Is it strange to you?

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Morticia

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How often, if ever, do you lie in bed and think how odd it is that strangers are sleeping in your house and you're pretty much treating them like family? At the oddest times it catches me that this is one weird way to live.
 
Ha! My first job I laid in bed that night thinking "here I am, alone, with a houseful of strange men (business men). What was I thinking?!" I didn't sleep much that night!
 
I treat them like special friends - family fends for themselves!
No, I do not find it strange. We always had friends and family in and out. When my boys had friends who were kicked out for some reason or other, they landed at our house until they could go back home. it is neat that people actually pay me to come entertain me.
 
I treat them like special friends - family fends for themselves!
No, I do not find it strange. We always had friends and family in and out. When my boys had friends who were kicked out for some reason or other, they landed at our house until they could go back home. it is neat that people actually pay me to come entertain me..
I feel the same way. Treating strangers like family always feels, to me, like a secret trick. Like I know that it makes me feel good but they think I'm doing it just for them. It's a secret all good innkeepers share, I think.
Although every now and then there is that stranger who is up to no good and makes you feel uncomfortable in your own home.
Still for every one of them, I think there are a thousand new friends out there, just about to walk in the door.
 
I treat them like special friends - family fends for themselves!
No, I do not find it strange. We always had friends and family in and out. When my boys had friends who were kicked out for some reason or other, they landed at our house until they could go back home. it is neat that people actually pay me to come entertain me..
gillumhouse said:
it is neat that people actually pay me to come entertain me.
Ain't that the truth.
The 'strangers in the house' thing doesn't really come in my mind that often anymore, well not without someone (usually guests themselves) planting it in my mind. I have more nightmares about my old 40 hr job than I do about this place. In fact, had one last night and could not go back to sleep so up early and made my guests this morning something special.
 
No, never think of it that way. But having separate owners quarters make a big difference. We are still in the house, but not near the guest rooms.
For all those aspirings - having your OWN space is imperative in this business, don't short change yourself and think you can "make do" by just having a room near the guest rooms.
 
Well for me...it took 6 years and then I said "hey..I want my house back for me;-)
 
I treat them like special friends - family fends for themselves!
No, I do not find it strange. We always had friends and family in and out. When my boys had friends who were kicked out for some reason or other, they landed at our house until they could go back home. it is neat that people actually pay me to come entertain me..
gillumhouse said:
it is neat that people actually pay me to come entertain me.
Ain't that the truth.
The 'strangers in the house' thing doesn't really come in my mind that often anymore, well not without someone (usually guests themselves) planting it in my mind. I have more nightmares about my old 40 hr job than I do about this place. In fact, had one last night and could not go back to sleep so up early and made my guests this morning something special.
.
I've been gone from my old 40 hr job for 8 years, so no worries on that score anymore. BUT, the PT job I had right before we came here? That still gives me the willies at times!
 
I was an embassy brat growing up and everyone that knew my parents since kindergarden always came by to crash when traveling so I grew up with strangers in my house all the time, so it seems normal to me!
I second the fact that you live much better with private quarters. While we have not yet finished our loft apartment, people can enter our quarters privately and the apartment is large enough that we could have a couple over or even two couples for dinner without the guests even seeing them. And when the basement level is finished we'll have a function room that can dine up to 30 or so apart from the inn which is the whole ground floor.
Riki
 
Let's just say...give a choice....the best option would be to have your own private owners quarters. We all realize that sometimes that just doesn't happen and some folks like yourself don't mind it. For me personally, it was the most important thing on our "MUST HAVE" list when searching for a B & B to purchase.
 
No, never think of it that way. But having separate owners quarters make a big difference. We are still in the house, but not near the guest rooms.
For all those aspirings - having your OWN space is imperative in this business, don't short change yourself and think you can "make do" by just having a room near the guest rooms..
Joey Bloggs said:
For all those aspirings - having your OWN space is imperative in this business, don't short change yourself and think you can "make do" by just having a room near the guest rooms.
YOU might not be able to, but I've been doing it since 2003! Of course I would love to have a wing to myself, with the best of everything, BUT I would sooner continue to sleep next to the guest rooms and even share my bath with one of them than go back to work for anyone else, doing anything else, for any amount of money. We are so blessed to have been able to do this, when so many who want to cannot.
 
The question was re having strangers sleeping in your house, my answer was my answer, as it always is, and is always debatable from others point of view.
Having strangers in your home but keeping the business the business and YOUR space your space is important to me. I could not have done this otherwise. The longer I am in this business the more I can certify the importance to having an innkeeper haven, to be able to close your doors and having your life, your marriage, your family, your pets, all of that to yourself. There are many B&B marriages that cannot handle the heat of living in their businesses, this is one area I feel strongly about - close the doors to the inn and have space to yourselves.
 
Our tagline was given to us by guests. So often they were saying this as they left that we took it for the tagline - Where you are treated like a guest - but feel like family.
We are also from the - I need more than a bedroom camp. DH would never have gone for that. His "toys" are private and very few people have been admitted to the inner sanctum over the years - although he does discuss the toys with those of common interest and will play a limited show & tell with guests who show enough knowledge on the subject. We have 2 rooms, a bathroom, and a workshop on our half of the first floor. HE needs a place to go hide when we have guests that he might have a problem holding his tongue - as in Harley riders who wear "pie-plate" helmets. He might slip and call them idiots to their faces. (DH is alive today because he wore a HELMET in the days when very few wore anything.)
 
Let's just say...give a choice....the best option would be to have your own private owners quarters. We all realize that sometimes that just doesn't happen and some folks like yourself don't mind it. For me personally, it was the most important thing on our "MUST HAVE" list when searching for a B & B to purchase..
catlady said:
Let's just say...give a choice....the best option would be to have your own private owners quarters. We all realize that sometimes that just doesn't happen and some folks like yourself don't mind it. For me personally, it was the most important thing on our "MUST HAVE" list when searching for a B & B to purchase.
We looked at a lot of B&B's where the "innkeepers' qtrs" were in the basement, the attic (and by 'attic' I mean unfinished, ditto all the basements we saw) and in one, the laundry room! (Yes, the innkeeper had washers, dryers and all the linens in her bedroom, the only room she had of 'her own.')
I realized this would never work for me as we were looking at 7+ room properties and it was necessary to be able to separate ourselves from the guests, if for no other purpose than to argue! We have our bedroom too close to the guests, tho, and we find ourselves tiptoeing around in the early morning so as not to wake anyone. But the rest of our space is away from the guests so if we have friends and family over we're not disturbing the guests on vacation.
I am also a person who requires space. I need to be able to get away from Gomez to do my own thing. This space we have, altho much larger than a lot of places we looked at, is still 1/3 of the size of the house we moved out of.
I saw an article on a couple who live in the smallest apt in NYC...170 sq ft. Yup, 170! And they have 2 cats. No way I could live like that, even if I lived by myself.
 
The question was re having strangers sleeping in your house, my answer was my answer, as it always is, and is always debatable from others point of view.
Having strangers in your home but keeping the business the business and YOUR space your space is important to me. I could not have done this otherwise. The longer I am in this business the more I can certify the importance to having an innkeeper haven, to be able to close your doors and having your life, your marriage, your family, your pets, all of that to yourself. There are many B&B marriages that cannot handle the heat of living in their businesses, this is one area I feel strongly about - close the doors to the inn and have space to yourselves..
It was very hard for me to have family come to visit in our old house. There was no way to get away from them! By the time everyone left on Sunday, I'd be ready to sleep for days. So, yes, I need my space to get away from the clamor.
 
Let's just say...give a choice....the best option would be to have your own private owners quarters. We all realize that sometimes that just doesn't happen and some folks like yourself don't mind it. For me personally, it was the most important thing on our "MUST HAVE" list when searching for a B & B to purchase..
catlady said:
Let's just say...give a choice....the best option would be to have your own private owners quarters. We all realize that sometimes that just doesn't happen and some folks like yourself don't mind it. For me personally, it was the most important thing on our "MUST HAVE" list when searching for a B & B to purchase.
We looked at a lot of B&B's where the "innkeepers' qtrs" were in the basement, the attic (and by 'attic' I mean unfinished, ditto all the basements we saw) and in one, the laundry room! (Yes, the innkeeper had washers, dryers and all the linens in her bedroom, the only room she had of 'her own.')
I realized this would never work for me as we were looking at 7+ room properties and it was necessary to be able to separate ourselves from the guests, if for no other purpose than to argue! We have our bedroom too close to the guests, tho, and we find ourselves tiptoeing around in the early morning so as not to wake anyone. But the rest of our space is away from the guests so if we have friends and family over we're not disturbing the guests on vacation.
I am also a person who requires space. I need to be able to get away from Gomez to do my own thing. This space we have, altho much larger than a lot of places we looked at, is still 1/3 of the size of the house we moved out of.
I saw an article on a couple who live in the smallest apt in NYC...170 sq ft. Yup, 170! And they have 2 cats. No way I could live like that, even if I lived by myself.
.
I've live pretty comfortably in some tiny and rustic spaces in my life. Some of the smallest were my favorites.
But when it comes to an inn, I think the more separate the space the longer the innkeeper will last. The burnout seems to come more quickly to innkeepers who have no opportunity for real privacy at the inn.
And yes, I have turned down gigs before over just that: no space for privacy or for entertaining your own guests separate from the inn.
To me, it's a must have.
 
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