Favorite Guest Quirks

[toddburme]

I think my favorite guest quirk is when they leave right after breakfast and the room looks as if no one has slept in it..

I think my favorite guest quirk is when they leave right after breakfast and the room looks as if no one has slept in it.

 

[ukmaineiac]

Like you, as far as I'm concerned "The Quirks" are everything. I'm lucky enough to have an inn with a name that attracts them like moths to a flame.
One comes to mind this morning .... There is a young Haitian choir that comes to the area every couple of years. The kids stay with local families and the choir master stays with us. The first year he brought his 90++ mother with him - she was gorgeous in a classicaly beautiful way - delicate and tough at the same time - sweet, appreciative and opinionated - long thick grey hair braided down her back. He had English heritage and she looked Native American. She loved to tell stories and because they were so rich and evocative I didn't mind at all that she would tell the same story multiple times.
My favorite was the most ridiculously outlandish claim ..... I'll never forget it and I don't care whether it was fact or fiction (I'm going to be naive and believe in its veracity). On one side of the family she could trace her roots back to Lady Godiva and on the other side to Pocohantas. Now THAT'S a fabulous gene pool and a darn good story.

 

[ukmaineiac]

one of my most favorite guests was a tinkerer, he smelled faintly of sawdust and machinery somehow ... his wife headed out to shop for local things, to tour, to take pics, he was happy as all get out three days straight trying to get my late husband's mantle clock to run. in the meantime, he adjusted a schoolhouse clock, got my weather vane spinning, and tuned an old timey radio, and some other odds and ends.
i was worried his wife would be miffed not to have his company but she felt free to go out and enjoy the area because she said he'd be so obviously bored ... at one point, she dropped him at a country / hardware store where he happily rummaged through bins for hours and picked up little drill bits and who knows what else.
she came back and showed me her hand knitted sweater, hand picked blueberries, clover honey, maple syrup, a model ship, homemade pie and hand churned ice cream (that they shared with us all) ... he laid out a clean cloth and proudly showed his drill bits and pieces of wire and such.
when he smiled, his eyes disappeared into little slits above big round apple cheeks. adorable..

LOVE IT.
We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me. The banister is suddenly much more secure, the face-plate for the electric outlet behind the armchair has been replaced .... both sets of wives tell me it's what makes them happy.

 

[Arks]

one of my most favorite guests was a tinkerer, he smelled faintly of sawdust and machinery somehow ... his wife headed out to shop for local things, to tour, to take pics, he was happy as all get out three days straight trying to get my late husband's mantle clock to run. in the meantime, he adjusted a schoolhouse clock, got my weather vane spinning, and tuned an old timey radio, and some other odds and ends.
i was worried his wife would be miffed not to have his company but she felt free to go out and enjoy the area because she said he'd be so obviously bored ... at one point, she dropped him at a country / hardware store where he happily rummaged through bins for hours and picked up little drill bits and who knows what else.
she came back and showed me her hand knitted sweater, hand picked blueberries, clover honey, maple syrup, a model ship, homemade pie and hand churned ice cream (that they shared with us all) ... he laid out a clean cloth and proudly showed his drill bits and pieces of wire and such.
when he smiled, his eyes disappeared into little slits above big round apple cheeks. adorable..

LOVE IT.
We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me. The banister is suddenly much more secure, the face-plate for the electric outlet behind the armchair has been replaced .... both sets of wives tell me it's what makes them happy.
.

We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me.

Have you considered offering a DIY package so they can pay you for the fun you're giving them? ;-) Include storage of their tools at no extra charge, you provide the electricity for their power tools at no extra charge (is there a pun there?), etc. No nickle and diming if they buy the package.

 

[ukmaineiac]

one of my most favorite guests was a tinkerer, he smelled faintly of sawdust and machinery somehow ... his wife headed out to shop for local things, to tour, to take pics, he was happy as all get out three days straight trying to get my late husband's mantle clock to run. in the meantime, he adjusted a schoolhouse clock, got my weather vane spinning, and tuned an old timey radio, and some other odds and ends.
i was worried his wife would be miffed not to have his company but she felt free to go out and enjoy the area because she said he'd be so obviously bored ... at one point, she dropped him at a country / hardware store where he happily rummaged through bins for hours and picked up little drill bits and who knows what else.
she came back and showed me her hand knitted sweater, hand picked blueberries, clover honey, maple syrup, a model ship, homemade pie and hand churned ice cream (that they shared with us all) ... he laid out a clean cloth and proudly showed his drill bits and pieces of wire and such.
when he smiled, his eyes disappeared into little slits above big round apple cheeks. adorable..

LOVE IT.
We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me. The banister is suddenly much more secure, the face-plate for the electric outlet behind the armchair has been replaced .... both sets of wives tell me it's what makes them happy.
.

We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me.

Have you considered offering a DIY package so they can pay you for the fun you're giving them? ;-) Include storage of their tools at no extra charge, you provide the electricity for their power tools at no extra charge (is there a pun there?), etc. No nickle and diming if they buy the package.
.

LOL - great idea. I'll extend it to the people that like to garden and PROMISE to keep the flowerbeds as untended as possible so they'll have plenty (planty) to do when they get here. I'd also like to include the urban dwellers that think shovelling snow is fun - but that might raise my insurance too high. We routinely have guests in the summer that beg to use the tractor mower ..... sorry - no can do.

 

[Joey Camb]

one of my most favorite guests was a tinkerer, he smelled faintly of sawdust and machinery somehow ... his wife headed out to shop for local things, to tour, to take pics, he was happy as all get out three days straight trying to get my late husband's mantle clock to run. in the meantime, he adjusted a schoolhouse clock, got my weather vane spinning, and tuned an old timey radio, and some other odds and ends.
i was worried his wife would be miffed not to have his company but she felt free to go out and enjoy the area because she said he'd be so obviously bored ... at one point, she dropped him at a country / hardware store where he happily rummaged through bins for hours and picked up little drill bits and who knows what else.
she came back and showed me her hand knitted sweater, hand picked blueberries, clover honey, maple syrup, a model ship, homemade pie and hand churned ice cream (that they shared with us all) ... he laid out a clean cloth and proudly showed his drill bits and pieces of wire and such.
when he smiled, his eyes disappeared into little slits above big round apple cheeks. adorable..

LOVE IT.
We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me. The banister is suddenly much more secure, the face-plate for the electric outlet behind the armchair has been replaced .... both sets of wives tell me it's what makes them happy.
.

We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me.

Have you considered offering a DIY package so they can pay you for the fun you're giving them? ;-) Include storage of their tools at no extra charge, you provide the electricity for their power tools at no extra charge (is there a pun there?), etc. No nickle and diming if they buy the package.
.

there was a B&B that got 3 self catering cottages built that way. I work on the principle that if it makes them happy? etc

 

[gillumhouse]

one of my most favorite guests was a tinkerer, he smelled faintly of sawdust and machinery somehow ... his wife headed out to shop for local things, to tour, to take pics, he was happy as all get out three days straight trying to get my late husband's mantle clock to run. in the meantime, he adjusted a schoolhouse clock, got my weather vane spinning, and tuned an old timey radio, and some other odds and ends.
i was worried his wife would be miffed not to have his company but she felt free to go out and enjoy the area because she said he'd be so obviously bored ... at one point, she dropped him at a country / hardware store where he happily rummaged through bins for hours and picked up little drill bits and who knows what else.
she came back and showed me her hand knitted sweater, hand picked blueberries, clover honey, maple syrup, a model ship, homemade pie and hand churned ice cream (that they shared with us all) ... he laid out a clean cloth and proudly showed his drill bits and pieces of wire and such.
when he smiled, his eyes disappeared into little slits above big round apple cheeks. adorable..

LOVE IT.
We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me. The banister is suddenly much more secure, the face-plate for the electric outlet behind the armchair has been replaced .... both sets of wives tell me it's what makes them happy.
.

We have two sets of husbands that come once a year and bring their tools with them so they can fix things for me.

Have you considered offering a DIY package so they can pay you for the fun you're giving them? ;-) Include storage of their tools at no extra charge, you provide the electricity for their power tools at no extra charge (is there a pun there?), etc. No nickle and diming if they buy the package.
.

I know innkeepers that offered a Work Detail Package. The rate on the package covered the cost of the food - breakfasts, lunches, and a dinner bash at the end of the workday for the weekend.
Forgot to add that it was VERY successful.