I Should Have Stayed at the Holiday Inn!

13. December 2007 by Parker.

I just finished my latest article for the Rockdale Citizen and turned it in this morning with the following picture. Special Thanks to Graffiti Zoo for the wonderful chocolates in the photo.

Setting up a guest room for the holidays can be just as stressful as hosting the guests themselves. Whether they will be in your home for just a night or staying for weeks on end, here’s how you can make them feel at home.

Keys to the Kingdom: Guests and hosts often feel compelled to stay in the home to fulfill expected obligations to each other. The guest typically feels rude to just use the home as a base camp for their travels, and the host often feels restricted from their day to day routine by having to entertain the guests, lest they leave them watching the home like an unpaid butler. Give yourself and your guests a declaration of independence by leaving a set of keys and local maps to let them know your life must go on and you will not be offended if they’d like to explore the area.

License to chill: There’s a reason an arm chair is always present in the corner of nearly every hotel room. By providing a relaxing space, you allow your guest to have a private place to retreat with a good book and not feel they have to be socializing with the family pet in the living room. Since guests rarely keep the same hours as their host, providing current magazines, books, or a local newspaper allows them to take advantage of the time when not even a mouse is stirring.

Snackpot!: A mint or candy cane on the pillow is always a nice touch. However, to make them feel like they’ve won the snack food lottery, provide a selection of local specialties such as Graffiti Zoo chocolates or Monastery coffee. Fresh fruits, a selection of prepackaged snacks, bottled water, and even a small coffee maker with cream and sugar, allows them to indulge should they wake early or stay up late and feel uncomfortable raiding the kitchen at odd hours.

Tools of Technology: Fifty years ago this would have meant a rotary telephone. Today this can be a flat screen TV with a DVD player and a selection of movies, as well as an internet connection. If your house is wired, make sure to supply a cable, as most guests don’t travel with one. Wireless? Make sure you leave instructions for logging onto your wireless network, including network name and password, so you do not feel compelled to let them use your personal computer or leave them to seek out local free Wi-Fi just to check their email. Also make sure an electrical outlet is easily accessible for charging cell phones and PDA’s.

I’ll take the floor, thanks: Traveling is hard enough on the body, so don’t compound your guests discomfort by putting an old worn out mattress in the guest room. Would you willingly sleep on your guest bed? If the answer is no, it’s time to replace it. Likewise, avoid mismatching sheets from over the years as this gives your guests the impression you’re scrambling to accommodate them. Make them feel welcome with a quality coordinated sheet set, a fluffy comforter, extra pillows, and additional blankets or a lightweight comforter as the season dictates.

Localized Lighting: Trying to navigate to the bed from the light switch has led to many a stubbed toe, so a bedside lamp and wall plug night lights on the way to the bathroom are some little things your guests will appreciate being in unfamiliar territory. Also make sure the bulbs work before guests arrive so they’re not unintentionally left in the dark.

Command Center: Every guest needs a place to keep track of their personal belongings and the nightstand is the ideal place to start and end each day. Mimicking your own is a good start by including an easy to use alarm clock, fresh flowers, any remote controls for TV, radio or CD players, a set of coasters, and a box of Kleenex. Remember, everything counts in small amounts.

Let me just move a few things…: The cardinal sin most homeowners commit is taking the time to set up a wonderfully inviting guest room and then utilizing it as a catchall storage locker for everything from children’s toys and dust covered exercise machines to file boxes and those jeans from college you still plan to fit into. Make sure to remove any unnecessary clutter that would impede your guests’ enjoyment of the room, leaving ample closet space and at least one dresser drawer so your guests don’t feel like they have to live out of their suitcase.

While these suggestions may seem more Four Seasons than Motel 6, all are practical and considered basic assumptions when paying for a room for the night. A recent survey of women travelers put the average perceived value of a night in a private home at $149, so even if you cannot charge your houseguests, you can at least make them feel like they made a good decision by taking you up on your offer of a brief or extended stay at your chalet.

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