When to charge for damages?

[Deanne35]

Just wondering what other hosts do regarding minor damages... I have had a few fairly minor accidental damages, and not charged the guest. Examples include breaking wine glasses (no big deal, cheap to replace), permanently marking an otherwise pristine slate hearth by attempting to clean it with oven cleaner (too expensive to get repaired), snapping the leg off a foot stool and, most recently, burning food in a non-stick wok resulting in me having to throw the wok away and buy a new one. It seems petty to charge the guest for these accidents, but then my costs mount up. A couple of the guests ‘fessed up and apologised, a couple didn’t mention it... 

[Laura2592]

@Deanne35  we charge damages if the item in question costs over $50 to repair OR its a piece of furniture that obviously needs replacing to complete the decor of the space (like a kitchen chair for example.)  We don't charge for missing towels, broken glasses or minor stuff.

Like you, we had someone damage our slate on the porch. Tried power washing and any number of cleaning remedies but ended up covering it with a cute rug. It was too expensive to replace the whole thing. Ironically, that is something we really should have charged the guest a hefty fee for, but the difficulty of doing the work during COVID in time for our next reservations gave them a pass. They got charged for the rug instead.