Tim_Toad_HLB
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- May 8, 2009
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"just wanting a tour"welcome![]()
you might try this ~ IF i decided i could maybe accommodate an early check in, i would tell them 'i will do my best to accommodate you early but if you find the door locked, there will be a few places in the area you can visit until i get back' and then .... if 1 pm came and i was ready and they weren't there, i just might post the note as above that innkeeper had to do errands, would be back at 3 o clock ... here are a few area places you might like to see ... '
i'd make sure the the door was locked but my errand might be to go take a nap or just put my feet up or whatever. even if you say you work alone, people don't understand what that means. and that you yourself have to go out to get groceries or whatever. or that you might (are you kidding me??!) take a break!
i was in a high tourrist area and folks were constantly coming to the door just wanting a brochure (i had them in a basket on the porch), just wanting a tour (i couldn't stop and show people around the place at any old time, just couldn't), just wanting to use the restroom (there was a sign on the door that we had no public restroom .. restroom for registered guests only) .... just wanting to see what i was like in case they wanted to stay sometime. the nicer the weather, the more this happened. individually, they don't see how this cuts into your routine. so it was a fine dance ~ being firm without being rude..
Our most recent "tour" recipient took it upon herself to break away from us as we were saying goodbye to some guests and left us a nice big mess in one of the unoccupied guest room bathrooms.
We're happy to show people the reception lounge and give them a brochure and even a cookie, but we're getting in the habit of simply telling lookie lous or whatever you all call them that "In order to respect the privacy of our current guests, we're afraid we can't offer you a full tour of the house"
If the joint is totally unbooked and somebody made the effort to show up wanting to find out what we're about, that's a different story. But we're careful to keep an eye on them, ask a few leading questions to make sure they aren't casing the place, and never leave them alone for even a minute.
This region has many "Artist Studio Tours" where artists open their home studios and share their recent work with visitors. We've particpated in the last four in our area and I usually display my work also. It has been a real headache to juggle my responsibilities here and sit on the porch showing my work for very little payoff.
I spend most of my time that weekend, prying lookie lous away from trying to enter the house "for a tour" despite having a big sign on the door stating "Do Not Enter, No B&B Tours Available"
We're open and usually have several rooms booked by people doing the tour, but we just can't have our guest's privacy invaded more than the general hordes of people walking outside around the property looking at all the art. We tell all potential guests inquiring about a room for that weekend what to expect and have never had any problems, but we're the ones who are tired and bored of it.
Each year, I probably hand out a couple hundred brochures of ours and we have yet to have a single booking from doing so. Its a ton of work with obviously not much payoff on either realm, my art or bookings and the four or five other artists who we host, don't do much better, so we're skipping it this year.
Emily bakes herself to exhaustion each year and we always thought of it as mainly a community building thing to lend our efforts to, but if there's no payoff except for selling a few small pieces of my art and playing "guardian" of the front door, whats the point?