As innkeepers you can imagine that we have all sorts of great people visit and some who just don’t understand what a Bed & Breakfast is. When people refer to us as an Air B & B, we stop and assure them that we are a REAL B & B. In a real B & B, you meet the owners, who serve as hosts, concierges, chefs, housekeepers, maintenance staff, and psychologists!
We don’t have many rules. Mainly, they are; no glass in the hot tub (use plastic glasses) and don’t mess with the hot tub temperature. We conduct a little guest orientation upon arrival and tell them that they may go anywhere in the house except our room or the kitchen. That’s about it!
Here are a few fun guest examples:
There was the man who showed up without his girlfriend. They had a fight but he decided to come anyway and just hike through his anger. By breakfast the next morning, he was still angry, but in the night, she had called and wanted us to get a dozen roses for him and attach a special message from her. While Jack started breakfast, I ran to Foodlion. Their flowers are not great, but they are fresh. Driving swiftly home I came in the back way and quickly put the flowers into a vase. The guest was finishing up breakfast and I told him there was a delivery for him. He took one look at the message and bid us adieu. He marched to the car and threw the flowers in the front seat and drove away. We are still scratching our heads over that one!
When people check in, we always ask them to use the guest refrigerator and microwave, not the main kitchen- for health reasons! But people push their limits. We have had people rifle around for champagne flutes (which we never use). They have wine glasses provided in their room. We have found left over pizza and other assorted leftovers in our main refrigerator. We don’t try to be mean about it, but we just ask guests to NOT use the kitchen.
We try to accommodate special diets. I mean we bend over backwards making things egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, and meat-free! All people must do is tell us what allergies or aversions they have. Laughingly they may offer that they don’t like Brussel sprouts or Lima beans. We haven’t ever served those! But when we set a plated breakfast before the guest, we want it to look appetizing and special to them. If we look over and someone if not touching the food, it sort of hurts our feelings. All they had to do was tell us. We are not short order cooks. We plan our breakfasts based on food accommodations and the number of people we are serving.
You may know we have a dog named Doolittle. He is the friendliest dog you will ever meet! Recently we had a teenager who was terrified (screeching in fear) of dogs. Doolittle just didn’t understand being locked in our room away from people. He is the official greeter when they arrive and the morning greeter as people descend the stairs. Once while checking in a guest, Doo was so excited that he was running around the living room. He is very fast. So fast, that the guest thought we had two dogs!
We keep the hot tub at about 103 degrees. For the temperature to adjust to cooler, it takes about an hour per degree. We ask people not to touch the controls. But we have found it the next day down to a cool 90.
There was a very wealthy man that stayed with us who needed to talk about his divorce, his loneliness, and his life experiences. He was sitting on the deck and had worked through a bottle of wine. Over a glass of wine, we listened. Talking well past dinner, he asked where he might order a pizza to be delivered. We are rather rural and nobody delivers to us. I had a frozen pizza and offered to prepare it for him because, indeed he needed to soak up some of that wine in his belly. Jack commented that he had never probably eaten “Frozen pizza!” It was all confidential but there were some juicy stories he told!
By and large (I mean 98.5% of the time) we love our guests! We want them to come back too!
Don’t feel you need to be added to the “unusual story” list as you ponder making a reservation but feel free to share your stories when you do come! And visit Doolittle!
