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Gingerbread Latte

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The house that I'm negotiating on has 3 bdrm/bath ensuite and 2 bedrooms with private but detached bathrooms. If I were to host an event, such as a baby shower, I would have to use one of the detached bathrooms as a guest bath. I'm assuming my only option is to not book that room and the event at the same time. Does anyone here have that type of set-up? I don't feel it would be appropriate to use the detached bathroom for event guests, but I've been to several parties that did just that.
Thought? The house is 130 years old and I don't think I can find any space to add a guest bath.
 
Part of the charge for hosting the parties is the room cost for blocking off one of the bedrooms. You can decide if you want the whole amount or just part of it. Another thing to keep in mind is how does the party impact the paying room guests? Is there space for them to enjoy while the party is going on? Would they have to walk thru the party to come and go?
 
My question is this (from experience I speak):
When would you hold the baby showers?
Most will want a Saturday afternoon. Or it will be evening. You may be able to convince them the only option is a Sunday.
Are you holding this function with giggling women wear heavy perfume taking all your parking and space at the inn WHEN you have other guests checked in? So the baby showers guests overrun (and yes they will overrun) the inn. In fact any door not locked they will want to peak into.
So, this means if you have them at the inn, will you need to have them at a time when there are no guests, therefore the detached bathroom will work just fine for purpose.
(Advice from me in this same situation: On another note - have one person the point person, not a team of ladies, have payment up front and a decent cancellation period. Have them sign a damage waiver and...charge a fee if they want to bring their own anything, ie cake plate fee, etc for using your utenstils etc even if they bring their own cake. The # determined in advance and paid for - trust me when 5 don't show up and they tell you "Why do we have to pay for them?" The numbers in advance and paid for.)
 
Thank you. The Inn currently hosts events like this because the living & dining rooms are large and the back yard is open and conducive to groups. The rooms are not walk thrus as far as entering/exiting the house.
Do you host events? Pros & cons?
 
Thank you. The Inn currently hosts events like this because the living & dining rooms are large and the back yard is open and conducive to groups. The rooms are not walk thrus as far as entering/exiting the house.
Do you host events? Pros & cons?.
Gingerbread Latte said:
Thank you. The Inn currently hosts events like this because the living & dining rooms are large and the back yard is open and conducive to groups. The rooms are not walk thrus as far as entering/exiting the house.
Do you host events? Pros & cons?
Good to hear. Just remember when a guest books the inn they think it is all theirs. That is one thing i used to hear all the time from guests who stayed at a place and felt "captive" in their room.
We battle this from time to time, having a bride stay here the night prior and then all of a sudden the entire inn is overrun - the did not book a "bridal suite" as such, and they try to be sneaky about it. At times, dozens of vehicles are left here as they go to the church and then dozens roll back in as they say "We thought we would open the wedding presents on the porch" with our family.
Prior flowers, bridesmaids, hairdressers, aunts, cousins and photographer shows up! Not pre arranged. Not authorized. They leave and you have DUSTING POWDER everywhere and a new guest checking into that room that day! Plus they will leave late.
Just as a warning, heads up sort of thing. We can all tell similar stories.
When we first bought we did functions. We felt it was a good way to introduce us to the community. I have stories...plenty of them.
Payng up front prevents each individual from pullng out to the cent, and paying you...breakage - a lady just let go of an antique plate, i was understanding until her check bounced TWICE and I was left holding the damage $ and the bank fees! So after that I had a cc on file from the organizer, they signed a note saying they were held responsible for damage. And guess what, THEY monitored the group, they stayed on top of it!
Bringing in all their own stuff to avoid paying the $3-4 per person for dessert and coffee. Which is WAY LESS than any restaurant btw.
Be aware they won't want to pay anything.
Also be aware at a restaurant there is an auto gratuity on parties of 5 ot 6 or larger, ADD THAT IN, or you won't get anything. It required STAFF as people are everywhere. if you say NO KIDS, they bring them anyway. We have ponds, kids walking across decorative areas of rock that are NOT meant to carry weight. The kids are left on their own, this meant ONE PERSON entirely to monitor those kids!
So set the rules up front. Make it simple and clear.
OH HERE IS A GOOD ONE! Wedding venues have this and found the best way to nip it in the bud - EARLY ARRIVALS or staying back. CHARGE THEM. $100 per hour if you are late leaving. $100 per hour if you arrive before the allocated time. They will too. Just for functions, if they begin at noon, people arrive at 11am! I am cooking preparing AFTER guests JUST checked out!!, I cannot answer the door and show peole around. So that is something to stipulate.
I think you have the catering experince, right? So most of this you already know, only too well.
 
My question is this (from experience I speak):
When would you hold the baby showers?
Most will want a Saturday afternoon. Or it will be evening. You may be able to convince them the only option is a Sunday.
Are you holding this function with giggling women wear heavy perfume taking all your parking and space at the inn WHEN you have other guests checked in? So the baby showers guests overrun (and yes they will overrun) the inn. In fact any door not locked they will want to peak into.
So, this means if you have them at the inn, will you need to have them at a time when there are no guests, therefore the detached bathroom will work just fine for purpose.
(Advice from me in this same situation: On another note - have one person the point person, not a team of ladies, have payment up front and a decent cancellation period. Have them sign a damage waiver and...charge a fee if they want to bring their own anything, ie cake plate fee, etc for using your utenstils etc even if they bring their own cake. The # determined in advance and paid for - trust me when 5 don't show up and they tell you "Why do we have to pay for them?" The numbers in advance and paid for.).
Joey Bloggs said:
The # determined in advance and paid for - trust me when 5 don't show up and they tell you "Why do we have to pay for them?" The numbers in advance and paid for.)
Just like a wedding reception. You don't get anything back when 10 of your best friends don't show up or leave before the food is even served.
 
BI (before innkeeping) I booked our friends and us into a lovely mansion in Memphis. They did not bother to tell us there was a wedding reception booked into the first floor the evning of our reservation. We would have had to go through the reception to exit the house (down the stairs and out the door) so we felt like captives in the house and instead of going out for dinner as planned, ordered a pizza delivered (at least WE were not crashing the wedding). We were VERY unhappy campers - and I do not remember any interaction with anyone for breakfast either come to think of it. Some of the wedding party were staying there also - noisy. Thankfully, it was not my friends only trip to a B & B as we had done B & Bs prior - but this was expensive and we expected elegant. We enjoyed the next night at a motel better.
Edited to add: if doing a function, either they take the whole inn OR you inform in-coming guests there will be a function that evening and what kind of function so they can opt in or out with the rez.
 
Gingerbread Latte I hope you won't have trouble renting out the 2 rooms with detached baths. We have a room which has a detached bath and only rents if the whole city is booked up. It was always our last to rent and my dh has hated that it is that way for so long now that he has gutted the entire top floor to remodel it completely just so it will be an ensuite. He will have to move the entire staircase to another location to do so. Lots of time and lots of money. Gillum is right about hosting the parties. They will have to rent the entire place cause other guests will not appreciate being there when an event is going on.
 
We also just did an expensive remodel to create an ensuite as the detached bath did not rent and no one liked it when it did. Ours was bad as it was a first floor room with the bath off of the dining room. You can imgine taking your morning shower at 10 when 8 people are seated on the other side of the door eating, Not good for anyone. Still people expect a private attached bath when they show up.
 
Gingerbread Latte I hope you won't have trouble renting out the 2 rooms with detached baths. We have a room which has a detached bath and only rents if the whole city is booked up. It was always our last to rent and my dh has hated that it is that way for so long now that he has gutted the entire top floor to remodel it completely just so it will be an ensuite. He will have to move the entire staircase to another location to do so. Lots of time and lots of money. Gillum is right about hosting the parties. They will have to rent the entire place cause other guests will not appreciate being there when an event is going on..
I'm wondering if this has to do with inn location? I'm not saying the detached bath beats any other room, it doesn't, but it does rent here. And it's not always the last room to rent. It is the least expensive room but only by $10. I just looked and last year that room made $12k less than the best room and $3k less than the next closest room. (Which means that room in slot #2 needs better photos or some perking up.)
I definitely wouldn't do any major reno work to change things in that detached room.
There are times when the detached room isn't rented for months on end. (The worst record was, I think, 3 months.) But it got a fair workout last year when the economy was down and guests were watching their money. Right now it's running 20% occ for the month.
This is a destination area. Lots to do and see all year.
 
We just painted out and fixed rotting plaster that DH didn't know was rotting but put his hand through it trying to repair a nail hole in our detached room. We tossed the idea around and said, we are not that FULL all the time that it is worth the cost, we will leave this the lesser priced room. I love it, it is the eastern windows and tree tops room. Hard to convince people of that with the bath outside the room tho.
 
major major consideration for a detached bath is where the bath is located. picture a place with guestrooms on three floors ... on the second floor, at the end of a hall opposite the stairs, is the detached bath.
guests who had their own private bathroom would slip in their all the time ... to use the toilet, to shave, TO TAKE A SHOWER! they saw it, knew it was there. didn't matter that i had signs inside it that it was PRIVATE FOR ROOM BLAHBLAHBLAH. didn't matter when i put 'PRIVATE ' on it ...
i gave that bathroom its own name, like a guestroom, and advised the guests checking in to keep the door to it closed. this helped a little, but not a lot. i offered a key to the bathroom to the guests whose room it was but they often left the key in their room and didn't want to have to unlock it i guess.
i figured that part of the problem was that guests all throughout the building could see it, could tell it was a bathroom, assumed it was 'extra' or didn't care that it wasn't ... maybe if it was out of sight?
 
major major consideration for a detached bath is where the bath is located. picture a place with guestrooms on three floors ... on the second floor, at the end of a hall opposite the stairs, is the detached bath.
guests who had their own private bathroom would slip in their all the time ... to use the toilet, to shave, TO TAKE A SHOWER! they saw it, knew it was there. didn't matter that i had signs inside it that it was PRIVATE FOR ROOM BLAHBLAHBLAH. didn't matter when i put 'PRIVATE ' on it ...
i gave that bathroom its own name, like a guestroom, and advised the guests checking in to keep the door to it closed. this helped a little, but not a lot. i offered a key to the bathroom to the guests whose room it was but they often left the key in their room and didn't want to have to unlock it i guess.
i figured that part of the problem was that guests all throughout the building could see it, could tell it was a bathroom, assumed it was 'extra' or didn't care that it wasn't ... maybe if it was out of sight?.
I wonder if instead of a PRIVATE sign you had posted OUT OF ORDER and told the guests to whom it belonged the name of their bathroom was OUT OF ORDER - would the problem have still persisted.
 
major major consideration for a detached bath is where the bath is located. picture a place with guestrooms on three floors ... on the second floor, at the end of a hall opposite the stairs, is the detached bath.
guests who had their own private bathroom would slip in their all the time ... to use the toilet, to shave, TO TAKE A SHOWER! they saw it, knew it was there. didn't matter that i had signs inside it that it was PRIVATE FOR ROOM BLAHBLAHBLAH. didn't matter when i put 'PRIVATE ' on it ...
i gave that bathroom its own name, like a guestroom, and advised the guests checking in to keep the door to it closed. this helped a little, but not a lot. i offered a key to the bathroom to the guests whose room it was but they often left the key in their room and didn't want to have to unlock it i guess.
i figured that part of the problem was that guests all throughout the building could see it, could tell it was a bathroom, assumed it was 'extra' or didn't care that it wasn't ... maybe if it was out of sight?.
Sort of the same thing here. The detached bath is at the top of the stairs. All the other rooms can see it. We stress the key and locking the door. We tell that room other guests will go in there if they don't keep the door locked. Private sign made no difference at all. Locking the door is the only thing that worked.
 
Naming the room is a good idea. If the door is shut, it looks like all the others. Current owner has locks on them, but I don't know if guests lock them. I like to leave my stuff in the bathroom and wouldn't want to have to carry it back and forth.
The downstairs bath is just outside the room. Upstairs, it's across the hall, but still very close. The downstairs one would be what guests use during an event. I'll just include the room price in the event.
I wish there was room to build a small guest bath, but it's just not possible.
 
"If the door is shut, it looks like all the others."
ha ha ha famous last words, until you pull some old guy out of the shower and he says "My wife said I have to leave!" BUT THIS IS NOT YOUR SHOWER! THIS IS NOT YOUR ROOM! YOU DID NOT PAY FOR THIS BATHROOM! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN BATHROOM!
 
"If the door is shut, it looks like all the others."
ha ha ha famous last words, until you pull some old guy out of the shower and he says "My wife said I have to leave!" BUT THIS IS NOT YOUR SHOWER! THIS IS NOT YOUR ROOM! YOU DID NOT PAY FOR THIS BATHROOM! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN BATHROOM!.
Haha ~ I guess I need a sign, a lock and a security code....
 
We put the room number on the bathroom (ie room 5 is your room and there is a 5 on the door for the corresponding bathroom) or if you name rooms etc then people think it is a bedroom and keep out. I do tell them to lock the door but am always finding them open.
ie "this is your bathroom it locks with this key you can leave your things in there and lock them up if you like." then what they do is up to them.
 
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