How often do guests actually use the oven to cook?

I curious what others have found in regard to the frequency with which guests use the oven and the sorts of dishes and supplies needed for baking (as opposed to the stove top or a microwave). Our rental is EXTREMELY easy walking distance to all kinds of restaurants, food trucks, etc. so I don’t want to overdo it when providing roasting pans, baking sheets, etc that may not be used.

I’ve hosted over 400 guests and I can count on one hand the guests who’ve used the oven.

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Same here. Mostly for frozen pizzas.

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Same here – we are steps from lots of eateries but my neighborhood can be pricey. I’ve noticed that many of my male guests (esp solo) cook frozen pizzas. They don’t really need a pan – just a pizza cutter!

I like re-heating leftover pizza in the oven (not a microwave) and if there’s no toaster oven, I do use the main oven. On vacation, I will sometimes bake cookies for the kids – if there’s no cookie sheet, I line the broiler (always seems to be one in the drawer under the over) with foil.

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When traveling, especially in cooler weather, I generally use the oven for a braise, roasting vegetables, or a gratin. The place we rented in Barcelona had a broken oven which was quite disappointing. Property manager was unaware of the problem. No one had ever mentioned it, so that might be part of your answer.

Pizza cutter! Great tip. I’m leery of toaster ovens, have heard a lot of disaster stories.

As a Personal Chef, here’s what I would buy (and what I’d like to find in any rental where I’m staying for more than a couple days).

Buy an 8"x8" and a 9"x13" clear Pyrex baking dish, two non-stick baking sheets (aka cookie sheets), a pair of hot gloves or several pot holders, an oven thermometer and a meat thermometer. Get a set of 3 metal or plastic mixing bowls, a spatula or a set of “cooking tools”, and that’s about it.

We spent a long (4 night) holiday at a AirBnB condo on Sanibel Island, for the 4th of July, and that’s almost exactly what they had. They also had two sizes of skillet and two sizes of sauce pans, a pancake flipper, and a couple large metal serving spoons.

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My guests cook at mine quite often.

And I love cooking so they have access to my stuff and cookery books

I don’t think you can expect places to have oven and meat thermometers. Most cooks don’t use them.

I would say a smaller and larger baking dish, measuring jug, wooden spoons, baking trays, sieve/colander, oven gloves, dish clothes, frying pans, saucepans, - small, medium, large. Mixing bowls, Chopping boards, kitchen knives, whisk. A cookery book with the basics.

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I travel with mine. :slight_smile:

Hope you don’t get stopped at the airport for carrying a dangerous weapon :wink:

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Depends on the type of guests you host. If you have families, (especially big families, extended families, two families travelling together) I have found most prefer cooking even though there are awesome restaurants here.
It keeps their costs down and they have fun doing it together.
When I have trips away with my friends, they love getting in the kitchen and whipping something up, chatting away, using local ingredients. And I like eating the results of something they’ve made with love :slight_smile:
Why not pick up a few basics from a second hand shop.
I had a guest accidentally leave a meat thermometer here so they were obviously travelling with it. They told me I could keep it so it’s there for future guests now. I’ve had positive reviews about how well equipped the kitchen is, so maybe it impresses people.

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I rent to non-holiday guests (people in the area to work, university students, etc), and my building is all men and they do use the oven for pizza and frozen foods. At the request of one ABB guest, I bought a pizza pan and pizza cutter. Make sure your cleaning person checks the stove - my guests would leave burnt food on the bottom of the oven. :angry:

I think it depends, too, on your maximum length of stay. We have a maximum of 7 nights and some of our guests don’t even use the microwave, let alone the cooktop. We host mostly tourists and business travelers who are out enjoying our local restaurants for most or all meals.

I wouldn’t buy glass baking dishes for guests. As we’ve all seen that they can be confused by what to us is obvious, I’d be concerned about thermal shock. If someone causes hairline fractures by cutting food while it’s in the glass baking dish then the the same or a different person takes the dish out of the oven and puts it down on a granite (or other cool) counter it can explode. I’ve told my husband countless times about thermal shock. We recently had a guest who likes iced coffee. In my absence, my husband brewed hot coffee, put some in a Pyrex pie plate, then put the plate in the freezer. I’m glad the pie plate didn’t explode.

Always line the bottom of the oven with a sheet of heavy foil – my cleaner easily replaces it whenever there’s burnt cheese, crumbs on it. I once used a cheap foil (left behind by guests) as a bottom liner and it melted onto the bottom of the oven.

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That’s quite rare, you can tell by how many are on the shelves of thrift shops. glass is a good choice as it can go in microwave too

You can only microwave wet food in a glass container. As I’ve had more than one guest who didn’t know how to use a manual can opener, I certainly don’t trust them to know how to protect glass cookware from thermal shock.

Wow I didn’t know that @EllenN but then I only really use the microwave for defrosting

Hi - do you mind sharing those toaster oven stories?

I have a toaster oven and a stove oven for our guest to use in our suite!

At least they SAID they were unaware. Our French host claimed to have no idea the clothes washer was broken or that the water heater, that also heated the room, shut off every couple of minutes (ensuring a cold shower & a cold room). And since nothing got fixed, I’m sure she used the same story on the next guest.