Treat Your Guests to a Bed and Breakfast Experience
Give your guests a taste of bed and breakfast hospitality during their visit. Use these four innkeeper tricks of the trade to recreate a little country inn ambiance in your house.
Innkeepers always remember the little details, so be sure to stock your guest rooms with plenty of amenities. There are many low-cost ways to add ambiance to a room. Place a basket of helpful items on the dresser and include razors, toothbrushes and toothpaste, lotion and other toiletries your guest might have forgotten. Fresh flowers or a basket or pretty vase filled with potpourri are other welcoming additions. At Casa Laguna Inn & Spa in Laguna Beach, California, the innkeepers place fluffy robes in the closet and top the beds with fine, hypoallergenic linens and fluffy comforters, as well as stocking the room with CD and DVD players. Consider providing your guests with interesting reading materials and maybe even a selection CDs or DVDs.
The guest bathroom is another spot that needs careful attention. While guests at Beazley House in Napa, California, enjoy amenities such as Jacuzzi tubs and Turkish bath linens, the innkeepers at this Napa inn include plenty of easy-to-do amenities that your guests will enjoy. Provide some luxurious soaps and lotions, and be sure to stock up on fresh shampoos and conditioners. Place extra toilet paper and Kleenex in attractive baskets, and place lavender-scented soap on an antique dish. Hairdryers are another thoughtful item to include.
Breakfast, is of course, the center of any good B&B stay. You don’t have to train at the Cordon Bleu to impress your guests. At Fairthorne B&B in Cape May, New Jersey, the innkeepers set the table with fine linens and china to create a special atmosphere. Freshly squeezed juice and homemade breads and muffins are an easy first course, and can even be purchased and heated in a warm oven. At Fairthorne, in addition to the home-baked goodies, guests are treated to a special daily entre. You can do the same by preparing pancakes or a breakfast casserole. A buffet with fresh fruit, toasting breads and muffins, served along with coffee, tea and juices is another option.
If you really want to impress your guests, consider the opulent addition of an afternoon tea. At the Captain’s House Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts, inn guests are treated to a cream tea either in the dining room or on the patio. The special afternoon teas at this Cape Cod inn include a selection of gourmet teas, as well as freshly baked scones, cookies and cakes. For your in-home tea, consider using china and offering several kinds of loose teas. If time is a consideration, purchase some goodies from a local bakery. Other easy options include offering some freshly baked cookies with iced tea or lemonade or perhaps some wine and snacks in the early evenings.
For more ideas on how to transform your home into a bed & breakfast-style retreat, visit iLoveInns.com. You’ll find listings for 19,000 boutique hotels, country inns and B&Bs, as well as informative travel articles and even hundreds of innkeeper-tested recipes. If you are searching for a great, easy gift idea, iLoveInns offers printable gift certificates, which can be used at the inns in this article, as well as thousands more.
Tags: bed and breakfast, cape may, home decorating, hotels, interior decorating, lodging, new jersey, new jersey bed and breakfast, travel, Vacations
January 23 2009 07:36 am | Vacations