Amenities

We like guests to be pretty self sufficient. We provide almost, but not quite, everything you might expect to find in a B&B. Not in a hotel, but a small B&B.
If something gets requested enough we think about adding it. So, yeah, we have shower caps.
That said, we have had a computer available for guests for eons. We bought a new computer for guests to use. We got the printer for free. So we installed that, too.
Now for the self sufficient part - open your eyes. The printer is right there. Don't be coming in the kitchen (ok, don't be blocking me from walking by with hot food) because you can't see the printer and you have to print your boarding pass. Right. Now. They could have printed them at the hotel they are staying at tonight.
On a related note - is there something inherently wrong with stirring your coffee with a soup spoon? Someone took all the teaspoons last night so all we had this morning at the coffee bar were soup spoons. Being as I wasn't going to do a room by room search for the teaspoons we made do with soup spoons. Everyone asked for teaspoons. You know, if I had them they'd be out! (Or, use the one at your place setting.)
It's a bit hot and humid today. I'll be better later. ;-)

Oh boy.
I have a backup bag of wood stir sticks with the to-go coffee cups, stored in a cupboard in the dining room. I would have put those out.
I would also have that tick-tick-tick in the back of my head until I found the demitasse spoons!

Do you sometimes feel that the more we do for guests, the more features we provide, the more they complain? We want to try our best, but difficult to please some guests.

Sometimes honesty is the best policy... I would have simply said "It appears another guest bogarted the teaspoons, so we are making due."
I'm thinking of removing the shared computer. It's been used like 3 times in the last 2 years. Maybe a cheapie tablet... doesn't need a dedicated space and with PREY they take it and it reports them when they connect it to wifi.

Continuing this tale of woe, I found out, just now, that all the teaspoons were in the room of the guest who kept asking why we only had soup spoons.
The way our guest area is set up all the coffee and tea items are immediately in front of you when you are looking at the coffee machine - mugs and glasses, right above machine; pods to the right; sugar to the left; milk in the fridge under the machine; spoons in the drawer under the machine. Very central.
Also in this guest's room were 4 glasses that had never been washed. They were in a cabinet, on a very high shelf, over the stove. There is no stove in the guest area. A microwave, yes, no stove.
The glasses were greasy (over the stove) and had the stickers on them from the store where we bought them. They are spares. We'll wash them when we need them.
Stay out of my kitchen!
Yes, we are adding a boundary marker this week. The sign is being ignored. Possibly adding Rottweiler as well.

Putting it all together, it's one room. Everyone else was fine. One room that went thru both the kitchen and the guest area and cleared everything out that they wanted and assumed more would appear later on.

Morticia said:

Continuing this tale of woe, I found out, just now, that all the teaspoons were in the room of the guest who kept asking why we only had soup spoons.
The way our guest area is set up all the coffee and tea items are immediately in front of you when you are looking at the coffee machine - mugs and glasses, right above machine; pods to the right; sugar to the left; milk in the fridge under the machine; spoons in the drawer under the machine. Very central.
Also in this guest's room were 4 glasses that had never been washed. They were in a cabinet, on a very high shelf, over the stove. There is no stove in the guest area. A microwave, yes, no stove.
The glasses were greasy (over the stove) and had the stickers on them from the store where we bought them. They are spares. We'll wash them when we need them.
Stay out of my kitchen!
Yes, we are adding a boundary marker this week. The sign is being ignored. Possibly adding Rottweiler as well..

Click to expand...

Just ideas that you have probably considered and dismissed, but could you block off your kitchen with a metal "jailhouse" type door made to hinge or slide across the opening. A local metal shop has made several specialty items for my needs or what about a roll down door or security grill, may not fit your needs, just ideas.

JimBoone said:

Morticia said:

Continuing this tale of woe, I found out, just now, that all the teaspoons were in the room of the guest who kept asking why we only had soup spoons.
The way our guest area is set up all the coffee and tea items are immediately in front of you when you are looking at the coffee machine - mugs and glasses, right above machine; pods to the right; sugar to the left; milk in the fridge under the machine; spoons in the drawer under the machine. Very central.
Also in this guest's room were 4 glasses that had never been washed. They were in a cabinet, on a very high shelf, over the stove. There is no stove in the guest area. A microwave, yes, no stove.
The glasses were greasy (over the stove) and had the stickers on them from the store where we bought them. They are spares. We'll wash them when we need them.
Stay out of my kitchen!
Yes, we are adding a boundary marker this week. The sign is being ignored. Possibly adding Rottweiler as well..

Click to expand...

Just ideas that you have probably considered and dismissed, but could you block off your kitchen with a metal "jailhouse" type door made to hinge or slide across the opening. A local metal shop has made several specialty items for my needs or what about a roll down door or security grill, may not fit your needs, just ideas.
.

Click to expand...

There is seriously no room. And I don't think it suits the look of my house. Now maybe when the kids were young!
It was much worse when we first got here and had to retrain all the repeat guests!

Morticia said:

Continuing this tale of woe, I found out, just now, that all the teaspoons were in the room of the guest who kept asking why we only had soup spoons.
The way our guest area is set up all the coffee and tea items are immediately in front of you when you are looking at the coffee machine - mugs and glasses, right above machine; pods to the right; sugar to the left; milk in the fridge under the machine; spoons in the drawer under the machine. Very central.
Also in this guest's room were 4 glasses that had never been washed. They were in a cabinet, on a very high shelf, over the stove. There is no stove in the guest area. A microwave, yes, no stove.
The glasses were greasy (over the stove) and had the stickers on them from the store where we bought them. They are spares. We'll wash them when we need them.
Stay out of my kitchen!
Yes, we are adding a boundary marker this week. The sign is being ignored. Possibly adding Rottweiler as well..

Click to expand...

Morticia said:

Continuing this tale of woe, I found out, just now, that all the teaspoons were in the room of the guest who kept asking why we only had soup spoons.
Also in this guest's room were 4 glasses that had never been washed. They were in a cabinet, on a very high shelf, over the stove. There is no stove in the guest area. A microwave, yes, no stove.

Click to expand...

Good grief, when is this PITA leaving?

We have barn-style doors that block off th two entrance to our kitchen. They just slide over, mostly for privacy. I finally convinced DH to put latches on them so that I could lock them. He thought it was silly (!) Came home tonight after running a quick errand-everyone was looked after or had gone to supper- only to find that the latch was pulled as far as it would go, meaning someone had tried to slide the door open.
Honestly, you can walk right through to our private area but people don't think that we would mind....not!

Generic said:

Sometimes honesty is the best policy... I would have simply said "It appears another guest bogarted the teaspoons, so we are making due."
I'm thinking of removing the shared computer. It's been used like 3 times in the last 2 years. Maybe a cheapie tablet... doesn't need a dedicated space and with PREY they take it and it reports them when they connect it to wifi..

Click to expand...

Generic said:

Sometimes honesty is the best policy... I would have simply said "It appears another guest bogarted the teaspoons, so we are making due."

Click to expand...

There was an innkeeper here in town that used to offer mimosas during Sunday morning breakfast. She opened her fridge (in off limits kitchen) Sunday morning to discover the bottle of champagne missing. You can't buy any alcohol before noon on Sunday here, so it's not as though she could just run to the store. I remember being horrified when she told me this story and asked her what she said or did. If I recall she said nothing to the guests (she has much more class than I - haha). I honestly think I would have made an announcement something like "Well, y'all, I would love for you to enjoy Mimosas on this fine morning, but SOMEONE needed it worse and took it right out of my private fridge last night. So sorry!"

I am just appalled that people do things like this!

Morticia said:

Continuing this tale of woe, I found out, just now, that all the teaspoons were in the room of the guest who kept asking why we only had soup spoons.
The way our guest area is set up all the coffee and tea items are immediately in front of you when you are looking at the coffee machine - mugs and glasses, right above machine; pods to the right; sugar to the left; milk in the fridge under the machine; spoons in the drawer under the machine. Very central.
Also in this guest's room were 4 glasses that had never been washed. They were in a cabinet, on a very high shelf, over the stove. There is no stove in the guest area. A microwave, yes, no stove.
The glasses were greasy (over the stove) and had the stickers on them from the store where we bought them. They are spares. We'll wash them when we need them.
Stay out of my kitchen!
Yes, we are adding a boundary marker this week. The sign is being ignored. Possibly adding Rottweiler as well..

Click to expand...

Why does someone take every teaspoon in the place?grrrrrr you really get them don't you???

crazy people ... to take them all and then complain that there aren't any. um, huh? creating a problem to complain about? so. very. odd. Before this person checks out, you'd better 'help' with their bags in case they've got silverware in there.

SS has it right - crazy people take things and hoard them in their room. I think the one we had here was a kleptomaniac, well that among other things.
First person to be listed on my DNB.

BananaE29 said:

Generic said:

Sometimes honesty is the best policy... I would have simply said "It appears another guest bogarted the teaspoons, so we are making due."
I'm thinking of removing the shared computer. It's been used like 3 times in the last 2 years. Maybe a cheapie tablet... doesn't need a dedicated space and with PREY they take it and it reports them when they connect it to wifi..

Click to expand...

Generic said:

Sometimes honesty is the best policy... I would have simply said "It appears another guest bogarted the teaspoons, so we are making due."

Click to expand...

There was an innkeeper here in town that used to offer mimosas during Sunday morning breakfast. She opened her fridge (in off limits kitchen) Sunday morning to discover the bottle of champagne missing. You can't buy any alcohol before noon on Sunday here, so it's not as though she could just run to the store. I remember being horrified when she told me this story and asked her what she said or did. If I recall she said nothing to the guests (she has much more class than I - haha). I honestly think I would have made an announcement something like "Well, y'all, I would love for you to enjoy Mimosas on this fine morning, but SOMEONE needed it worse and took it right out of my private fridge last night. So sorry!"

I am just appalled that people do things like this!
.

Click to expand...

Which is why I would have shamed that person, even if no one knew who it was. Because sometimes you just need it pointed out that you are an a hole.

Generic said:

BananaE29 said:

Generic said:

Sometimes honesty is the best policy... I would have simply said "It appears another guest bogarted the teaspoons, so we are making due."
I'm thinking of removing the shared computer. It's been used like 3 times in the last 2 years. Maybe a cheapie tablet... doesn't need a dedicated space and with PREY they take it and it reports them when they connect it to wifi..

Click to expand...

Generic said:

Sometimes honesty is the best policy... I would have simply said "It appears another guest bogarted the teaspoons, so we are making due."

Click to expand...

There was an innkeeper here in town that used to offer mimosas during Sunday morning breakfast. She opened her fridge (in off limits kitchen) Sunday morning to discover the bottle of champagne missing. You can't buy any alcohol before noon on Sunday here, so it's not as though she could just run to the store. I remember being horrified when she told me this story and asked her what she said or did. If I recall she said nothing to the guests (she has much more class than I - haha). I honestly think I would have made an announcement something like "Well, y'all, I would love for you to enjoy Mimosas on this fine morning, but SOMEONE needed it worse and took it right out of my private fridge last night. So sorry!"

I am just appalled that people do things like this!
.

Click to expand...

Which is why I would have shamed that person, even if no one knew who it was. Because sometimes you just need it pointed out that you are an a hole.
.

Click to expand...

And we always know who it is, don't we? They think we won't know, but we always do! Innkeeping has brought out the "Mother" in me, even though I'm not a Momma.

JimBoone said:

Do you sometimes feel that the more we do for guests, the more features we provide, the more they complain? We want to try our best, but difficult to please some guests..

Click to expand...

Sometimes its better to provide less than more. Case in point...weekly guests just left the cottage. These are the guests who were worried and kept bugging me when they made the reservation about light possibly seeping in through the louvers on the shutters in the bedroom. So before they arrived we went out and spent $100 on shades and DH installed them. They worked fine..no complaints.
When they arrived they didn't want to park in the normal spot for the cottage because they did't want tree droppings on their rental car. They needed a softer pillow and used every beach towel we own. Fine
Before leaving they commented that they loved the cottage, AC, cookies, wifi... but then they just had to point out that the pencil we provided needed to be sharpened. I mean COME ON folks...give us a break!

Silverspoon said:

JimBoone said:

Do you sometimes feel that the more we do for guests, the more features we provide, the more they complain? We want to try our best, but difficult to please some guests..

Click to expand...

Sometimes its better to provide less than more. Case in point...weekly guests just left the cottage. These are the guests who were worried and kept bugging me when they made the reservation about light possibly seeping in through the louvers on the shutters in the bedroom. So before they arrived we went out and spent $100 on shades and DH installed them. They worked fine..no complaints.
When they arrived they didn't want to park in the normal spot for the cottage because they did't want tree droppings on their rental car. They needed a softer pillow and used every beach towel we own. Fine
Before leaving they commented that they loved the cottage, AC, cookies, wifi... but then they just had to point out that the pencil we provided needed to be sharpened. I mean COME ON folks...give us a break!
.

Click to expand...

Silverspoon said:

Before leaving they commented that they loved the cottage, AC, cookies, wifi... but then they just had to point out that the pencil we provided needed to be sharpened. I mean COME ON folks...give us a break!

Click to expand...

Are you completely serious? This just made me BURST out with laughter. They could find nothing to complain about, so had to really grasp and point out that your PENCIL. Needed. To. Be. Sharpened. Oh my good Lord!!!!

Silverspoon said:

JimBoone said:

Do you sometimes feel that the more we do for guests, the more features we provide, the more they complain? We want to try our best, but difficult to please some guests..

Click to expand...

Sometimes its better to provide less than more. Case in point...weekly guests just left the cottage. These are the guests who were worried and kept bugging me when they made the reservation about light possibly seeping in through the louvers on the shutters in the bedroom. So before they arrived we went out and spent $100 on shades and DH installed them. They worked fine..no complaints.
When they arrived they didn't want to park in the normal spot for the cottage because they did't want tree droppings on their rental car. They needed a softer pillow and used every beach towel we own. Fine
Before leaving they commented that they loved the cottage, AC, cookies, wifi... but then they just had to point out that the pencil we provided needed to be sharpened. I mean COME ON folks...give us a break!
.

Click to expand...

They were here last week! Everything needed a comment. The parting one, on the way out the door, was that the pillows weren't very good. They don't last forever, you know...
Sorry, pillows are so subjective you need to travel with your own.
And why didn't you ask while you were here if we had different ones?
The blinds were today. They are room darkening and they close tightly. You have open them slightly to pull them up. They're not broken. You've locked them shut.

BananaE29 said:

Silverspoon said:

JimBoone said:

Do you sometimes feel that the more we do for guests, the more features we provide, the more they complain? We want to try our best, but difficult to please some guests..

Click to expand...

Sometimes its better to provide less than more. Case in point...weekly guests just left the cottage. These are the guests who were worried and kept bugging me when they made the reservation about light possibly seeping in through the louvers on the shutters in the bedroom. So before they arrived we went out and spent $100 on shades and DH installed them. They worked fine..no complaints.
When they arrived they didn't want to park in the normal spot for the cottage because they did't want tree droppings on their rental car. They needed a softer pillow and used every beach towel we own. Fine
Before leaving they commented that they loved the cottage, AC, cookies, wifi... but then they just had to point out that the pencil we provided needed to be sharpened. I mean COME ON folks...give us a break!
.

Click to expand...

Silverspoon said:

Before leaving they commented that they loved the cottage, AC, cookies, wifi... but then they just had to point out that the pencil we provided needed to be sharpened. I mean COME ON folks...give us a break!

Click to expand...

Are you completely serious? This just made me BURST out with laughter. They could find nothing to complain about, so had to really grasp and point out that your PENCIL. Needed. To. Be. Sharpened. Oh my good Lord!!!!
.

Click to expand...

Perhaps we should gather the many little experiences mentioned on the forum and compile them into an entertaining (and educating) booklet for the guest rooms. It would give many guests a fine laugh and maybe enlighten a few about the joys of being an innkeeper.