quick help - extra guests

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

four at four forty four

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
78
Reaction score
0
i need some advice on the fly... please.
i had some guests return to the b&b tonight (it's 10PM here). i wasn't around when they came back. they left a note on the counter saying ' we invited two friends for breakfast, so you can bill us for that. see you at 8:15pm.'
so what do you do? this is the first time this has every happened to me. i had no notice of this until i saw the note.
to me it's very rude. i know its only two extra people, but it still create and inconvience. i have to add a leaf to my table... change my menu slightly... what would you do? say? charge?
 
I would charge them a lot of $$$ (20/pp) for the inconvenience - if they seem shocked at the price you can say you were shocked that they asked at such a late time (10pm!) Above and beyond rudeness! Have these people never stayed at a B&B b4, do they think food appears magically from the kitchen when you twitch your nose like Bewitched? Ok, I am getting carried away, but my supposed 9pm guests just checked in....at 10:30pm! I guess I am tired and crabby! Goodnight, and let us know what you do and what you charge and what happens!
 
The bigger question is can you legally do it? I know where I am, we can't serve breakfast to people who are not guests, nor can we charge for breakfast (totally different health dept licenses). If you can do it, and you have room for them..... serve them and charge them.
Sorry to hear your guests put you in such a tight spot.
Welcome back ;)
 
thanks to both of you. I was REALLY hoping someone would respond before going to bed.
someone else I spoke to also suggested $20 pp but I felt that was steep. (my rooms are around $80 per night) I was thinking about $15.
I struggle with this because even though i'm steaming and frustruated, i don't show it on the outside because I hate dealing with conflict. (i'm a pushover)
people just suprise me sometimes. and they didn't even say thanks on the note. and I don't want to inconvenience my other guests.
thanks for letting me b*tch. a good nights sleep should help me relax a bit.
 
thanks to both of you. I was REALLY hoping someone would respond before going to bed.
someone else I spoke to also suggested $20 pp but I felt that was steep. (my rooms are around $80 per night) I was thinking about $15.
I struggle with this because even though i'm steaming and frustruated, i don't show it on the outside because I hate dealing with conflict. (i'm a pushover)
people just suprise me sometimes. and they didn't even say thanks on the note. and I don't want to inconvenience my other guests.
thanks for letting me b*tch. a good nights sleep should help me relax a bit..
Sorry I missed this last night. Hope it all worked out in the morning. I'm hoping the guests only came for breakfast and did NOT stay over!
I'm for the $15-$20 IF it was only breakfast. If they stayed in the room, $25 and up. No matter the cost of your rooms.
And I would put a flea in their ears about not inviting extra people as it is not always possible to feed extra people on the fly, 'We are NOT a restaurant, we don't keep extra food around and meal plans are made in advance.'
 
just smile and serve them breakfast and hope they tell everyone what a great inn and innkeeper you are that you let there friends stay over for breakfast.
 
I would have said I didn't get the note and we don't serve breakfast to anyone not staying here. Your friends are welcome to grab a cup of coffee if they like.
PITA's.
 
I hoped you informed them (after breakfast since you do not want to embarrass your guests - you want them to return I assume) you can only serve registered guests. I am not a restaurant and I can only serve registered guests (it can be any meal) and there is no charge for the breakfast. I cannot serve others because then I become a restaurant. (commercial kitchen required, licenses, Health Dept, etc)
 
I also can not charge for breakfast so I let the guest know there will be no charge but we so accept tips - that usually more than covers the meal. We have a lot of military guest - we are near several bases - and we do the per diem rate for them of $70.00 per night - no breakfast. If they want breakfast, we bill them at $80.00 per night so it shows on their receipt that way. We need to be careful - the health department will really crack down on us if we charge for a meal.
I can always change or add to a breakfast if I need to - if you keep plenty of eggs and bread, we can always do omelets and we keep frozen fruit in the freezer that can be thawed out to stretch any dish. I must have been a Boy Scout in a previous life - Be Prepared - is my motto.
 
According to B&B laws/health dept rules - a B&B is not licensed as a restaurant and may only serve overnight B&B guests. You are not allowed to charge them anything - as you would fall under diff laws if you did!
I would not smile and serve them breakfast - unless you are a restaurant? Are you?
Let us know how it ended up. These are the times you get most angry with yourself if you let people take advantage of you.
 
so, they are gone.
I did serve their invited guests breakfast. by law, i probably wasn't suppose too... but that's okay.
the people were nice.... but they are the type of people that think if they throw enough money at something, they get whatever they want. i personally, can't stand those kind of people.
i ended up charging them $15 per person. they couldn't have care less what i charged them. and they barely said thanks.
i felt if i didn't charge them, they would have just walked out the door, no tip.
so, I'm glad i handled things the way i did. I was still pleasent and friendly too. they had no idea i was angry inside.
thanks to everyone for you help!!
 
so, they are gone.
I did serve their invited guests breakfast. by law, i probably wasn't suppose too... but that's okay.
the people were nice.... but they are the type of people that think if they throw enough money at something, they get whatever they want. i personally, can't stand those kind of people.
i ended up charging them $15 per person. they couldn't have care less what i charged them. and they barely said thanks.
i felt if i didn't charge them, they would have just walked out the door, no tip.
so, I'm glad i handled things the way i did. I was still pleasent and friendly too. they had no idea i was angry inside.
thanks to everyone for you help!!.
I know how you feel exactly....nice and smiley on the outside but SEETHING inside..that would be me!!!!
Glad it all worked out...so...what you should do is on your website where you discuss breakfast...state clearly that breakfast is for YOUR GUESTS ONLY. You are not permitted to serve anyone other than guests. And put that in your room notebook or posted rules whereever you have them for the guest to view.
 
We are in a rural area, restaurant choices are few, so I expect this to happen from time to time. A note left would be a surprise though, so far, all have asked in advance either in person or by phone. I use a pantry system and have so far always been able to add a few (6 more last weekend!) with little alteration. Figure what your time (include the extra shopping!) is worth, then charge accordingly.
We do have a restaurant license here.
KathleenM
 
Since they returned too late to speak with you and wanted to meet up with their friends, they invited them. I actually think it was nicer of them to leave you a note instead of having their friends arrive for breakfast without warning (this happened to me)
I would be very surprised if most guests are aware of whether or not the b&b is 'licensed' to serve others that are not guests. I also don't think they realize how much planning and extra food you may or may not have and think of it as just putting another two plates at the table. Depending on how many guest rooms you have, they may think you have 'plenty' on hand. Again, they just don't realize ... just like they don't realize how much work being an innkeeper is.
I did serve the guests friends even though I was not licensed to do it. I admit it.
 
Since they returned too late to speak with you and wanted to meet up with their friends, they invited them. I actually think it was nicer of them to leave you a note instead of having their friends arrive for breakfast without warning (this happened to me)
I would be very surprised if most guests are aware of whether or not the b&b is 'licensed' to serve others that are not guests. I also don't think they realize how much planning and extra food you may or may not have and think of it as just putting another two plates at the table. Depending on how many guest rooms you have, they may think you have 'plenty' on hand. Again, they just don't realize ... just like they don't realize how much work being an innkeeper is.
I did serve the guests friends even though I was not licensed to do it. I admit it..
I have told parents here for a Parents Weekend the kid is welcome to come down and join them for breakfast. I do not make a habit of it, but would hesitate with doing it regularly as you never know who has appointed themselves the title of B & B Police. I do not need someone "dropping a dime". (Good lord, that dates me! I guess it is 2 quarters now.)
 
so, they are gone.
I did serve their invited guests breakfast. by law, i probably wasn't suppose too... but that's okay.
the people were nice.... but they are the type of people that think if they throw enough money at something, they get whatever they want. i personally, can't stand those kind of people.
i ended up charging them $15 per person. they couldn't have care less what i charged them. and they barely said thanks.
i felt if i didn't charge them, they would have just walked out the door, no tip.
so, I'm glad i handled things the way i did. I was still pleasent and friendly too. they had no idea i was angry inside.
thanks to everyone for you help!!.
We have had this happen with guests who wanted to invite someone who is here locally to join them and on rare occasions have they left a note on their breakfast sign up note that there would be a third person. We can't charge for breakfast and should only serve registered guests. I would usually just say "fine" and that we'd consider the extra person as if they were a registered guest. My dh always thinks I'm being taken advantage of so he would say the same thing but add "But you can always leave a tip because you'll find out that Samster is a great cook!" :) I NEVER got a tip left on the breakfast table....NEVER. And only rarely would those folks leave a tip in the room. But our ADR is around $140/night so maybe they thought that it was no big deal. A lot of people are just cheap.
 
Back
Top