Coming into my first fall/winter season of hosting, just completed 10 mainly successful bookings since starting in late May, whew! I vacate my home during guests stay, I’ve listed access to entire house except locked off bedroom, some foodstuffs, and 3 closets. I use wood heat in the fall/winter to keep heating bill down, as it can get bitter cold and wood heat it quite nice. Not sure if to allow guest access. I don’t IB, so I could inquire with guests prior to booking about their knowledge of. Thoughts?
Would your insurance cover it?
People unfamiliar with a wood heater?
Cleaning it out between bookings?
I didn’t think about inquiring with my insurance. The pipes/stove only need to be cleaned out once a year, typically.
Most Uk insurance stipulates if a chimney isn’t cleaned every year the insurance is invalidated. I would definitely get landlord insurance for the stove. People are stupid. I just had to replace my iron as they didn’t realise electricity and water don’t mix and doused it in the sink to fill the steam section. The guest before had cracked the body by dropping it.
Would you not still have to clean the grate out between bookings? I would feel quite nervous letting people use ours, if we weren’t living here too. That said, wood is not cheap in the UK; it costs £5 per bag and we can easily go through two in an evening. Fortunately, the room gets too hot, so Christmas is about the only time it’s used!
You must be talking about an open log fire? I find mine as you describe. Friends and neighbours who have wood burning stoves use just a couple of logs a night. There is hardly any waste and the heat efficiency is way better.
In reply to me or BendMom? If me, it’s a two year old, cast iron log burner in a 17thC inglenook fireplace. It needs the ash cleaning out after use, which my roses love, so maybe I do so more than I need.
Sounds lovely, I want a wood burner in my next house. I think you can turn the air down so it burns super slow. Some like it hot though.
We keep it turned down but it still gets too warm! We’ve sat on Christmas day with the stove lit and the windows open, although 20 people in the room didn’t help. 1kw per person I think?
You’re right 20kw an hour is a lot. Let the heat go upstairs as well I guess. Miss Scotblood here would be in shorts lol.
Yiks, allowing my guests to burn wood, never again! Unless you are renting to Davey Crockett types, most folk from the urban areas have no idea how to light or maintain a wood burning stove.
I dealt with this a number of years ago, when I checked in on a backwoods, semi rustic cabin was renting and witnessed my guest attempting to chop kindling ( he had already burned threw 4 large boxes of kindling) he was so frustrated the kids were cold & cranky, he could not get the stove to burn, the cabin was full of smoke…he just did not have the skills or knowledge, even with instructions.
We got it all sorted out and they did enjoyed their winter get-away, but I decided this was not a safe situation for my guests.
So I did some research and opted for a small propane burning stove with a nice flame ( natural gas is not available & electric not an option due to potential power outages & it does not keep you warm) there was an initial cost involved, but it was so worth the price, I just bumped up my nightly rate by 10%, I declare my earnings so it was a write off.
Guests stayed longer, I tripled my off season bookings & for the guests just push button and instant warmth, I could sleep soundly at night.
I suppose you need to balance the price and mess of wood & installation of the gas stove, the experience of your guests burning wood and is your rental a long term commitment.
(my insurance was substantially reduced removing the wood stove) and it depends on what part of the world you live in…I’m in Canada can be bitterly cold.
The vast majority of my guests use the wood burning stove in the winter. It is one of the draws of my property. My insurer, who also covers me for STR, needed proof of a professionally-installed stove in order to cover me for its use.
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