How do you handle guest comfort in re room temperature?

[Morticia]

If you have a 'whole house' system (not individual room controls) how do you handle the temp? Do you turn the heat or A/C on at a certain time? Only when you know guests are in the house? Only at breakfast? Do you expect guests to let you know the temp is too hot or too cold or don't you care what the guests think?
If it's A/C, what is the optimum temp setting?
If it's heat, what is the optimum temp setting?

 

[gillumhouse]

The guestrooms are individual but the downstairs is not. I crank the thermostat to about 68 when I get up when there are guests in house. Otherwise it goes up to about 62 to 64 depending on how cold DH feels. I just put on a sweater or a hoodie.
Edited to add that in Summer if we run the A/C at all it is one or two cycles in the AM to get rid of humidity that may be in the house. This is a cold house and is usually 10 degrees cooler than outside - great in summer but a

in winter. Silk glove liners are great - they are thin enough that you can still type in them but keep the fingers warm.

 

[muirford]

Our heating is one zone, hot water radiators, thermostat in downstairs hallway; the cooling is two-zones, up and down, thermostats in hallways but further away from front door. Since we don't have individual controls, I set them at temps that do not meet energy efficiency standards - AC at 75, heat at 67. We don't mess with them much - the hot water heat is tremendously efficient but slow in adjusting, so turning it down doesn't make sense unless we're away from the inn. Plus our quarters are the coldest - no basement under. Also our quarters are hottest in the summer - kitchen and no basement - and we are generally so busy in the summer that we can't turn the AC off. We have fans in all the rooms - the tall skinny ones - for those who want extra air. That usually works well. Except this spring when some idiot turned the upstairs thermostat down to 55, causing the heat to come on, thus making everyone hotter instead of cooler. That is when we installed covers on the AC thermostats.

 

[JBloggs]

We have electronic thermostats - one for downstairs one for up. Both area are completely diff to heat and cool. Example even with attic fan running the heat off the roof and in the attic requires more cooling upstairs than we do down here.
It is totally inefficient to have it bump up more than 2 degrees at a time, Winter we have it set for bed time 10pm it drops down, wake up 7am it warms up a bit, check in times etc. In Spring, Summer, Fall it is a/c winter it is heat (ten times more costly than having a/c running continuously). We have weekends, weekdays: wake up times, check out times, check in times, beddie bye times.
Now having said that, this is an historic home - so where sun hits full on windows and metal roof is diff to back half of the house in the northern exposure - shady all the time. Each room is diff, some cooler and some warmer, some carpeted, some wood floors.
Some guests from FLA some from BUFFALO NY. We do the best we can for all of them, there is no perfect temp - within one couple one is always cold and one runs hot. Such is life.

 

[Samster]

We have electronic thermostats - one for downstairs one for up. Both area are completely diff to heat and cool. Example even with attic fan running the heat off the roof and in the attic requires more cooling upstairs than we do down here.
It is totally inefficient to have it bump up more than 2 degrees at a time, Winter we have it set for bed time 10pm it drops down, wake up 7am it warms up a bit, check in times etc. In Spring, Summer, Fall it is a/c winter it is heat (ten times more costly than having a/c running continuously). We have weekends, weekdays: wake up times, check out times, check in times, beddie bye times.
Now having said that, this is an historic home - so where sun hits full on windows and metal roof is diff to back half of the house in the northern exposure - shady all the time. Each room is diff, some cooler and some warmer, some carpeted, some wood floors.
Some guests from FLA some from BUFFALO NY. We do the best we can for all of them, there is no perfect temp - within one couple one is always cold and one runs hot. Such is life..

Same here but we have 2 houses to worry about :-( The second house is only one story and is much more efficient to heat and cool. But we still make adjustments to individual rooms by opening and closing registers in the rooms. All rooms have either ceiling fans or tower fans with remotes. All rooms have windows that can open. One person's cool temp is too hot to another, and so it goes...
This time of year is particularly difficult to control the temps here. The other day, I had A/C coming on upstairs for the guests. If it was just us, we probably wouldn't have anything running! Since we're in the Deep South, it's a big adjustment for people from Northern climes. They seem to want it much, much cooler. We have folks here now from Vermont who turned the heat off upstairs last night which was fine because they were the only ones up there. Tonight we have a full house so I'll be going up shortly to check it. ;-) Seems like 69F for heat works well here for the setting on the thermostats which means it is really a few degrees warmer in the guest rooms. A/C we set around 73-74F, I think. We have high ceilings here - 9 ft to 12 ft in some rooms.
Even individual controls can be difficult to get just right. We were in a 4 Star hotel recently and when we turned the heat up a teensy bit, it would still blast us out of the room. Most of the time we didn't have the heat on at all.

 

[Country Girl]

We have one thermostat for all the B&B rooms and I usually keep it set to 68 or 70, depending on how cold it is. If I only have one room staying I show them where the thermostat is and tell them to adjust it to their comfort level. We have individual AC units in each room during the summer.

 

[Suzie Q]

Our heating is one zone, hot water radiators, thermostat in downstairs hallway; the cooling is two-zones, up and down, thermostats in hallways but further away from front door. Since we don't have individual controls, I set them at temps that do not meet energy efficiency standards - AC at 75, heat at 67. We don't mess with them much - the hot water heat is tremendously efficient but slow in adjusting, so turning it down doesn't make sense unless we're away from the inn. Plus our quarters are the coldest - no basement under. Also our quarters are hottest in the summer - kitchen and no basement - and we are generally so busy in the summer that we can't turn the AC off. We have fans in all the rooms - the tall skinny ones - for those who want extra air. That usually works well. Except this spring when some idiot turned the upstairs thermostat down to 55, causing the heat to come on, thus making everyone hotter instead of cooler. That is when we installed covers on the AC thermostats..

I had an older couple comment that it was too cold for them in April. They took it upon themselves to adjust the thermostat themselves. Unfortunately, they didn't touch the A/C therm but the HEATER instead! We were on vacation in April for two weeks with the heat at 80 degrees!
We have radiant heat (water in the floor) for most of the house. That is silent and the only way to know is when you're barefoot. The guest bedroom is the warmest room in the house. We also have a draft in the kitchen, 20' from the thermostat, caused by the doggie door.
Our new suite has its own heat control (yea!) but is reliant upon the central air in the summer time. I invite the guests to adjust the air, which is usually too cold for me. We turn off the vents in our quarters, which is downstairs. Some may call it a walk-out basement.

 

[The Farmers Daughter]

Here were have multi zones. The upstairs guest rooms are set at 70 in the winter and AC set at 74 in the summer. The downstairs is alway cold in the winter and hot in the summer. (its an old house thing). During the winter we will set it on 72 during breakfast and then lower it to 70 if we have guests in the first floor rooms. If not, it goes down to 68.
The cottage has a computerized thermostat that is on 68 during the day and 65 at night. This one has manual adjustments for guests comfort.

 

[Samster]

Guests here again from up Nawth and they have the A/C on upstairs!! Good grief! It is 56F outside and the house is fine with NOTHING running at this time of day. What the heck?? My dh told me to tell them to take off their sweaters!! grrrrrrrrrrrr.....

 

[Morticia]

Guests here again from up Nawth and they have the A/C on upstairs!! Good grief! It is 56F outside and the house is fine with NOTHING running at this time of day. What the heck?? My dh told me to tell them to take off their sweaters!! grrrrrrrrrrrr......

Show them how to open the windows!

 

[Samster]

Guests here again from up Nawth and they have the A/C on upstairs!! Good grief! It is 56F outside and the house is fine with NOTHING running at this time of day. What the heck?? My dh told me to tell them to take off their sweaters!! grrrrrrrrrrrr......

Show them how to open the windows!
.

It's raining here and damp and cold! It would get a little bit wet in the rooms.
Gee, open a window...hmmmm, that's an interesting thought. haha!

 

[wendydk]

Furnace is 70 for brekkie, 68 for the rest of the day and 67 at night. Each room has an electric fireplace with heat controls, and of course window ac units in the summer. Have never had anyone complain about the house being to hot or too cold.

 

[Morticia]

Thanks all. You do it pretty much the way I do. We have individ therms in the rooms which we let the guests mess with (usually set at 60, less when no one is on the books for awhile). The therm in the living room we turn down during the day (60) and up around 3 PM. Of course there was a reason for this...when I travel, I can't seem to find a small B&B that turns the heat on in the cold weather. Cold to me being I am sitting in the room with a long-sleeved t, a sweater, a fleece and a blanket and my fingers are still going numb. When Gomez complains, I know there's something wrong. (I'm the picky one. Oh, you knew that, did you.)
Therm in the room set to 75, read out showed 58. Heat never came on no matter how we wiggled that switch. Found out later that there was only one therm that worked and that was in the owners' qtrs.
Warning to guests...if the innkeeper is wearing a hat when you check in and she's not going anywhere, it's gonna be a cold one!