I have just had someone call and ask me if they could use my kitchen occasionally for some of their larger catering events. He is wanting to come in and speak with me next week about it but I have no idea where to even begin when charging for something like this. Have any of you done this and what did you charge? Do you charge by the hour? and if so how do you go about deciding on what to charge? Thanks everyone

I don't currently rent out my down time, but it is something that I will do with the right person.

I will charge a flat monthly fee for unlimited access, but you have to work around my schedule (and I'm usually out of there no later than 5). Must have food safety certification, liability insurance with me named as an add'l insured, and get their own health dept license (which is the goal and objective, right?).

I will not rent for a percentage of sales. If you are a bad business person and only charge $50 for a cake that takes you 5 hours to make and then expect to use my kitchen, my equipment, my soaps, my water, my electric, etc., for a five dollar bill? I don't think so, Tim!

A flat fee per month is easier for me to deal with. I dont' want to keep track of hours and bicker over a difference of an hour here or there. Flat fee. It's business. I also will not deal with those who "....don't want to pay rent if I don't have any orders!" Well whoop-dee-do! That's what *I* and every other business in town has to do.

If they are a caterer, odds are good that they will need access mostly on the weekends .... so be sure it's not a conflict in schedule between the two of you.

but what kind of monthly fee should I charge? They would be using my space (tables etc.) and my oven

I plan to charge $350-$500, depending on our conversation re: how much time they expect to need it (more time, more electric, more water, etc.)

when he was speaking with me on the phone - he was talking like he would need it for something like 3-5 hours maybe a few times a month. With that minimal amount of time I just find it hard to charge like $500 but I have also never done this before. Someone else told me that I should charge by the hour but even with that I would not know what to charge and again would hate to have to keep track. I am just at a loss here, I feel clueless

What I did was break it down. At $300/month, assuming an avg of $10/hour, that's 30 hours a month..... 15 hours every two weeks .... 7.5 hours a week ..... about an hour a day or a couple of nights a week.

Under this plan, if my tenant is in there more than 30 hours, they come out ahead. If they are a hobbyist and are only in there 8-10 hours, then it's not a waste of my time.

Costs may be higher here (everything costs more here, I swear), but our kitchen rents to hourly companies for $20/hour. That's an all inclusive rate (utilities, soaps, etc.) but they don't get any on-site storage. They also charge hourly companies a $500 security deposit.