How to Start & Run a B&B BandBED2eBook-1 | Page 110

guests require milk and offer to refresh it if they are staying more than one night. Don’t
use long-life milk (horrible!) and don’t automatically put milk on trays without asking,
as many people won’t use it and you will waste milk.
12. Always supply guests with a printed list of information on your B&B in their rooms
eg. breakfast times, checkout times, payment details etc.
13. Always offer as much local information to guests as required. Being up to date on
local restaurant opening times and taxi phone numbers/or train timetables can be
invaluable to guests from far afield.
14. It is good to build up relationships with local restaurants and hotels for mutual
promotion. It is useful to be able to provide a top-up service for hotels who may have
overbooked and help them out of a tight spot. It the same vein, restaurants may need to
book or offer recommendations for accommodation to large parties who need to come
from afar for an event. Nearby hotels can help you as well as being competitors – and
you can help them in return by referring enquiries when you are full.
15. Always have a spare iron and ironing board available for guests who are attending
weddings, as they really like to look their best rather than a crumpled mess.
16. Ensure all public areas such as guests’ sitting room/dining room are clean, tidy and
welcoming, with fresh flowers or pot-pourri to provide an inviting scent.
17. Make sure you supply a daily newspaper for guests to enjoy either before, during
or after their breakfast. Also have a good range of reading material or magazines in the
sitting room for guests to relax with (including local guide books).
18. If your guest room televisions have a video option it is a good idea to have some
videos on offer for guests to choose to watch if they find themselves stuck in their
rooms for whatever reason or simply to keep young children amused. We have some
videos available in a bookcase in the corridor outside the rooms and they have been
much appreciated.
19. During breakfast it always pays to check regularly whether guests require any more
tea/coffee/toast etc. Even though the answer may usually be no it reaps dividends in
making the guests feel that they have been particularly well cared for and attended to
and they leave with that lasting impression.
20. Please make sure that your appearance at breakfast is particularly scrupulous; clean
and tidy is a must for serving breakfast whereas unkempt/unshaven/slovenly gives all
the wrong signals.
21. Please try to be as welcoming as humanly possible when guests first arrive at your
door. All good/bad impressions are created within the first few seconds of meeting
someone, and it is imperative that you make your ‘paying guest’ feel that you are really
pleased to have their company in your house. Whatever you are really thinking is best
kept under wraps until you are in the privacy of your own rooms.
How to Start & Run a B&B
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