I am becoming anti-B&B

[Proud Texan]

We have a directional sign that says PARKING as our guests enter our backwoods compound. We have two cottages, each with it's own parking space with a prominently placed sign for each space. These signs are even lit at night.
More often than not, I will see guests stop at the PARKING sign and sit for several minutes trying to figure out where to park. When I end up having to walk down there to show them where to park, it seems they forgot which cottage they were staying in. READ YOUR DAMNED CONFIRMATION!
I finally had to go in and reword the "Looking forward to your visit" letter that's automatically sent 3 days before their arrival to tell them exactly where to park. It's helped a little.

 

[Generic]

Today was THAT day....not even the "They stay they pay they go away" mantra was working. AND if one more person says what I REALLY need to do with the lodge is.....I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE. Going to hide from guests in laundry now. Needed to vent......

Today was THAT day....not even the "They stay they pay they go away" mantra was working. AND if one more person says what I REALLY need to do with the lodge is.....I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE. Going to hide from guests in laundry now. Needed to vent.....

We got this a LOT our first year. My best response to any of it? 'That's a terrific idea! Thank you. I'm writing down all of the suggestions and we'll review them over the winter.'
I found that just allowing the person to tell me what they were thinking shut them up faster than anything else. Explaining why we couldn't/wouldn't be doing whatever it was never helped.
And, really? Some of the guests had excellent ideas. Yes, it got tiring hearing how badly we were doing everything and how well the guest would do it in our places, but, water off a duck's back once we understood and embraced that the way we were doing it was best for US first and the guest second.
But, hey, you're a terrific kid and you're doing a swell job!
.

Seven rooms out this am. Survived! Had some really good folks, just one couple visiting family in the area was driving me nuts. Then there was the couple that came in to the motel late. I told them I would leave the key in the door and the light on. They were in room 5. They called me at 11:00pm from the utility room between 4 and 5, couldn't find their room! Next morning they couldn't find the 10,000sq ft lodge for coffee! Handyman thinks we need to add on to the lodge so people can find it. Better today, new batch due in tomorrow! Off for supplies, again thanks all for your support!!!
.

Seven rooms out this am. Survived! Had some really good folks, just one couple visiting family in the area was driving me nuts. Then there was the couple that came in to the motel late. I told them I would leave the key in the door and the light on. They were in room 5. They called me at 11:00pm from the utility room between 4 and 5, couldn't find their room! Next morning they couldn't find the 10,000sq ft lodge for coffee! Handyman thinks we need to add on to the lodge so people can find it. Better today, new batch due in tomorrow! Off for supplies, again thanks all for your support!!!

Well you could paint the walk way with different colors and have a guide: follow the yellow line to the lodge, follow the blue line to rooms .... the green line to rooms ....
NO don't do THAT!!!!
.

We went to a place with multiple doors facing the parking lot. NO signs on any of the doors. BUT, they had painted footprints on the parking lot going toward one of them. We keep saying we're going to do that.
.

we have 2 doors on the back the one to use has a large sign pointing to it marked Entrance - people still walk round to the front - "we didn't know if we were allowed to use that door" well the large sign saying entrance would be a clue!
.

Public Entrance
On the water boiler the button to open it for refilling said PUSH, so all the guests pushed. I covered it over with "Detonate".... more guests pushed it. I finally went with "Finger chopper" and now, they leave it alone. You never know what wording will work, but eventually, one does.

 

[Madeleine]

Today was THAT day....not even the "They stay they pay they go away" mantra was working. AND if one more person says what I REALLY need to do with the lodge is.....I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE. Going to hide from guests in laundry now. Needed to vent......

Today was THAT day....not even the "They stay they pay they go away" mantra was working. AND if one more person says what I REALLY need to do with the lodge is.....I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE. Going to hide from guests in laundry now. Needed to vent.....

We got this a LOT our first year. My best response to any of it? 'That's a terrific idea! Thank you. I'm writing down all of the suggestions and we'll review them over the winter.'
I found that just allowing the person to tell me what they were thinking shut them up faster than anything else. Explaining why we couldn't/wouldn't be doing whatever it was never helped.
And, really? Some of the guests had excellent ideas. Yes, it got tiring hearing how badly we were doing everything and how well the guest would do it in our places, but, water off a duck's back once we understood and embraced that the way we were doing it was best for US first and the guest second.
But, hey, you're a terrific kid and you're doing a swell job!
.

Seven rooms out this am. Survived! Had some really good folks, just one couple visiting family in the area was driving me nuts. Then there was the couple that came in to the motel late. I told them I would leave the key in the door and the light on. They were in room 5. They called me at 11:00pm from the utility room between 4 and 5, couldn't find their room! Next morning they couldn't find the 10,000sq ft lodge for coffee! Handyman thinks we need to add on to the lodge so people can find it. Better today, new batch due in tomorrow! Off for supplies, again thanks all for your support!!!
.

Seven rooms out this am. Survived! Had some really good folks, just one couple visiting family in the area was driving me nuts. Then there was the couple that came in to the motel late. I told them I would leave the key in the door and the light on. They were in room 5. They called me at 11:00pm from the utility room between 4 and 5, couldn't find their room! Next morning they couldn't find the 10,000sq ft lodge for coffee! Handyman thinks we need to add on to the lodge so people can find it. Better today, new batch due in tomorrow! Off for supplies, again thanks all for your support!!!

Well you could paint the walk way with different colors and have a guide: follow the yellow line to the lodge, follow the blue line to rooms .... the green line to rooms ....
NO don't do THAT!!!!
.

We went to a place with multiple doors facing the parking lot. NO signs on any of the doors. BUT, they had painted footprints on the parking lot going toward one of them. We keep saying we're going to do that.
.

we have 2 doors on the back the one to use has a large sign pointing to it marked Entrance - people still walk round to the front - "we didn't know if we were allowed to use that door" well the large sign saying entrance would be a clue!
.

Public Entrance
On the water boiler the button to open it for refilling said PUSH, so all the guests pushed. I covered it over with "Detonate".... more guests pushed it. I finally went with "Finger chopper" and now, they leave it alone. You never know what wording will work, but eventually, one does.
.

YES! Our hot water pot also has a push button on the top to open for refilling. A significant number of guests push that to POUR hot water. They don't even try first to see if the water will come out the spout.

 

[Generic]

Today was THAT day....not even the "They stay they pay they go away" mantra was working. AND if one more person says what I REALLY need to do with the lodge is.....I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE. Going to hide from guests in laundry now. Needed to vent......

Today was THAT day....not even the "They stay they pay they go away" mantra was working. AND if one more person says what I REALLY need to do with the lodge is.....I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE. Going to hide from guests in laundry now. Needed to vent.....

We got this a LOT our first year. My best response to any of it? 'That's a terrific idea! Thank you. I'm writing down all of the suggestions and we'll review them over the winter.'
I found that just allowing the person to tell me what they were thinking shut them up faster than anything else. Explaining why we couldn't/wouldn't be doing whatever it was never helped.
And, really? Some of the guests had excellent ideas. Yes, it got tiring hearing how badly we were doing everything and how well the guest would do it in our places, but, water off a duck's back once we understood and embraced that the way we were doing it was best for US first and the guest second.
But, hey, you're a terrific kid and you're doing a swell job!
.

Seven rooms out this am. Survived! Had some really good folks, just one couple visiting family in the area was driving me nuts. Then there was the couple that came in to the motel late. I told them I would leave the key in the door and the light on. They were in room 5. They called me at 11:00pm from the utility room between 4 and 5, couldn't find their room! Next morning they couldn't find the 10,000sq ft lodge for coffee! Handyman thinks we need to add on to the lodge so people can find it. Better today, new batch due in tomorrow! Off for supplies, again thanks all for your support!!!
.

Seven rooms out this am. Survived! Had some really good folks, just one couple visiting family in the area was driving me nuts. Then there was the couple that came in to the motel late. I told them I would leave the key in the door and the light on. They were in room 5. They called me at 11:00pm from the utility room between 4 and 5, couldn't find their room! Next morning they couldn't find the 10,000sq ft lodge for coffee! Handyman thinks we need to add on to the lodge so people can find it. Better today, new batch due in tomorrow! Off for supplies, again thanks all for your support!!!

Well you could paint the walk way with different colors and have a guide: follow the yellow line to the lodge, follow the blue line to rooms .... the green line to rooms ....
NO don't do THAT!!!!
.

We went to a place with multiple doors facing the parking lot. NO signs on any of the doors. BUT, they had painted footprints on the parking lot going toward one of them. We keep saying we're going to do that.
.

we have 2 doors on the back the one to use has a large sign pointing to it marked Entrance - people still walk round to the front - "we didn't know if we were allowed to use that door" well the large sign saying entrance would be a clue!
.

Public Entrance
On the water boiler the button to open it for refilling said PUSH, so all the guests pushed. I covered it over with "Detonate".... more guests pushed it. I finally went with "Finger chopper" and now, they leave it alone. You never know what wording will work, but eventually, one does.
.

YES! Our hot water pot also has a push button on the top to open for refilling. A significant number of guests push that to POUR hot water. They don't even try first to see if the water will come out the spout.
.

And now, dear Maddie, you know what to write on the label you put over it.