There is a very easy way to stock a short-term rental kitchen.
Walk through the kitchen aisle of a store and buy one of everything that looks vaguely kitchen-ish.
Please don’t do that.
You’ll end up with three specialty gadgets nobody uses and somehow still forget the scissors.
A well-stocked STR kitchen isn’t the kitchen with the most stuff.
It’s the kitchen where a guest can walk in, make ordinary food, find what they need and never have occasion to wonder why on earth there isn’t a can opener.
So instead of starting with a giant shopping list, start with what people actually do in a kitchen.
They make coffee.
They make breakfast.
They heat leftovers.
They cook dinner.
They pour drinks.
They gather around the counter and eat things directly out of the refrigerator at unreasonable hours.
Stock for that.
Start With the Meals Someone Could Reasonably Make
You don’t need to prepare your kitchen for someone to make a five-course French dinner.
But a guest who booked a house with a full kitchen should reasonably be able to cook.
Think through a handful of ordinary meals.
Eggs and bacon.
Pancakes.
Pasta.
Tacos.
A frozen pizza.
A salad.
Something grilled outside.
Leftovers.
Coffee. Lots of coffee.
Now ask what someone would need to prepare, cook, serve and clean up after those meals.
That exercise will build a much better kitchen than blindly working through somebody else’s 147-item STR checklist.
The Everyday Dishes
Start with the obvious foundation:
Dinner plates
Smaller plates
Bowls
Drinking glasses
Coffee mugs
Wine glasses, if appropriate for the property
Forks
Knives
Spoons
Choose things that are durable, dishwasher-safe and relatively easy to replace.
This is not the place for the delicate hand-painted dinnerware you will mourn personally when somebody chips a plate.
It also doesn’t mean everything needs to look like it came from a cafeteria.
Durable and attractive are allowed to know each other.
For quantities, think beyond what guests need for one meal so they aren’t constantly running the dishwasher.
RELATED READING → How Much of Everything Does Your STR Actually Need? — LINK
Cookware People Will Actually Use
You do not need seventeen pans.
You need the right pans.
A solid starting point is:
Large skillet
Medium skillet
Small saucepan
Medium saucepan
Large pot with lid
Baking sheet
Baking dish
Colander
Depending on the property, you may also want:
Dutch oven or larger covered pot
Second baking sheet
Pizza pan
Grill tools
Choose cookware that can take some abuse.
Guests will not care for your pans with the same tenderness you do at home.
That is simply part of their journey.
Avoid pieces that require unusual care, can’t go in the dishwasher when guests will inevitably put them there anyway, or become unusable the moment someone reaches for a metal spatula.
Give Them Something to Cook With
A drawer full of utensils can still somehow contain nothing useful.
Cover the basics:
Spatula/turner
Large spoon
Slotted spoon
Tongs
Whisk
Ladle
Serving spoon
Wooden or silicone spoon
Can opener
Bottle opener/corkscrew
Vegetable peeler
Kitchen scissors
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
And please include a decent can opener.
This sounds oddly specific until you’ve tried opening a can of tomatoes with a rental-house can opener that appears to have been manufactured as a practical joke.
Don’t Forget the Knives
Guests don’t need a twelve-piece professional knife block.
They do need knives capable of cutting food.
At minimum:
Chef’s knife
Paring knife
Serrated/bread knife
Add a cutting board—or preferably separate boards that can be easily cleaned.
And periodically check the knives.
A knife technically still exists long after it has ceased being useful.
The presence of an object is not the same thing as the object doing its job.
That principle applies to quite a lot of STR inventory, actually.
There is a very easy way to stock a short-term rental kitchen.
Walk through the kitchen aisle of a store and buy one of everything that looks vaguely kitchen-ish.
Please don’t do that.
You’ll end up with three specialty gadgets nobody uses and somehow still forget the scissors.
A well-stocked STR kitchen isn’t the kitchen with the most stuff.
It’s the kitchen where a guest can walk in, make ordinary food, find what they need and never have occasion to wonder why on earth there isn’t a can opener.
So instead of starting with a giant shopping list, start with what people actually do in a kitchen.
They make coffee.
They make breakfast.
They heat leftovers.
They cook dinner.
They pour drinks.
They gather around the counter and eat things directly out of the refrigerator at unreasonable hours.
Stock for that.
Start With the Meals Someone Could Reasonably Make
You don’t need to prepare your kitchen for someone to make a five-course French dinner.
But a guest who booked a house with a full kitchen should reasonably be able to cook.
Think through a handful of ordinary meals.
Eggs and bacon.
Pancakes.
Pasta.
Tacos.
A frozen pizza.
A salad.
Something grilled outside.
Leftovers.
Coffee. Lots of coffee.
Now ask what someone would need to prepare, cook, serve and clean up after those meals.
That exercise will build a much better kitchen than blindly working through somebody else’s 147-item STR checklist.
The Everyday Dishes
Start with the obvious foundation:
Dinner plates
Smaller plates
Bowls
Drinking glasses
Coffee mugs
Wine glasses, if appropriate for the property
Forks
Knives
Spoons
Choose things that are durable, dishwasher-safe and relatively easy to replace.
This is not the place for the delicate hand-painted dinnerware you will mourn personally when somebody chips a plate.
It also doesn’t mean everything needs to look like it came from a cafeteria.
Durable and attractive are allowed to know each other.
For quantities, think beyond what guests need for one meal so they aren’t constantly running the dishwasher.
RELATED READING → How Much of Everything Does Your STR Actually Need? — LINK
Cookware People Will Actually Use
You do not need seventeen pans.
You need the right pans.
A solid starting point is:
Large skillet
Medium skillet
Small saucepan
Medium saucepan
Large pot with lid
Baking sheet
Baking dish
Colander
Depending on the property, you may also want:
Dutch oven or larger covered pot
Second baking sheet
Pizza pan
Grill tools
Choose cookware that can take some abuse.
Guests will not care for your pans with the same tenderness you do at home.
That is simply part of their journey.
Avoid pieces that require unusual care, can’t go in the dishwasher when guests will inevitably put them there anyway, or become unusable the moment someone reaches for a metal spatula.
Give Them Something to Cook With
A drawer full of utensils can still somehow contain nothing useful.
Cover the basics:
Spatula/turner
Large spoon
Slotted spoon
Tongs
Whisk
Ladle
Serving spoon
Wooden or silicone spoon
Can opener
Bottle opener/corkscrew
Vegetable peeler
Kitchen scissors
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
And please include a decent can opener.
This sounds oddly specific until you’ve tried opening a can of tomatoes with a rental-house can opener that appears to have been manufactured as a practical joke.
Don’t Forget the Knives
Guests don’t need a twelve-piece professional knife block.
They do need knives capable of cutting food.
At minimum:
Chef’s knife
Paring knife
Serrated/bread knife
Add a cutting board—or preferably separate boards that can be easily cleaned.
And periodically check the knives.
A knife technically still exists long after it has ceased being useful.
The presence of an object is not the same thing as the object doing its job.
That principle applies to quite a lot of STR inventory, actually.