Walk In... OMG ... Walk Out

[Flower]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

What works for us. In our book of information we state rooms will be cleaned between 10 or 1100 am and 3 pm. If they hang around I don't clean. But I will ask if I can come in and take out garbage and what ever they need. If it needs cleaning I ask if they would please on to their decks and let me in to do a quick clean. They are very good about that . They usually go for a walk or take a drink with them to their own decks.

 

[Morticia]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.

 

[user 26]

If personal items, clothes, are on the bed ... we never touched the bed. As above 'we don't touch guests' personal items' But I sure would pull wet robes and towels off the bed, off the furniture.
One icky awkward situation where I broke the rule was the guest who would step out of his soiled/wet disposable pants and leave them on the floor. First morning, chambermaid red in the face and furious said she wouldn't clean that room. I said I would take care of his room for the duration. I'd go in with gloves, bag up whatever, and proceed. I did not want any soil on the floor!! There was a trash bin right next to the bed. I pulled it up alongside the bed each day after cleaning ... I'd set it right where he was stepping out of the pants and leaving them so he couldn't miss it. But, nope. Obviously this was a man who never picked up after himself. His clothes were always on the floor and I would dump them on a chair rather than trip over them. He was there several days (a British lord if you please ... he should have brought his valet or whatever with him) When he checked out he left a nice tip ... You bet I claimed it.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.
.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.

If the housekeeper is twiddling her thumbs, we remind her that the porch tables need to be cleaned and the porch needs to be swept. The plants could be watered and the library bookcase could be dusted.
Either that, or we all sit and have a cuppa-coffee.

 

[Morticia]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.
.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.

If the housekeeper is twiddling her thumbs, we remind her that the porch tables need to be cleaned and the porch needs to be swept. The plants could be watered and the library bookcase could be dusted.
Either that, or we all sit and have a cuppa-coffee.
.

I'm still trying to get this one to clean rooms properly. (I get it, she should have been fired a month ago. But when one person applies for a job you're kind of stuck. We got 3 responses to our ad after 4 weeks.)
We were just reminiscing about the housekeeper we had who also loved gardening. She would water and weed. Lovely.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.
.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.

If the housekeeper is twiddling her thumbs, we remind her that the porch tables need to be cleaned and the porch needs to be swept. The plants could be watered and the library bookcase could be dusted.
Either that, or we all sit and have a cuppa-coffee.
.

I'm still trying to get this one to clean rooms properly. (I get it, she should have been fired a month ago. But when one person applies for a job you're kind of stuck. We got 3 responses to our ad after 4 weeks.)
We were just reminiscing about the housekeeper we had who also loved gardening. She would water and weed. Lovely.
.

I'm still trying to get this one to clean rooms properly. (I get it, she should have been fired a month ago. But when one person applies for a job you're kind of stuck. We got 3 responses to our ad after 4 weeks.)
We were just reminiscing about the housekeeper we had who also loved gardening. She would water and weed. Lovely.

LOL - sounds like heaven. We have one who loves to paint. Right now she is staining our egress stairs to match the house. Unfortunately for us, she is moving in a couple weeks. We will miss her very much!

 

[undersea]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.
.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.

If the housekeeper is twiddling her thumbs, we remind her that the porch tables need to be cleaned and the porch needs to be swept. The plants could be watered and the library bookcase could be dusted.
Either that, or we all sit and have a cuppa-coffee.
.

I'm still trying to get this one to clean rooms properly. (I get it, she should have been fired a month ago. But when one person applies for a job you're kind of stuck. We got 3 responses to our ad after 4 weeks.)
We were just reminiscing about the housekeeper we had who also loved gardening. She would water and weed. Lovely.
.

Always assume that a new hire is average. In other words, better than someone who is not good.
Not sure where you put ads. I get a lot of success on craigslist.com > [your region] > gigs > domestic.

 

[Aussie Innkeeper]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!

I bet my DH would have responded that he just didn't have time. But I can't be sure. That's a lot to ask in my opinion.

 

[Generic]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!

Rotate or flip? Because the new mattresses are only rotated, never flipped, because there is no second side to them.

 

[Morticia]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.
.

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?

We have a welcome note that explains cleaning times (9-1). We don't specifically say we won't clean the room if they don't vacate and we don't knock if they are just hanging out in the room. It can be a pain when the housekeeper is sitting around twiddling her thumbs because NO ONE is budging, but then we just send her home if it's been more than 30 minutes and we do all the cleaning ourselves later, if they're gone by 1. The least we'll do is poke a nose in the room to take care of problems like A/C running with windows open or towels on the furniture.
If they are outside, on the porch, in the living room we'll say we're going to go clean the rooms now.

If the housekeeper is twiddling her thumbs, we remind her that the porch tables need to be cleaned and the porch needs to be swept. The plants could be watered and the library bookcase could be dusted.
Either that, or we all sit and have a cuppa-coffee.
.

I'm still trying to get this one to clean rooms properly. (I get it, she should have been fired a month ago. But when one person applies for a job you're kind of stuck. We got 3 responses to our ad after 4 weeks.)
We were just reminiscing about the housekeeper we had who also loved gardening. She would water and weed. Lovely.
.

Always assume that a new hire is average. In other words, better than someone who is not good.
Not sure where you put ads. I get a lot of success on craigslist.com > [your region] > gigs > domestic.
.

Yes, that's where we got her. We put ads there and on two local websites.
This year we had just a few responses and fewer who sent back the application.

 

[undersea]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

 

[Copperhead]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!

And my reply when she asked why it was not done:
"Since we rotate our mattresses on a regular basis, we went in to check the reason for your request and handle any issue there was. Unfortunately we were unable to do this as your personal items were covering the bed and we do not touch your items. "

 

[Morticia]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.

wow! just wow.

 

[undersea]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.

 

[gillumhouse]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

Perhaps, but the extra time it took me to make a coffee cake instead of muffins and shoving a candle in it is the kind of thing that keeps guests coming back. This is the guests who asked on the 3rd visit here - Where do you have us going thins time? They have told us repeatedly that this is their "home away from home".
Yes, Time is money - and if you spend a little of it now, more will come back with repeat guests who will come back again and again to a place where many see nothing to do, but these guests know that is not true because I have shown that to be so by spending a little bit of time (money).

 

[EmptyNest]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

I want to hear your story..once you are up and running.

 

[undersea]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

I want to hear your story..once you are up and running.

.

still spinning on properties. There is very small selection, and septic is far and away our main issue, more than zoning.
I have self-owned business and industry background. Also many years as landlord.
The best I can do for B&B, is start off with a best possible model learned from study, from here, etc. and than modify as needed. Handling a variety of dietary needs, booking, cleaning, scheduling, maintenance, keeping sanity, keeping privacy, what to serve, marketing, publicity. I have learned a lot.
But 8 weeks or 5 years later will obviously be the result of experiential tweaks to the model!

 

[undersea]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

Perhaps, but the extra time it took me to make a coffee cake instead of muffins and shoving a candle in it is the kind of thing that keeps guests coming back. This is the guests who asked on the 3rd visit here - Where do you have us going thins time? They have told us repeatedly that this is their "home away from home".
Yes, Time is money - and if you spend a little of it now, more will come back with repeat guests who will come back again and again to a place where many see nothing to do, but these guests know that is not true because I have shown that to be so by spending a little bit of time (money).
.

Time is money. And wise spending of that time is definitely what you are saying here. The issue is the time and energy vampires.