Hey who took my steak knives?  Better yet, why in the world would you take my steak knives from my vacation home?  When is the last time you took an inventory of your vacation home rental?

The steak knives – the whole set – gone.  They were not super expensive knives but where in the world did they go.  Most owners have the maid service or property manager take a basic inventory of items when renters depart.  With nightly and weekly this can get cumbersome and that is why we really just look at the broad picture – beds still here (check), linens still here (check), Tv’s still here (check) and so on.  But often you only know that something is missing when the next visitor calls to inquire – Like “where are all the knives?”

Before you jump to conclusions it’s best to put an “eye” on the unit to see if it got tucked away.  We do see visitors who would not use a crockpot or rice cooker and tuck it way back in a closet somewhere.  With long term visitors of a month or so we often see furniture rearranged. 

I personally think that certain items get damaged along the way or lost- for example the filter basket or coffee carafe is missing – definitely got chipped or broken and tossed out.  Missing frying pans – someone cooked up a really greasy mess and baked it permanently onto the pan – best option – throw it in the trash – no one will notice.  Knobs pop off of things, batteries go missing (high-jacked to someone’s camera?), remote control buttons get stuck, etc.  This is what I like to call vacation rental collateral damage.  If you have vacation rentals for more than 1 season then you know what I am talking about.  Still would like to know where the steak knives went – maybe they slowly disappeared – like one went over to the grill area for bbq and got left there, another may have been taken on a picnic and so forth.  Oh well at least it wasn’t the art work! 

Do you have a system for inventory after each visitor or any funny vacation rental stories – or not so funny stories?  Would love to hear from you!