Fast food: Hotel room service speeds up

[Samster]

Doesn't anyone else beside me have to worry about their county health dept? Before we got our restaurant license, our inspector would show up for their surprise inspection with our website printed up, asking about any food add-on packages.
Now that we've been doing our dinners for a year I have a more realistic perspective of how last minute add ons can interfere with your personal time than I did before. I know we're not talking about doing a whole dinner, but you'll want to be realistic about how it can impact your personal time. More than likely, they won't know they want that yummy dessert until 7 or 8 pm when they get the munchies. Are you ready to put that movie you're watching on pause or stay home because someone ordered a $10 goodie? Sure, it may only take a few minutes to put that stuff together, but if you're using plates and silverware, you'll be chomping at the bit for them to get their dirty dishes out of their room so you can clean up. And you don't want to be rude when the guest now takes another opportunity to talk your ear off when you fix them and deliver that yummy goodie!
Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea, just think it through. Try to figure out something that the guest can purchase from you without you having to interact. We have an 'honor area/gift pantry' where people can purchase wine, beer, other pantry items. For us, I would package up a small basket of goodies like individually wrapped candy/chips/crackers and offer it in our honor area. There are purchase slips they fill out with the item they took and their room. Rarely has anything gone missing..

What I think JB was doing was having us think out of the box. Having something else to offer - not always maybe but something unique that is not something commonly thought of. We all can think of 100 reasons why this (or anything else for that matter) would not work but she is just tossing out ideas.
This does not have to be something on your website it can be a last minute 'oh, and by the way we are offering something special tonight ...' People will think they have a rare opportunity, they may feel special.
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Thinking out of the box to meet guests' needs/wants is great!
I can't tell you how many times I've been a solo traveler, arrived at a B&B at the tail end of check-in time, and then had to go out and find a grocery store to get a little "picnic" dinner to bring back to my room. Because I either: 1) Didn't want to eat alone in a strange town, 2) Didn't want to eat a regular sized dinner at a restaurant by myself, 3) Had driven a long distance and just wanted something light. Some innkeepers don't even have a stale complimentary cookie to tide you over until morning. And, on occasion I had to head back out some dark, country or mountain road. This would be a great service to offer for some B&Bs.
Those are dollars that a savvy innkeeper could have put in their pocket.

 

[Joey Camb]

I am doing something similar for this year to see how it takes ie tent cards in each room of extra services we offer and how much ie faxing so much per sheet, our own brand chocolate bars £x and so on as well as a list of things we do as compliamentary. Its all about making people aware of things we do already and can sell them ie colour copy on my printer is £x easy to do and so on.