Recently the Washington Post had a long article about dealing with houseguests, which prompted me to share my ideas on house rules for a B&B.
When teaching prospective innkeepers I often say that while guests are paying you might still consider them “house guests”. As an innkeeper you still should expect thoughtfulness and consideration from anyone staying in your home. Glad to say, in over 10 years of innkeeping we have only had to ask one guest to leave.
You will find that if you have a written set of house rules your life will be much easier. I my experience of staying at 150+ B&Bs I would say only 50% have information in each bedroom that outlines what the ‘rules’ are. These rules should simplify those awkward moments when a guest asks you to do their laundry or send a fax and you have not planned on what to charge or how to handle it. There are 2 important items in these rules – one is an emergency number to reach you at and the other is that there should be “quiet” time from 10pm to 7am or whatever hours you deem the right ones. Other rules might encompass a laundry fee or a fax fee and information about using the phone. You can include information about where to get ice, hot or cold tea and details about your amenities – maybe requesting that they don’t use the Jacuzzi after 10pm and things like that. Not everyone is as considerate as you might think! By covering yourself in this way if they break the rules you can go and ask them to stop or charge them the fee outlined by your information. On another front, it also saves you having to repeat it all to every guest who checks in.
The other difficult rule to establish when you open for business is what to do about your own guests – relatives and friends. Since your chief source of income will probably be coming from weekend stays you can tell friends and relatives that they are “FREE” to stay Sunday-Thursday but have to pay on weekends.
My mother was staying with us and we filled all our rooms one weekend so she slept on a cot in the kitchen – not something all mothers would do! With my stepdaughter I asked her to strip the bed and put on the new sheets. If you ask nicely people are generally happy to help out. If you cannot turn down weekend stays then ask that favorite Aunt and Uncle to come the week BEFORE Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December or whenever you expect business to be slow. Extend your viewpoint out to cover breakfast. Serve that scrumptious breakfast to paying guests but let relatives eat the cereal they are used to!
To summarize don’t hold back – it is your HOME and so you are the one to set those ‘rules’. You will only feel taken advantage of if you let someone else set the rules. If you don’t have that information sheet in each bedroom, write it today!!
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