Hello all,
Very shortly I am moving house and buying a large 3 bed Victorian terrace. The house has 4 original Victorian open fireplaces (2 in bedrooms, 1 in kitchen, 1 in lounge) which I have had checked, they all work and are in good condition.
I plan on allowing Airbnb guests to have the option of a smokeless coal or wood fire in their room in the colder months as I feel this would be a nice feature to advertise in my listing and a friend of mine who has a wood burner in their bedrooms charge their guests £10 GBP (14 USD / 11 EUR) for a bucket of wood.
However, my parents (who grew up with old houses and open fireplaces) advised me against allowing guests to use the fireplace for the risk of someone getting burnt, injured and the possibility of me being sued for a lot of money and they think it's not worth it for the small amount of extra money I might make. I understand I have to take every precaution with this - provide a fire extinguisher, fire blanket, heat proof gloves, CO2 alarm, fire alarm, first aid kit and fire guards in the room plus probably public liability insurance. I also don't allow children (below the age of 12) in my Airbnb and don't have any children of my own yet.
I just feel a little unsure as I've had some guests who in the past have done particularly stupid things (stuck a spoon in a live toaster, boiled rice in a kettle and another guest who melted a plastic kettle on a gas hob) so I'm not sure I'd let them loose on an open fire! However I'm fortunate especially in the case of the spoon in the toaster I have a modern RCD fuseboard so the fuse blew before the guest got electrocuted...
What are people's general thoughts about having open fireplaces? Nice feature or bad idea? And if you have a fireplace (or wood burner) that you allow guests to use, how do you manage it and reduce the risk of people getting hurt?
