Barbecue Cleaning!
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:18 am
There have been other threads about this in the past, but here we go again...
We have 2 large 'Campingaz' coal barbecues available for our guests. We provide a bag of coal, a box of firelighters and a variety of tongs/forks, etc. Next to the coal (so you can't miss it) is a washing up bowl, containing a pair of plastic gloves, a grease-dissolving spray, a large abrasive sponge and a special scraper. The only person using it is me.
The house notes state that we provide barbeques and that we ask our guests to empty out the ash and to properly clean the grills as well as the inside of the barbecues with the cleaning aids provided once they are finished using them.
We are lucky if guests dispose of the ash, as none of our guests seem to do any actual barbecue cleaning at all.
Our current guests have just left and we have just discovered both barbecues in a filthy state, caked in dust and grease (including all down the outside) with not even the very high pile of ash removed (they were using the barbecues every night).
So, how do we solve this? We can obviously take money from the security deposit (and add this warning into the house notes but as everyone knows, just who reads house notes?) We can take the barbecues away, but that would just cause disappointed guests and angry guests who have booked the farmhouse having seen that barbecues are available. We could switch to a less messy kind of barbecue I suppose...
I think the only way to try and get guests to understand that they have to clean our current barbecues is to physically take the guests to the shed and say, 'Here are 2 barbecues for your use, including a starter pack of coal and lighters. Could you please thoroughly clean any barbeques that you use with the cleaning kit provided, as this really helps us out as we do not have time to do this during changeovers....' or something similar. But it will of course just add to the already quite long walkaround that I already do when guests arrive in order for example, to explain how to use an AC outlet with an infant-safety disc fitted, how to open a window with a 'scissor-type' locking mechanism, etc. etc. This all due to past experiences where you know you need to explain how certain things work in an accommodation to avoid damage.
We have always left barbecues perfectly clean (often cleaner than when we found them) when we are ourselves on
a self-catering holiday. I just don't understand that so many guests seem to think that they can leave any mess and it will be cleared up after them. Since April, I think I have ruined 3 t-shirts and 2 shorts due to getting barbecue grease splatters on them while cleaning the guest barbecues.
As we have just had a last minute from ABB....8 Argentinians coming this afternoon and I just know that they will be wanting to use the barbecues every night...so better change into the 'barbecue cleaning clothing' and get to workl!
Though I must say, I am getting pretty fed up with this!
We have 2 large 'Campingaz' coal barbecues available for our guests. We provide a bag of coal, a box of firelighters and a variety of tongs/forks, etc. Next to the coal (so you can't miss it) is a washing up bowl, containing a pair of plastic gloves, a grease-dissolving spray, a large abrasive sponge and a special scraper. The only person using it is me.
The house notes state that we provide barbeques and that we ask our guests to empty out the ash and to properly clean the grills as well as the inside of the barbecues with the cleaning aids provided once they are finished using them.
We are lucky if guests dispose of the ash, as none of our guests seem to do any actual barbecue cleaning at all.
Our current guests have just left and we have just discovered both barbecues in a filthy state, caked in dust and grease (including all down the outside) with not even the very high pile of ash removed (they were using the barbecues every night).
So, how do we solve this? We can obviously take money from the security deposit (and add this warning into the house notes but as everyone knows, just who reads house notes?) We can take the barbecues away, but that would just cause disappointed guests and angry guests who have booked the farmhouse having seen that barbecues are available. We could switch to a less messy kind of barbecue I suppose...
I think the only way to try and get guests to understand that they have to clean our current barbecues is to physically take the guests to the shed and say, 'Here are 2 barbecues for your use, including a starter pack of coal and lighters. Could you please thoroughly clean any barbeques that you use with the cleaning kit provided, as this really helps us out as we do not have time to do this during changeovers....' or something similar. But it will of course just add to the already quite long walkaround that I already do when guests arrive in order for example, to explain how to use an AC outlet with an infant-safety disc fitted, how to open a window with a 'scissor-type' locking mechanism, etc. etc. This all due to past experiences where you know you need to explain how certain things work in an accommodation to avoid damage.
We have always left barbecues perfectly clean (often cleaner than when we found them) when we are ourselves on
a self-catering holiday. I just don't understand that so many guests seem to think that they can leave any mess and it will be cleared up after them. Since April, I think I have ruined 3 t-shirts and 2 shorts due to getting barbecue grease splatters on them while cleaning the guest barbecues.
As we have just had a last minute from ABB....8 Argentinians coming this afternoon and I just know that they will be wanting to use the barbecues every night...so better change into the 'barbecue cleaning clothing' and get to workl!
Though I must say, I am getting pretty fed up with this!