Guest post by Heather from Creative Family Moments
The holidays are right around the corner and that means house guests for many of us. We don’t have a large house, but we’ve always wanted to make our home a welcoming place for family and friends so we make it work. Over the last year, we’ve had twenty people come through our house, and we’ve come up with a few fun tips to make the guests feel extra welcome and the kids get involved in the preparation:
- Make a Welcome Letter. Just like hotels and B&Bs, make a letter to your guests covering some basics that might make them feel more at home like how to get on the internet, what they should do with towels, etc. As a family, we developed a B&B template that you are free to use! We call our make-believe B&B the Humranch House. We don’t own a ranch, but we have a dog and we’re pretty wild.
- Use Those Samples! Make a nice basket full of goodies with all your free samples that you leave in the room your guests will be residing. Make a little “For Those Who Forgot…” note if you’re worried that they’ll take all your goodies! Aside from all our wonderful body wash, lotions, shampoos, hair product, and pain reliever samples, we include a couple pairs of earplugs, a sewing kit (got that from a hotel actually!), and a small baggie of Q-tips.
- Pretend You’re Traveling. Take a moment to put yourself in your guest’s shoes. What would you want to have if you were a guest? In my case, as a light sleeper, I’d want something to mask odd noise, so we always place an extra fan or a sound machine in the room. We also make a night light and extra blankets and pillows available.
- Chocolate. Yes, chocolate. We have yet to have a guest enter their room without a gasp of surprise or laughter. You see, we always place some chocolate on their pillows! Usually it’s something simple that we’ve purchased with coupons like some Rolos, an Andes Mint, or Hershey’s Miniatures. But once, for a couple’s anniversary, we put a full chocolate bar on each pillow. They loved it!
Heather Humrichouse loves to live life purposefully by celebrating the ordinary every day. Her family and their often bizarre celebrations can be found at Creative Family Moments.
Another great place to get ideas is on Bed and Breakfast websites. Read the comments that people have left to see what really stood out in their mind and made them feel welcome. Love this topic! I want to make my family and guests feel special!
Good ideas. We like to host and have only had young single guys stay in our spare room so far, so they are pretty simple to please. Although, I don’t think I’ll be extending the offer to more people until we have a place with two bathrooms.
You didn’t mention flowers, but they are in the picture. They probably go a long way. I love the chocolates idea. I definitely would love to go somewhere, be it public or someone’s home, and find chocolates on my pillow.
I don’t want my house to feel like a bed and breakfast…I like short and sweet visits!
My dad has a saying about company: Guests are like fish. After three days they start to stink and should be thrown out!
I’m sure he was just joking (I hope)!
We don’t have a guest room, and our living room is completely open to our kitchen. We don’t even have room in the office or my son’s room for a double air mattress. So guests who come have to sleep in separate beds, and they’re not the greatest. I wish I could offer more, but that’s all we can do. BUT, we are welcoming, we love having people over, we are relaxed and laid-back so it’s like a home away from home. We do good meals, yet simple enough to still visit. I’ve been in many people’s homes and I like the relaxed approached. I like when people don’t fuss over us visiting. That way I know I can visit MORE without taking lots of time out of their schedules.
Right now we’re opening our home to someone and it means my husband and I sharing our room with our two boys. We’re ok with that, striving to do the best we can to still be hospitable in the space we have! It really is all about the attitude more than a great guest room.
Great ideas for a little sample basket though. 🙂
I can’t get the letter to download. I keep getting a few zipped files, and when I try to unzip them, it just saves the individual files (with code) to my computer. If anyone is able to email it as an attachment to me, I’d appreciate it. My email is [email protected]
Thank you.
Just sent you it, Amanda.
I really like these ideas. They’re definitely a great way to make someone feel welcome. We don’t have guest room right now but when we do, I can’t wait to put some chocolate on their pillows!
One thing we always do is make sure our guests have fresh towels laid out for them. That way they don’t have to go looking or ask where they are. For some reason, lots of people are uncomfortable showering at others’ homes and having the towels seems to ease that discomfort a bit.
Great post. I have done this for years. I put together an entire welcome basket with one welcome gift for each guest….Air Force coins, t-shirts, pez dispensers, board books, makeup….just depends on the ages of the people staying and what they like. Then I fill it up with candy and snacks since I don’t keep those kinds of foods in my house and wouldn’t want my guests to go hungry. Then I put a postcard with a picture of our beach on it and write a few welcoming words and highlight some of the things we’ll be doing during their stay. Since I do live in a tourist town, I periodically go to the visitor’s center to stock up on brochures and calendars of events so they have a good idea of what there is to do around here. Lastly, everyone gets a $20 gift card to a local restaurant that is legendary (it’s even been on the food network several times!). You can’t come here and not eat there at least once 🙂 Thanks for the tip about a letter. Besides the welcome postcard, I never thought to leave an instructional page like a hotel would for what to do with towels, sheets, etc.
Man, it sounds like an awesome place to visit!
We set out bottled water & also small basket of snacks, granola bars, peanuts, pretzels, etc..Sometimes the guests go up early for the night and this way they can have a snack without feeling awkward and going back in the kitchen. We
also have a guest book that we have out and it has been fun to read it over the years. I also think it is good idea to give them a nightlight to use if they want. If they get up during the night, they might not know their way around in the dark.
That’s so fun – almost like their own mini-bar. And I never ever thought about a guest book! Great idea!
We do something very similar to your letter, and on the back is some information including the nearest grocery store, pharmacy, metro, and a few other numbers like that. Ours is laminated, too.
One other touch that we find guests like is a bottle of water by each bed. People often don’t travel with it, but in the middle of the night it’s nice to have!
Great post – thanks for the tips!
These are really neat ideas. Too bad we don’t have anyone that would ever visit us 🙁
I hear ya. I’ve given up on asking people to visit. Most don’t like visiting unless we live in a cool/convenient place. *shrug* I’ll have the in-laws for 2 weeks this year, so I hope I can use a bunch of these tips.
This is a great article! We have six people living in a three bedroom house…our guests (my brother-in-law) usually sleeps on the sofa when he comes to visit, but I could still put together a cute basket for him!
I picked up some brochures on local attractions and keep those beside the bed, which includes local maps for those without GPS.
I also have a set menu to make for weekend company that is friendly on our budget, easy to make and fits the GF diets some of our family and friends have. It makes things a lot less stressful to have a “go-to” menu!
Some terrific ideas – thank you! Though I must admit that I was hoping for some gourmet breakfast ideas 😉 My husband and I just stayed in our favorite B&B yet for our anniversary and were both commenting on how we would like to provide a B&B-like experience for our guests.
Hi Megan! My husband is the amazing chef in our house, but have you checked out the B&B online site? They have lots of recipes, apparently ‘approved’ by innkeepers! http://www.bbonline.com/recipe/index.html
The most fun part…I know (or knew!!) Heather! How nifty to figure it out.
Linda Garrison @ CQH in Eldora
Hi, Linda! You’re a good detective. ( ;
We had my mother stay for 2 weeks shortly after we moved into our partially completed house. We borrowed a futon from someone and put a air mattress on it in our living room. Gave her a tote full of toiletries and special towels and a basket of snacks including chocolate. In the morning after she woke up we were able to fold the futon up and use it as a sofa. Not the best solution but it was the best we could do and she was happy and comfortable.
I always put a nice bouquet of fresh cut flowers in my guest room when we have visitors.
Love these ideas – except for the “Welcome Letter” – wondering if you have read it – really doesn’t sound like something you would use. (Just from reading your blog)
Thanks for the rest of the ideas though!
Miranda
Our friends and family know that we’re a silly bunch, and we say as much at the end of the letter. But a welcome letter is a great way to let them know how to get on the internet, etc.
Haha. The B&B letter was hilarious. Definitely using this!
Glad you liked it! The kids (and I) were giggling when we wrote it!
We do the sample toiletry basket too! Always extra pillows and blankets and I move a reading lamp into the room as well. We also have a small wire bound booklet I made (and paid for the binding) that includes instructions to all electronics in the house (including the coffee maker!) and important telephone numbers like poison control, the vet, etc. This book doubles as something to have available for anyone who is house/pet/baby sitting as well.
I love this post!
We do not have a good guest space (or an extra bed) – does anyone have any frugal suggestions for making a guest spot?
For the poster asking about not having a bed or guest room- maybe use make-shift screens for privacy in the living room and buy an air mattress (they make really nice tall ones now) or use a child’s bedroom (have them sleep in a sibling’s room) and use an air mattress in there.
Our guests sleep in my 4 year old’s room. He has a twin day bed with a trundle. The trundle pops up to turn it into a king bed. Since the room is 10 X 10, you can either have the trundle down and be snug by the train table or popped up and we turn the train table on its side. Not much room for anything else. There is a bookshelf and toy organizer. There is no dresser; all his clothes are in the closet. It’s kind of hard to make it comfy for a guest. They even have to leave their suitcase in the hall just outside his door. But, at least we can offer them a comfortable bed. He sleeps on the floor in his baby brother’s room (also 10 X 10)
When it comes to trying to create a guest space when you don’t really have one – that can be difficult depending on the situation. If I am planing on having a semi-regular guest I try to purchase GOOD dual purpose furniture, like a good quality sofa bed (decent sofa bed mattress can make a huge difference) or day bed. If you have the luxury of putting in something like a study or office (or playroom etc.) I usually just strive to make it as neat and clutter free as possible so it can be as relaxing as possible. Sometimes it just comes down to a sofabed in the living room or something (or even an air mattress!) and at that point I try to make it so that it becomes as private as possible. I’ve done the living room turned guest room quite a few times and depending on the layout and the decor I try to either have one or two room screens that I can put up, or some well placed curtains over a large entryway. Sometimes closing off (or partially closing off) a room to create privacy can really help make guests more comfortable and relaxed.
Davonne, I can relate! My daughter gives up her room for our guests and takes an air mattress to our room or her sister’s. Otherwise, Jenny in the comments below had some good ideas!
I had a large number of guest at the same time and ran out of space to house and sleep everyone. So decided to create a hotel like atmosphere in my family room. I have a large family room and in one of the corners I placed a full size bed, nightstand, and lamp. I put lots of pillows on the bed and beautiful bedding. I placed a bench at the foot of the bed. I then put up a screen around the bed for privacy. It turned out to be a big hit because the bed was set up so that they could lookout through the French doors at night to see the moon and stars. It was also nice because while they didn’t have a full bath they had the half bath for use at night and they were close to the kitchen.
Maybe an inexpensive robe and/or sleep mask and some scented linen oil (easy to find cheap and travel sized); a blank journal for travel jottings; fresh flowers? Just a few ideas!
Those are some really great ideas! Thanks for sharing! -Jordan, MSM Team
We have included some brochures of area attractions that our guest might enjoy for an outing. Also, some bottled water in the basket is great for that late night drink of water.
We have a local attractions magazine but I hadn’t thought of bottled water! Awesome!
I love this! In the next month I will have my parents for a week, my mother in law for a week, and my father-in-law and daughter for a week. Since having a baby we don’t have a guest room anymore, but we have a huge unfinished basement. So we moved boxes and in one area made up a make shift bedroom. We placed extra carpet we had down, put up the bed and hung the curtains (um, thumb tacked them over the 2×4’s), I also put nice candle stands in there and a towel rack for their towels. I found shear curtains that we had used in another room and put them in the windows in the basement for added privacy. I borrowed a night stand from a friend for the time my guest will be here.
I like to leave magazines in the room that I know they’d enjoy. Also bottled water so they don’t have to come up the stairs in the night. I also put a cd player in the room and some music.
Since it’s a basement we have space heaters and an electric blanket if they need it.
I stayed at a friend’s house and they had put fancy locally produced chocolate bars on our pillows. We couldn’t believe it and it was definitely a classy — and delicious — touch.
I love the idea of local chocolate – I’ll have to keep that in mind! Thanks!