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Morticia

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So, one room today decides they don't want breakfast right now. They will come back and fix themselves something later on. Right now they just want to go out for a walk. Huh? 'Fix themselves something?' Well, inquiring minds wanted to know...they were going to have scrambled eggs and toast and some sausage if we had any.
Whatever made them think we even had the eggs and toast? And that they could come into the kitchen whenever they felt like it to cook for themselves? Holy cow people. If you don't want what we're serving or don't want to eat now, go to a diner when you want to eat.
 
So how did you phrase the response?
 
Good gravy! Can't wait to hear how you handled it...
Were these the same three who were holed up all day?
 
So how did you phrase the response?.
The 'Mom' look. You know the look. The one you got when you blithely announced you were going off to do some tomfool thing with your friends and your mom just gave you that look.
 
bree,
We've never had that one for breakfast. Probably a testimony to the quality of the breakfasts served here. Probably just inexperienced B&B guests you've got there. why even book at a B&B if you aren't going to avail yourself of the second biggest part of the experience? Bed & ?
We have had a few folks who confuse a B&B with a vacation rental and think the kitchen we prepare breakfast in is open for their use anytime they like and with our provisions.
I feel that a big part of our jobs is to help educate new B&Bers for the sake of any other innkeepers hositng them in the future. Sure, we're all different and we all have different options and amenities available to our guests but some things carry over regardless of where it is.
A restaurant customer can't just walk in the kitchen and make themselves something if they feel like it.
Our health code allows those of us without a full grade commercial kitchen to only serve one hot or cooked meal per day and that is the reason we give when confronted with the issue. There also are liability issues with guests using commercially sharpened knives or other tools that could injure.
That one happened once with a group of women who wanted "their" 5pm happy hour snack at 1:30pm despite us being home and 50 feet away working in the gardens. If they had been even the slightest bit friendlier or lower maintenance during their stay to begin with and politely asked, we probably would have dropped what we were doing and put it together for them.
The injury aside, it took quite a bit of our time to clean up after them because they just left their mess right where they created it. We also had to disinfect the kitchen because of all the blood the cuttee spread all over hunting for our first aid kit.
These were all girlfriends and younger mothers, and my close friends mean the world to me, but I sure don't want any of their bodily fluids in my food.
After that one, all food except for the complimentary cold drinks we stock in the fridge are brought back out to our fridge after breakfast each morning. problem solved. We don't even leave the prep knives anywhere in the main kitchen where the curious type could go looking for them after we retire or if out.
We also explain that our license requires us to have a fully sanitized kitchen when we prepare breakfast and we are inspected by the health who can also send someone anytime of the day for a surprise spot inspection.
We don't even have a microwave on premises because one of our rooms is close to the kitchen and the thought and previous experience of a guest arriving at 10:30pm after telling me at 7pm they were in town "having" dinner with bags of groceries expecting to prepare a little late dinner sealed the deal on that one for us.
We've since had a few who rifled through all the cabinets, drawers, etc. in order to find what they needed to make themselves a "salad" at 9:45pm.
You know, salads aren't cooked so they extrapolated that to mean it was ok.
Yes I know, its an old joke, we sure know how to attract them. Broken record, but in five years this has happened maybe a handful of times.
The kicker is that these aren't people who aren't told what the limits of their stay are or aren't given a full check in tour with the most important policies spelled out for them.
 
yes, i would say they don't understand.
it's your home, and they are guests ... and sometimes the more at home a guest feels the more they want to 'just take care of themselves' ... as though they are visiting aunt bee.
it's a delicate balance for the innkeeper not to offend but to keep the guests out of the inn kitchen ... especially when floor plans and house setup collide ... that sweet little kitchen must look oh-so-inviting to a guest who doesn't want to eat at a set time. the work and the scheduling and the cleanup must look effortless and artless (and that is what you want) so that the guest thinks, 'what is the problem?'
one lovely lady told me quite 'huffily' (is that a word?) that NO she hadn't read the 'volumes' of rules and regulations in the guest manual in her room. surely i could bend the rules for her, surely no one would know, of course she would clean up after herself, she didn't want or need the fancy breakfast i was making that morning ..... etc. it didn't help when a place nearby allowed guests into their commercial kitchen to do exactly what this lady wanted to do. to tell her that place was 'breaking the rules' meant nothing to my guest who wanted what she wanted. with a 'rules shmules' she sat down to a late bowl of oatmeal, sliced fruit on the side, that i prepared.
i served it with a smile, with a fresh pot of tea, toast and jam ... but i knew she wasn't happy.
wink_smile.gif
 
Your set-up likely confused them (I know, DESPITE the signs!)
Thank goodness for my locking kitchen door! They don't lay an eye on it, let alone a foot. KEEP OUT!!!
 
bree,
We've never had that one for breakfast. Probably a testimony to the quality of the breakfasts served here. Probably just inexperienced B&B guests you've got there. why even book at a B&B if you aren't going to avail yourself of the second biggest part of the experience? Bed & ?
We have had a few folks who confuse a B&B with a vacation rental and think the kitchen we prepare breakfast in is open for their use anytime they like and with our provisions.
I feel that a big part of our jobs is to help educate new B&Bers for the sake of any other innkeepers hositng them in the future. Sure, we're all different and we all have different options and amenities available to our guests but some things carry over regardless of where it is.
A restaurant customer can't just walk in the kitchen and make themselves something if they feel like it.
Our health code allows those of us without a full grade commercial kitchen to only serve one hot or cooked meal per day and that is the reason we give when confronted with the issue. There also are liability issues with guests using commercially sharpened knives or other tools that could injure.
That one happened once with a group of women who wanted "their" 5pm happy hour snack at 1:30pm despite us being home and 50 feet away working in the gardens. If they had been even the slightest bit friendlier or lower maintenance during their stay to begin with and politely asked, we probably would have dropped what we were doing and put it together for them.
The injury aside, it took quite a bit of our time to clean up after them because they just left their mess right where they created it. We also had to disinfect the kitchen because of all the blood the cuttee spread all over hunting for our first aid kit.
These were all girlfriends and younger mothers, and my close friends mean the world to me, but I sure don't want any of their bodily fluids in my food.
After that one, all food except for the complimentary cold drinks we stock in the fridge are brought back out to our fridge after breakfast each morning. problem solved. We don't even leave the prep knives anywhere in the main kitchen where the curious type could go looking for them after we retire or if out.
We also explain that our license requires us to have a fully sanitized kitchen when we prepare breakfast and we are inspected by the health who can also send someone anytime of the day for a surprise spot inspection.
We don't even have a microwave on premises because one of our rooms is close to the kitchen and the thought and previous experience of a guest arriving at 10:30pm after telling me at 7pm they were in town "having" dinner with bags of groceries expecting to prepare a little late dinner sealed the deal on that one for us.
We've since had a few who rifled through all the cabinets, drawers, etc. in order to find what they needed to make themselves a "salad" at 9:45pm.
You know, salads aren't cooked so they extrapolated that to mean it was ok.
Yes I know, its an old joke, we sure know how to attract them. Broken record, but in five years this has happened maybe a handful of times.
The kicker is that these aren't people who aren't told what the limits of their stay are or aren't given a full check in tour with the most important policies spelled out for them..
It's tough to wow them with the breakfast if they don't show up for it! This has only happened a couple of times and mostly with long time guests of the POs. I guess their policy was 'whatever makes you happy' as we routinely found guests in the kitchen when we first took over. Including one guest who muscled me aside (once, he never tried that again during his stay) and opened the fridge, took out the eggs and asked for a fry pan.
You don't know my kitchen, but it is 3 feet wide and 5 feet long and there were already 2 of us in that space trying to feed the other guests. I took the eggs back and told him to have a seat.
He never came back. Aw gee.
 
yes, i would say they don't understand.
it's your home, and they are guests ... and sometimes the more at home a guest feels the more they want to 'just take care of themselves' ... as though they are visiting aunt bee.
it's a delicate balance for the innkeeper not to offend but to keep the guests out of the inn kitchen ... especially when floor plans and house setup collide ... that sweet little kitchen must look oh-so-inviting to a guest who doesn't want to eat at a set time. the work and the scheduling and the cleanup must look effortless and artless (and that is what you want) so that the guest thinks, 'what is the problem?'
one lovely lady told me quite 'huffily' (is that a word?) that NO she hadn't read the 'volumes' of rules and regulations in the guest manual in her room. surely i could bend the rules for her, surely no one would know, of course she would clean up after herself, she didn't want or need the fancy breakfast i was making that morning ..... etc. it didn't help when a place nearby allowed guests into their commercial kitchen to do exactly what this lady wanted to do. to tell her that place was 'breaking the rules' meant nothing to my guest who wanted what she wanted. with a 'rules shmules' she sat down to a late bowl of oatmeal, sliced fruit on the side, that i prepared.
i served it with a smile, with a fresh pot of tea, toast and jam ... but i knew she wasn't happy.
wink_smile.gif
.
Very similar situation I think. One of the party doesn't want anything 'fancy'. Another is a cook somewhere. Personally, I think it's a slam that after one bite of breakfast they would prefer to make their own. As anyone here knows, we are not known for 'fancy'. We are known for basic home cooking.
 
I actually serve breakfast at the kitchen table when I am have a full house. I haven't had anyone abuse anything yet. The tea maker is in there and I do let the guests help themselves to that during the day.
 
oh well. maybe they just prefer a later breakfast.
my breakfasts were not fancy ... just good food and lots of it.
 
oh well. maybe they just prefer a later breakfast.
my breakfasts were not fancy ... just good food and lots of it..
We have received a lot of first time B&B guests. When I great them at arrival I always say "Welcome to OUR home." We also advertise breakfast as "Cook's Choice" ....in other words take it or leave it. Only rarely has breakfast not been eaten. Once was because, as Kathleen put it, early morning "frisky" Ah, youth. It's wasted on the young.
 
bree,
We've never had that one for breakfast. Probably a testimony to the quality of the breakfasts served here. Probably just inexperienced B&B guests you've got there. why even book at a B&B if you aren't going to avail yourself of the second biggest part of the experience? Bed & ?
We have had a few folks who confuse a B&B with a vacation rental and think the kitchen we prepare breakfast in is open for their use anytime they like and with our provisions.
I feel that a big part of our jobs is to help educate new B&Bers for the sake of any other innkeepers hositng them in the future. Sure, we're all different and we all have different options and amenities available to our guests but some things carry over regardless of where it is.
A restaurant customer can't just walk in the kitchen and make themselves something if they feel like it.
Our health code allows those of us without a full grade commercial kitchen to only serve one hot or cooked meal per day and that is the reason we give when confronted with the issue. There also are liability issues with guests using commercially sharpened knives or other tools that could injure.
That one happened once with a group of women who wanted "their" 5pm happy hour snack at 1:30pm despite us being home and 50 feet away working in the gardens. If they had been even the slightest bit friendlier or lower maintenance during their stay to begin with and politely asked, we probably would have dropped what we were doing and put it together for them.
The injury aside, it took quite a bit of our time to clean up after them because they just left their mess right where they created it. We also had to disinfect the kitchen because of all the blood the cuttee spread all over hunting for our first aid kit.
These were all girlfriends and younger mothers, and my close friends mean the world to me, but I sure don't want any of their bodily fluids in my food.
After that one, all food except for the complimentary cold drinks we stock in the fridge are brought back out to our fridge after breakfast each morning. problem solved. We don't even leave the prep knives anywhere in the main kitchen where the curious type could go looking for them after we retire or if out.
We also explain that our license requires us to have a fully sanitized kitchen when we prepare breakfast and we are inspected by the health who can also send someone anytime of the day for a surprise spot inspection.
We don't even have a microwave on premises because one of our rooms is close to the kitchen and the thought and previous experience of a guest arriving at 10:30pm after telling me at 7pm they were in town "having" dinner with bags of groceries expecting to prepare a little late dinner sealed the deal on that one for us.
We've since had a few who rifled through all the cabinets, drawers, etc. in order to find what they needed to make themselves a "salad" at 9:45pm.
You know, salads aren't cooked so they extrapolated that to mean it was ok.
Yes I know, its an old joke, we sure know how to attract them. Broken record, but in five years this has happened maybe a handful of times.
The kicker is that these aren't people who aren't told what the limits of their stay are or aren't given a full check in tour with the most important policies spelled out for them..
It's tough to wow them with the breakfast if they don't show up for it! This has only happened a couple of times and mostly with long time guests of the POs. I guess their policy was 'whatever makes you happy' as we routinely found guests in the kitchen when we first took over. Including one guest who muscled me aside (once, he never tried that again during his stay) and opened the fridge, took out the eggs and asked for a fry pan.
You don't know my kitchen, but it is 3 feet wide and 5 feet long and there were already 2 of us in that space trying to feed the other guests. I took the eggs back and told him to have a seat.
He never came back. Aw gee.
.
That would have had me telling him to have a seat too, in his car!
Edited to say that the sometimes breakfast is all ya' get to wow them with, especially if they didn't get the room they wanted or weren't happy for some other reason, if they have that incredible breakfast, all can be forgiven! HA! The way to a man's heart and all that!
 
In our experience the first time B&B guests are the GREATEST! They are thrilled with everything and always wanting to make sure this or that is "ok"...it's usually the spoiled, high maintenance ones who act the way described here. Some people just think they are special...and you are, but we're all EQUALLY special...which makes you not special, get it? Sometimes it's fun making them understand this
wink_smile.gif
 
In our experience the first time B&B guests are the GREATEST! They are thrilled with everything and always wanting to make sure this or that is "ok"...it's usually the spoiled, high maintenance ones who act the way described here. Some people just think they are special...and you are, but we're all EQUALLY special...which makes you not special, get it? Sometimes it's fun making them understand this
wink_smile.gif
.
I agree, Innsider. We get ALOT of young couples, and lots of first-timers. It's been our experience that they are the best guests. I wouldn't trade our crowd for the crowd the gingerbread dripping victorian down the road gets for anything.
 
So how did you phrase the response?.
The 'Mom' look. You know the look. The one you got when you blithely announced you were going off to do some tomfool thing with your friends and your mom just gave you that look.
.
Bree said:
The 'Mom' look. You know the look. The one you got when you blithely announced you were going off to do some tomfool thing with your friends and your mom just gave you that look.
Ooooh! I love the mom look! And I discovered the "mom voice" when I was 19 (long before I had kids!). It was like this magical power that I suddenly gained. The two of them together are lethal! Like when we had the kid attending a seminar who thought it was a bed and breakfast and anything you can mooch throughout the day. Dh was telling him sure, have some peanut butter. And I'm like, "Uh UH, honey, no way!" So I get to go floor the poor kid with the mom look, mom voice, and mom lecture that he really needed to go find his own food after breakfast was over.
=)
Kk.
 
Welcome Wendy! I just looked at your Inn and it's really cute! Your rooms look so nice and comfy!! I also like your Assistant Innkeeper and your Assistant Inkeeper in Training! I grew up in Niles, Mi and can't wait to come back up (further than Niles though :)
 
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