Being a guest in your B&B

Have you ever been a guest in your guest rooms? By that I mean more than sleeping in the room a night or so. I mean move in with all the stuff you take on a trip?
How comfortable is it to 'live' in? Are there enough outlets for all your gadgets? What about lighting in the bathroom to put on make-up?
I thought of this as we traveled this last week. We stayed in several hotels this time, unlike our regular vacation travel. One place had horrible lighting in the bathroom and I looked like Tammy Faye (y'all remember her) and there was plug (1/2 of 1 outlet) unused in the entire room. We had 2 phones and 2 laptops. We had to opt for less lighting (as in TV & bathroom) in order to plug these things in.
Another hotel room had the old carpet odor, toilet woke the dead & never fully flushed (ugg), the fridge in the room had a loud compressor, and no room to put anything off the floor.
I plan to take some time to live in the other guest rooms to make sure I am comfortable, can put on my makeup without looking like a clown afterwards, etc. I already have extra strip outlets in each room to take care of gadgets.

We have lighting at the sinks in both bathrooms for make-up/shaving. I have surge strips in almost every outlet each side of the beds and where the A/C units are. I also have the USB port charging multi-plugs and provide the universal (now) charger for cell phones and Kindles - plus an iPhone charger in the "best room". I have night stands with lamps on both sides of the bed in 2 rooms but only one side in the other because there is no room for it. I have a stand or area to put "stuff" on in each bathroom. Our toilet is long and loud but the guest bathrooms are quick and quiet. toss suggestions of do you have..... I like being made to think about things I had not thought about.

We need to add power strips/charging stations.
I have unplugged most of the fridges in hotel rooms so I can sleep.

yes, slept in all eight of them before we or as we opened each spring. and wished for things/modifications/additions i couldn't afford. brought along something to make notes in and there were lots of them. some things were so small i could fix them right away. some were not.
biggest challenge is NOT to go to your own room for things but to stay as a guest.
funniest thing is being spotted exiting a guest room and then going to the kitchen to cook or entering a room at night and explaining to the spotter why i did this. ALWAYS they were impressed.

have expanded the number of power outlets everywhere I can - there is no such thing as too many.

Madeleine said:

We need to add power strips/charging stations.
I have unplugged most of the fridges in hotel rooms so I can sleep..

Click to expand...

We have our guest refrigerator in the common area ...but of course we are small so one common refrigerator is sufficient. We added power strips to all rooms but even then some guests needs out-strip the capacity. Last week we had a couple with 2 computers, 2 phones, c-pap, music station and i-pad. They had to unplug the fan we keep in the bedroom to charge it all up. I'm getting used to seeing a higher electric bill but still really resent it when they leave for the day with the lights on, music going, the computers on and everything else charging. And of course the AC is set to 70. I'm not proud of it, but I do shut things off and raise the AC to 76 if they are out for the day. And I have removed all comforters from the beds because they need them to keep warm at night with the AC turned so low.

Silverspoon said:

Madeleine said:

We need to add power strips/charging stations.
I have unplugged most of the fridges in hotel rooms so I can sleep..

Click to expand...

We have our guest refrigerator in the common area ...but of course we are small so one common refrigerator is sufficient. We added power strips to all rooms but even then some guests needs out-strip the capacity. Last week we had a couple with 2 computers, 2 phones, c-pap, music station and i-pad. They had to unplug the fan we keep in the bedroom to charge it all up. I'm getting used to seeing a higher electric bill but still really resent it when they leave for the day with the lights on, music going, the computers on and everything else charging. And of course the AC is set to 70. I'm not proud of it, but I do shut things off and raise the AC to 76 if they are out for the day. And I have removed all comforters from the beds because they need them to keep warm at night with the AC turned so low.
.

Click to expand...

Do not want to even SEE this month's electric bill. When we have to run the A/C for breakfast I know things are bad. We recently switched providers and we are being 'rewarded' with gift cards so I expect to see maybe 2-3 GC's come in with this month's bill. Now if I didn't have to go out of my way to use them it would be a good thing!

Madeleine said:

Silverspoon said:

Madeleine said:

We need to add power strips/charging stations.
I have unplugged most of the fridges in hotel rooms so I can sleep..

Click to expand...

We have our guest refrigerator in the common area ...but of course we are small so one common refrigerator is sufficient. We added power strips to all rooms but even then some guests needs out-strip the capacity. Last week we had a couple with 2 computers, 2 phones, c-pap, music station and i-pad. They had to unplug the fan we keep in the bedroom to charge it all up. I'm getting used to seeing a higher electric bill but still really resent it when they leave for the day with the lights on, music going, the computers on and everything else charging. And of course the AC is set to 70. I'm not proud of it, but I do shut things off and raise the AC to 76 if they are out for the day. And I have removed all comforters from the beds because they need them to keep warm at night with the AC turned so low.
.

Click to expand...

Do not want to even SEE this month's electric bill. When we have to run the A/C for breakfast I know things are bad. We recently switched providers and we are being 'rewarded' with gift cards so I expect to see maybe 2-3 GC's come in with this month's bill. Now if I didn't have to go out of my way to use them it would be a good thing!
.

Click to expand...

Madeleine said:

Do not want to even SEE this month's electric bill. When we have to run the A/C for breakfast I know things are bad. We recently switched providers and we are being 'rewarded' with gift cards so I expect to see maybe 2-3 GC's come in with this month's bill. Now if I didn't have to go out of my way to use them it would be a good thing!

Click to expand...

Welcome to my world.
Don't you just love the recent trend (not) with provider services offering rewards for doing business with them? My cable company has started using an online store, buy from the store (they sell all types of items not just TV related) and get discounts off your bill. So why should I buy something at a higher price in order to get a couple cents off my cable bill.

copperhead said:

Madeleine said:

Silverspoon said:

Madeleine said:

We need to add power strips/charging stations.
I have unplugged most of the fridges in hotel rooms so I can sleep..

Click to expand...

We have our guest refrigerator in the common area ...but of course we are small so one common refrigerator is sufficient. We added power strips to all rooms but even then some guests needs out-strip the capacity. Last week we had a couple with 2 computers, 2 phones, c-pap, music station and i-pad. They had to unplug the fan we keep in the bedroom to charge it all up. I'm getting used to seeing a higher electric bill but still really resent it when they leave for the day with the lights on, music going, the computers on and everything else charging. And of course the AC is set to 70. I'm not proud of it, but I do shut things off and raise the AC to 76 if they are out for the day. And I have removed all comforters from the beds because they need them to keep warm at night with the AC turned so low.
.

Click to expand...

Do not want to even SEE this month's electric bill. When we have to run the A/C for breakfast I know things are bad. We recently switched providers and we are being 'rewarded' with gift cards so I expect to see maybe 2-3 GC's come in with this month's bill. Now if I didn't have to go out of my way to use them it would be a good thing!
.

Click to expand...

Madeleine said:

Do not want to even SEE this month's electric bill. When we have to run the A/C for breakfast I know things are bad. We recently switched providers and we are being 'rewarded' with gift cards so I expect to see maybe 2-3 GC's come in with this month's bill. Now if I didn't have to go out of my way to use them it would be a good thing!

Click to expand...

Welcome to my world.

Don't you just love the recent trend (not) with provider services offering rewards for doing business with them? My cable company has started using an online store, buy from the store (they sell all types of items not just TV related) and get discounts off your bill. So why should I buy something at a higher price in order to get a couple cents off my cable bill.
.

Click to expand...

Ours are $25 GC's to a local gas station/convenience store. It actually works out ok because DH will just drive to a different grocery store and fill up the car on the way.

Does anybody recommend a specific outlet/charging center?

Breakfast Diva said:

Does anybody recommend a specific outlet/charging center?.

Click to expand...

Breakfast Diva said:

Does anybody recommend a specific outlet/charging center?

Click to expand...

I think it's worth getting one that also has a couple of USB slots. Mine has a couple of electric sockets and a couple of USB slots, so I've put that near the table and a regular power strip next to the bed.

I stayed overnight in a place that had USB outlets ON their nightstand lamp bases. Let me tell ya- that was Sa-weet!

I can't recommend this highly enough.
We do this every winter, we spend 3 or 4 nights in each of our guest rooms (there's only 3).
I do it properly, ie. I'll pack my wash bag and just take a few clothes. I'll have a nice shower before bed, use the bath robes, watch TV in bed, make myself a hot chocolate, the works.
We also take a pen and paper with us so we can write notes of things we notice. You really do see things differently, and find things you wouldn't normally notice.
The first time we did it I discovered there was no-where to hang my robe, so we went round and put coat hooks on the the bedroom and bathroom doors. Often it's just little things that are cheap to improve on.