Lay My Hat

I don't know what our last guests were thinking, or even whether.

Our cleaners arrived to find the gas barbecue moved from its hardstanding at the side of the garden onto the gravel where the outdoor chairs and table are. They looked inside and found it full of part-burnt coal!

I would guess that the guests were trying to use it as a patio heater. Or maybe someone out there has some other explanation? I certainly wouldn't want my sausages cooked that way.

I haven't seen the BBQ myself as it's 450 miles away and I won't be going until November. Is burning coal (actually smokeless fuel) in a gas barbecue likely to damage it?

It may possibly clog up the gas jets with carbon. You'll just have to give it a clean and test it out. Perhaps some compressed air might help if blocked.

Ben, we had that happen to our BBQ a couple of years ago just after we paid out a lot of dosh for a good gas one. We then printed up some laminated instructions which our housekeepers are instructed to always ensure are under the hood with tools for incoming guests to find when they open it up. To date it hasnt happened again but it doesnt stop some guests from often leaving it uncleaned and unfit for the next guests, as suggested in the instructions. The laminate does indicate a cleaning fee might be deducted from D/D but we never go there for reasons often discussed on here.
Saying that, some guests never even seem to lift the lid on it so it's not all bad.

I had one group of people leave me a note a few years ago - "Some idiot has left charcoal in your grill so we have thrown it out and cleaned it"

The charcoal was lava rocks.

I mentioned this once before and a certain member on LMH who works for a certain insurance company copied it and published it in the Daily Mail Online, along with other LMH stories.

I did send an email to the lead guest:

Sheena,

I hope you had a good weekend.

Was there a problem with the gas barbecue? Our cleaners noticed that there is coal in it!


yesterday and I've had no reply so far. However, they have found time to post a review on TripAdvisor at around 1pm today. Which we suspect could be retaliation for us questioning the way they have used the bbq, so I've clicked the [deny] button for that review.

That has happened more times than enough over the years.....made my mind up pretty quickly not to get one. I have successfully persuaded all owners to go back to charcoal for guests and save the gas for personal use.

Mouse
x

Mouse wrote:That has happened more times than enough over the years.....made my mind up pretty quickly not to get one. I have successfully persuaded all owners to go back to charcoal for guests and save the gas for personal use.

Mouse
x

I prefer charcoal and i think most of my guests do

Bassman wrote:

Mouse wrote:That has happened more times than enough over the years.....made my mind up pretty quickly not to get one. I have successfully persuaded all owners to go back to charcoal for guests and save the gas for personal use.

Mouse
x

I prefer charcoal and i think most of my guests do

+1

When we went to our property a few weeks back, we found our last guests had bought bags of lava rocks for a gas barbecue (clearly marked), and tried to light them on our charcoal barbecue!

Enaid wrote:When we went to our property a few weeks back, we found our last guests had bought bags of lava rocks for a gas barbecue (clearly marked), and tried to light them on our charcoal barbecue!

They sell dry corn cones here in the supermarkets for BBQs, every year guest leave just opened full bags behind because they think what they bought was charcoal.

Even if it is idiot proof (written instructions) nature will provide a better idiot to put back the status quo.