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I was very unfortunate to have among my first guests people who had a need to cook 3 times a day. It was a team of 3 atletes, not related to each other and on separate budgets. SO, they cooked all separate and a lot. They never ate out, and spend 16 hours a day at home.
My mistake was that i did not interview them thoroughly how i do it now when it comes to long terms. I thought people understand that they cant occupy the whole house when they rent private rooms, and treat my house like their own, but they obviously had a different idea:). Knowing that they are invasive like this they should rent a whole house not the private rooms, but they wanted to spend as little so then they could go on a shopping spree which they did. Overall they were very inconsiderate people, and thankfully i never had anyone like this afterwords even close.
Now, i declined quite a few people, and quite a few people decided not to book with me when i explained to them how i need my guests to be.
I wrote to one woman who was “suspiciously” to me inquired about kitchen and hours she can spend there. I told her that i dont allow much cooking at all, and my house is not exactly a “homie” place, where us and guests dont interact with each other much as we all work all day, and that we all need very quiet time at night. She answered that she is thankful for my explanations and she will look somewere else
I found my perfect guests and i am solid booked until end of August 1 room, and until November another.
One of your best stories was the woman on the train on the way to your place (or was it a bus?) who kept insisting she was going to be cooking and had all the groceries bought and everything. I think you canceled her.
yes, from Copenhagen. SHe kept on arguing with me that despite my rules i have to let her cook. I remember how she informed me how much produce she has with her and how much she was going to cook. I think she thought that she is making a host very happy with her enormous cooking. She wanted to make pasta sauce, and rice, and spagetti…??? Rice and spagetti, thats like 2 different dishes. WHY? for 2 people, staying only 1 night, without a car. What was she going to do with all this food??
Travelling from a different country instead of seeing beauty around you, stand on a kitchen and cook for hours pasta sause. SOme people just adore cooking so much that they cant really live without it for a couple of weeks.
Even that i can understand but not the fact that they rent a room, and are going to impose of hosts’s everyday life like this. If you cant live without your cooking then rent a separate house, pay a bit more and dont disturb anyone.
Oh yeah!!! I remember the pasta sauce and also admit this story crosses my mind when I am making pasta and have onions, garlic, and sauce all going and splattering in different pans. And let’s not forget the garlic bread in the broiler!
You may need to take it a step further. I had “light cooking” 4 times throughout my listing AND in my house rules.
One man with 14 yr old son who checked in at 2pm, went out to explore some swimming holes, came back to house at 530 just as I was returning from beach, said he wanted to know where to go get ingredients to cook up spaghetti with meat sauce. It was 92*F that day!
So, I explained to him what ‘light cooking’ means, and then immediately amended my listing and house rules. I now define light cooking as “toasting, reheating in microwave, making a salad or sandwich. No use of oven in summer ever, as that is just craziness. You are vacation, eat a salad, sandwich, or go out to eat!”. Seriously, I actually say that in my listing.
Last guests that did prepare meals–had a rotisserie chicken that they kept in frig, made themselves salads and sandwiches. Now THAT is light cooking and I thanked them for being so considerate.
Since i have now long term guests, i decided to allow some cooking. But i put in my rules " no time consuming meals, meaning no more than 20 minutes of cooking a day":)I made split pea soup yesterday for dinner, salad, and corn on a cob. It took me 20 minutes. There are so many dishes that can be prepared fast and easy without much mess. But to cook meat sauce or like my cooks did meat 3 times a day with spices , or cuscus salad that has so many ingridients and takes an hour of boiling, chopping and mixing.
I do think that those of you who allow cooking, but limit it need to be specific about what you allow. Light cooking means very different things to different people. I would think of pasta with meat sauce as light cooking if I wasn’t making the sauce from scratch. On a typical day I spend 1 1/2 to 3 hours cooking. I make pretty much everything we eat from scratch (bread, yogurt, mustard, sauces, cakes, cookies, etc.).
