Would you ask guests to pay for damaged work surface

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welshfred
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Would you ask guests to pay for damaged work surface

Post by welshfred »

I would be really grateful for some advice.

My last set of guests badly damaged the wooden kitchen work surface (admittedly perhaps not the most practical work surface for a holiday let but there are two large racks for people to put hots plates and pans on). I am not sure exactly what they have done to it but there are numerous large blobs of something that has stained the wood in a large area on either side of the oven which I can't get out. The only thing I can think of doing is to try and sand it down and re oil it to see if it makes it look any better.

If the work surface is a right off (which I think it might be) it will be expensive to replace. I only take a £50 deposit from guests which I describe as a 'cleaning and keys deposit' which encourages guests to leave the key where I ask them to and to leave the house in a 'reasonable condition'. I am wondering if I can't remove the worst of the stains if it is reasonable that I ask them to cover some of the cost of replacing the work top. Obviously if I did this they might refuse and there is a risk that they write a bad review.

Any advice on either removing the stains or what to ask in terms of covering the cost of any replacement or time and effort making it look any better would be gratefully received.
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Sanding and oiling would be my first option. Wooden worktops can usually have surface staining removed that way quite successfully. If that doesn't work then you'll have to move to Plan B, but as you are involved in work trying to remedy the problem regardless of the outcome you should let the guests know that you are going to have to seek reimbursement.
salmoncottage
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Post by salmoncottage »

Hi Fred, I think your giving yourself hard work with those oiled wooden tops, and you run the ongoing risk of clashing with guests who I'm sure dont really want to cause any damage. Tops like that are great to look at and should be oiled every week to keep them looking great, but they're just not practical in that situation and thats no fault of your guests. I suggest you lightly sand the marked areas and re-oil a few times to try to match the exsisting. Then buy chrome trivets / pot and pan stands to cover as much of the surfaces as possible. Leave a laminated sign warning your future guests against the dangers of not using the trivets. Then at the end of this season replace those temperamental tops with something more durable and appropriate for a busy holiday let, You'll find it's cheaper in the long run and you wont alienate your guests.
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JaneV
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Post by JaneV »

I inherited wooden worktops when I bought my cottage but they drove me potty! There were always stains on them and it was far too stressful to deal with on a changeover day. It's only a tiny kitchen so I had them clad with quartz and it's made such a difference. I would definitely look to either replace yours or clad them with something more durable.
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

Our guest accommodation has oak worktops and I've had no problems. Depending on what the stain is, sanding will almost certainly remove it - that's the beauty of wood!

If you can describe the stain or, better, post a picture of it, welshfred, I'll see if I can give you some ideas about how to treat it.

BTW, wooden worktops absolutely don't need oiling every week - if you use the right oil, they should need nothing more than a quick hand sand at 320 grit once a year, followed by a very thin coat of oil to top up. That's what I do and they look as good as the day we installed them.
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Post by other »

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Last edited by other on Wed Apr 22, 2015 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

I have a laminate worktop which is also not practical as it can be damaged by heat and careless cutting. I bought (at Sainsburys) two large granite slabs - £14 each I think - which I put either side of the hob/oven. I would really like the whole surface to be granite but for the moment it is protecting it from careless hot pots. I would not have wood as we have that ourselves and no matter how well oiled it is, one has to watch out for water lying for any length of time on it. It is just a bit of a faff to keep it looking nice.

I would not charge the guests anything. Wood is not an easy surface to keep free of stains and damage in my experience.

In my Dublin place I got a resin/quartz mixture worktop (my particular one looks like slate) - very expensive and it came from Italy but worth its weight in gold. You only clean it with washing up liquid and it resists everything - stains, heat, knife cuts....
welshfred
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Post by welshfred »

Thank you all for your helpful comments.

Like Jane V I also inherited the work surfaces. They do look lovely, but as you all say, they can be challenging to keep looking lovely!

The previous guests are saying that it was already like it when they arrived. This I find hard to believe. It certainly wasn't there when I left the property that morning to drop the clean laundry off and whilst it crossed my mind that the cleaners could have used a non wood friendly cleaning product on it I think that a) this is unlikely, and b) it looks more like fatty blobs rather than something like bleach. Have any of you with wooden work surfaces had problems with cleaning products? French Cricket, I have a picture of it but I can't work out how to post it on here ....

I already have some chrome trivets for people to put pots on and the stained area is quite large so difficult to hide.

I think I will have to let this one go re getting any money back from the guests as they are saying they didn't do it. I don't want a massive argument over it, and as most of you point out, it perhaps wasn't the guests fault as they are easy to stain.

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salmoncottage
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Post by salmoncottage »

Dont know what wood Fred's tops are made from but if they're going to be subject to that kind of easy wear and tear they'll need oiled most weeks alright
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Accidental or irresponsible?
If it's irresponsible, (ie the guests were made fully aware of the precautions required with wood worktops but ignored them) you're within your rights to attempt to charge them for reparation. If it's accidental, it becomes a trickier decision.
Either way, wood surfaces in a kitchen are a complete no-no, and expecting guests to treat a kitchen worktop with kid gloves is unrealistic. I'd write it off and replace the worktop with something durable when possible (and put the timber to good use in a less hostile environment). Meantime it should be possible to sand it down and re-oil if you don't want to leave it until the next scheduled maintenance (every 3 to 6 months according to suppliers of wooden worktops). The problem with leaving the marks of course is that it's then unrealistic to expect guests to make special efforts not to add further marks.
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

I recommend Liberon Finishing Oil, minimum of 5 thin coats on bare wood, sanded or rubbed with OOOO grade wire wool between each one. As I said, I top up with a fresh coat once a year and it looks great, even round the sink.

We use (and supply) only ecological cleaning products - no bleach in the house - and find the best cleaner to be Ecover's all purpose spray, which gets used for pretty much everything!

One thing that does present danger to wooden worktops is washing liquid, which can work its way through even the most robust oil if, say, a bottle is left on the worktop that has remnants of the liquid on the bottom. It leaves a kind of white bloom - I wonder if that might be the problem? If so, it's easily remedied by sanding and re-oiling.
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Post by welshfred »

Image

Here is a picture
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

It's certainly a food stain and looking like grease of some sort. The only remarkable thing is how much there is of it! It should sand out ok and then in due course replace with something more durable or build up so many layers of oil it becomes almost impermeable!
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Post by Bunny »

OMG, I was of the opinion of 'let it go' until I saw the picture. I have no experience of wooden work tops but that certainly doesn't look like an accident to me. Surely that level of splashes couldn't have happened all in one go. Looks like repeated negligence to me. Sorry that's not being helpful because I agree that the worktops are not practical, but I wasn't expecting that level of damage. Now that I've seen it I would be asking for your restoration costs to be met. You couldn't have possibly have missed that Welshfred, so I don't think there's any doubt as to who the culprit is.
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Post by FelicityA »

I wasn't expecting to see that amount of splashes! And that is only one side of the cooker. How on earth did they manage to do this both sides? One side might be an accident, but TWO....were they boiling oil or something!!!??? It looks like what you might get if you poured water into a large hot oil-filled frying pan. Nobody could do this without being aware of what they have done. I revise my opinion on asking them to pay something towards its repair. Hopefully it will be recoverable with sanding and oiling.

BUT.....it IS just possible that the cleaners have used something that has done this. If you spray even a wax based spray on waxed wood and it comes out unevenly from a blocked hole you can get this effect, even on wood which is waxed and I don't really know how an oiled surface would react to a wax spray.. They might even have used some silicon based spray which might also do this.? I think I would ask them as my first point of investigation.
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