Can I claim the price of a new mattress or TV a guest destroyed?

No, and understanding the reason will save you the most common argument in these hearings. Compensation for injured property aims to restore your position, not improve it. If a six-year-old mattress is destroyed and you claim the retail price of a new one, the award would leave you better off than you were the moment before the guest arrived, because you would be holding a new asset instead of a used one. The usual measure is the cost of repair or the reduction in the item's value, whichever is lower, assessed against its real condition at the time it was damaged.

This lands hardest on soft goods and electronics, which is most of what gets destroyed in a guest room. The way to keep control of the figure is to bring the age yourself rather than let the guest raise it. Purchase records establish when the item entered service, and if you replace on a known cycle, saying so gives the judge a defensible basis for a depreciated figure. Owners who arrive with a new-replacement invoice and no purchase history typically watch the award get cut by an amount the judge picks. Owners who arrive with an age and a reasoned depreciation usually get their own number.