I have a wet bar in the guest living room that I have turned into a kitchenette with Keurig coffee maker, dorm sized fridge and small microwave. You had mentioned an alcove in your space - maybe you could buy or build a kitchen cart and put similar items in there. Most of the dry goods go in a wicker basket that you could put on any table.
Thereâs not a lot of space in my small guestroom, so I do allow guests into my kitchen for the continental style breakfast I provide. What I do is set everything out every morning in an attractive manner, using baskets and small granite cutting boards and such. I get everything they will need out of the cupboards for them, such as the toaster, plates, glasses, napkins and so forth. This limits their need to go through my cupboards searching for things, and helps ensure they use the stuff I want them to rather than my good china and lead crystal. I have a small sign in a Lucite stand telling them to help themselves to specific items located on the top shelf in the fridge.
Though this takes some effort on my part, it works out well and I have very few problems.
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One of the reasons I donât offer meals is the timing. I donât want to be tied down to being the onsite cook. Also, Iâve noticed that guests like to âplay it by earâ as far as planning when they wake up or when they want to eat. Even if thereâs a set time for a meal, maybe they just want coffee, or are in the shower or just overslept; what do you do then? You have to wait around to scramble those eggs, etc.
If it just so happens Iâm making myself something and they are around I offer. Many times the guest will accept, but most donât. Iâve got fresh, whole fruit set out plus protein bars and instant cereals that usually get eaten on the run.
A few responses have touched on this. Local and state ordinances could come into play (especially here in the US) that could effect whether you are a business like a true B & B and taxation. We definitely have to consider that here in Michigan. So we do not SERVE any food to our guests or allow kitchen use. We do have a mini fridge, toaster, microwave and Keurig coffee maker available for our guests to use and bring their own snacks. If we SERVED our state and local government could classify us a a B & B which would cause us to have to pay rental taxes and we would have to go through the process of registering our house as a B & B and pay fees. So we do not SERVE food. We do put some breakfast snacks, a bottle of local wine, sparkling water, and Keurig K cups in this breakfast spot. The distinction is that we OFFERED food but did not SERVE the food. We had to go to the Michigan Tax Tribunal on this issue and won based on the state definition of Bread and Breakfast which used the term SERVE in the definition.
Hope this helps someone.
Curt
Hmmm⌠I donât serve breakfast. It is offered, self-serve. Maybe that is my way to a schedule E.
I do not provide any food. There is a grocery store 1 mile from my home and restaurants all around me. My guests can use my fridg and microwave plus there is a bottled water dispenser that threy can get water from as our tap water tastes like piss.
My husband and I both love to cook, and we make breakfast and eat with our guests. Itâs a great time to get to know them. Even though our listings state that we provide breakfast, many of our guests are happily surprised by it. On days when we cannot be home to make breakfast because there is someplace we need to be, we tell the guests whatâs available for them, such as bread for toast and cereal.
By the term rental taxes do you mean a room tax like a hotel has to pay?
Here is Connecticut, the State and AirBnB came to an agreement this year whereby hosts must pay a 15% room tax (just like a hotel does) for stays of less than 30 days.
Not sure how this is getting paid, though. If all monies get paid to AirBnB are they submitting to the State on the hostâs behalf or including this in the hostâs payment?? Not sure of that. I do see a listing for âroom taxâ on most CT listings so in the end the renter gets the bill. I, too, may need to be careful as there is a âreal B&Bâ set to open right up the street from me sometime early next year.
Technically, if we do not serve breakfast, as Curtpete here says they do not, can we really be classified as a B&B in terms of city regulations? That may be one way to keep from running afoul of the townâs zoning laws.
AirBnB uses the term sharing economy to describe what they are about.
So, then, we share a room in our house and the rest is up to them.
Just donât serve breakfast.
Definitely donât be concerned with cooking for guests. I have to wonder how many hosts can actually cook anyway. Even if it was legal all over the worldâŚI have a feeling some hosts should not subject guests to their sub par cooking skills.
Ours is a separate apartment so this really isnât an issue for us. We leave pre-packaged breakfast foods for guests so that they donât have to go to the grocery store on their first morning.
But at one time, as a young host, I considered cooking for guests. Then I considered the ramifications if guests suffered from food poisoning while staying in the rental.Sure, it might not be from my food but that is too scary to contemplate.
I used to host guests at my listing. I shared the kitchen space with my guests and let them use whatever they wanted, including the empty fridge space. I would supply cereal and milk and some bread with complimentary butter, jam, and nutella. Sometimes my wife would cook something for my guests. But this is not included in the basic plan, which we clarify to our guests.
Itâs probably wise to draw the line on what items are included in the breakfast menu, if you serve any. One time, we had some guests who felt entitled to take whatever they want in the fridge. I told them that the extra food items they consumed were not included and returned us a negative feedback for not clarifying things.
Hi cresentwrench and all,
By paying rental taxes I mean in our case in Michigan our local township government tried to deny us of our PRE which is principal residence exemption, which means that your house is not your principal residence, and in Michigan law that means a 2X increase in property taxes. Also if we lost our case to the Michigan tax tribunal based on being declared a true B & B then we to continue would have had to submit an application for a B& B with fees and no judgement that we would be approved. We avoided this by winning our case at the state level. We continue this fall to have wonderful guests visit us but we had to stop for over a year while the litigation waited to be heard and judged. The Michigan state tribunal judge in his determination correctly went by only State of Michigan law: we were not a B and B because we did not SERVE breakfast (as defined by Michigan law). So again our case was us against our township government who forwarded our cast to Michigan tax tribunal based on their incorrect determination that our property was a rental property and not our principal residence.
Message here is to know what are your tax laws in your state and local government authority (they differ all over the USA) and stick up and fight back when your local government with little legal background tries to beat you up. We formed a small group of 3 citizens and fought back and we all won. It is not what your local government wants or desires but it comes down to strictly what is law and we are so thankful that our judges went only by what is the actual law, not the whims of the local township or local government assessor.
Bottom line is know what are your governing regulations. It is all on line and fairly easy to understand. Look at local and state regs and then make your situation fit what you are offering.
Regards,
Curt Pete
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Yes, it is a requirement to register with your local council and be subject to inspection - even if youâre an AirBNB. The requirement isnât for cooking but for handling dairy as well - e.g. milk, yoghurt, etc. This is because if dairy isnât stored properly then it could make someone sick. This is the same with meat, fish and eggs - cooked or otherwise.
You stated you donât supply a cooked breakfast because itâd be flouting the law or the like. However, if youâre providing dairy because if youâre not registered and serving dairy, youâre likely âflouting the lawâ.
Ok. So it seems the consensus is best to supply a few items for breakfast and let it go at that. They have something to get them going in the morning and we, as hosts, avoid any potential zoning hassles by cooking food without a health certificate.
So let me ask this. Would you allow them to cook in their room? Some might try and bring their own hot plate to cook up their own cultural dishes.
Clearly a fire hazard for us, but how do you draw the line in this case. Multi- day rental be damned or ?
Update:
You can purchase 5 amp circuit breakers for household electrical panels. If these were installed for the outlets in their room it would prevent their using a hot plate. Would trip the breaker and youâd know what they were up to. Not wanting to be sneaky, just protecting my home from fire.
Hi Crescentwrench,
I have doubts that most guests would even think of getting their own hot plate - after all, they are travelling and donât want to lug around extra items. This goes double if they are flying.
If you provide a small microwave that will give them an option for cooking that wonât be a fire hazard. Make sure that your house rules reflect your preferences - something like âmicrowave cooking only, no kitchen availableâ. Donât even mention hotplates, it will give people ideas.
Well, not wanting to get into cultures or nationalities, here, suffice to say there are those that will.