but are decent quality. Just don’t go for real cheapos. I recently stayed in three rentals and every one of them had knives that couldn’t cut anything at all.
We don’t eat meat but anyone trying to cut a steak would have had to eat caveman style and use their hands and teeth. 
While it’s nice to have matching cutlery, I really don’t see it as essential. No guest is going to give you a bad review because 2 spoons didn’t match the rest of the spoons, 90% of them wouldn’t even notice. What’s essential is that there are adequate utensils and that they actually work for the intended purpose.
A lot of new hosts get excited when furnishing their rentals, buying matched sets of everything, but soon find out that guests don’t concern themselves with disappearing or staining a piece of your “set”.
I mix and match bedding and towels, as long as the colors go well together, avoiding the expense of having to buy new “sets” if something gets stained or ruined. Guests couldn’t care less if they get a burnt orange colored bath towel, a beige hand towel and a brown washcloth, as long as everything is in good condition.
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I agree that cutlery doesn’t have to match, it just has to work. At home, I don’t have 100% matching cutlery but my knives are sharp enough to cut anything on the plate.
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Matching glasses, dishes and cutlery is a “thing” for me. I buy open stock for these items so when pieces go missing, its easy to replace them.
My husband found a fork in the fire pit yesterday…
It’s a “thing” for a lot of hosts. We all like to present our rentals with a certain aesthetic.
I just don’t think it’s a “thing” for most guests, so nothing for hosts to sweat if part of a set goes missing and it has to be replaced temporarily with something that doesn’t match.
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Value = 4
“The airbnb not only did not have my personally favorite silverware pattern, but when counting them we found that one of the forks was from another pattern. Also - stoneware, not porcelain? My poodle will only lap their food from porcelain dishware. And my wife will drink her tea from anything else but a cup made from China”
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Plenty.
Scissors, kitchen knives, spoons, shot glasses, corcksrews etc er …… they all are borrowed for daytrips but never returned.
In a self-contained suite mis-matched cutlery tells the guest “… you’re getting the hand-me-downs.” I hear a lot of complaints in this forum about guests who "don’t respect " the property. Furnishing a suite with obvious hand-me-downs and leftovers is not a good signal to send if you are trying to earn respect.
I wasn’t suggesting that hosts furnish their rentals with a hodge-podge of cheap stuff that looks like it was sourced at the thrift store, just that I doubt any guests would notice or care if you found that 2 spoons in a set of 8 had gone missing and replaced them with a couple of mismatched ones for the time being because you didn’t have time to buy another set and wanted the 4 incoming guests to have enough cutlery.
Or… anticipate losses and – when you originally buy the cutlery buy spares for the inevitable.
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I’ve never had guests walk off with kitchen gear from my shared kitchen, but for hosts who do, maybe a line in the check-out instructions would help.
"Please check inside your vehicle before packing up to make sure you haven’t taken anything from the house to use on a day trip that you forgot to put back. (We’ve had a lot of kitchen utensils, dishes, etc. go missing in this way)
Another idea might be to provide a picnic basket for day trips outfitted with inexpensive stuff (that doesn’t have to “match”) . Seems like guests would be more likely to put everything back in the basket and bring it in the house when they return, than if they just grab whatever they need for their day trip out of the kitchen drawers and cupboards.