Since summer is the time for family reunions vacations, I thought it would be beneficial and fun to do a series of posts on making your home guest friendly. Today I’ve got 10 tips to help make your guest room more welcoming, cozy, and basically a home away from home for your guests.
1. Clean the room before the guests arrive: Vacuum and deodorize the carpet and dust as needed.
2. Be sure you have fresh linens on the bed. Matouk is a good quality blankets, bedding, and other linens.
3. Place extra blankets and pillows in the guest room closet and let your guest know these are there for their needs.
4. Check that your room is properly lit with overhead lighting and table lamps so that your guests can read or work in bed.
5. Place a few magazines and books in a basket or magazine rack.
6. Be sure that you have an open and easily accessible plug in so that you’re guests can charge their phones and other electronic devices.
7. Make a basket of snacks and personal care items, and for a personal touch leave a handwritten note with the basket, saying welcoming your guests and saying how happy you are to have them in your home.
8. Avoid cluttering and over-personalizing the room with your decor. Keep it simple! “Busy” decor overwhelms a lot of people.
9. Add a light potpourri, scented candles or oil diffuser to give the room a nice clean scent. (Just make sure your guests aren’t allergic.)
10. Have an extra alarm clock, telephone, and music player available. Although guests may bring their own, it’s still a nice courtesy.
Also, check out the other posts in this series:
11 Tips to Make Your Living Room Guest Ready
Bathroom Makeover and 10 Tips to Make Your Bathroom Guest Ready
How do you make your guests feel more welcome?
Thank you for posting this great information. I’m in the process of getting our guestroom set up (slow process since I am also working on other rooms in the house) and this information is very useful for me. Have a great Sunday!
Julie
Hi Jerri, This are fantastic tips. I like the one about making sure there are outlets available. AND the no clutter is a great idea too! I did a similar post, so I guess that means we may be kindred spirits! Here’s mine: http://www.michellelunt.com/2012/02/little-ways-to-make-your-guests.html
Warmly, Michelle
Useful tips! Thank you.
Great tips! I don’t have a guest room right now but I am looking forward to setting one up! It is always the little touches that make guest feel more comfortable!
All great tips Jerri! I like to make sure I have extras on hand like toothpaste, shower items, etc… In case my guests forget anything.
Thank you for the tips, great ideas.
Crafty Chic
This is excellent advice. Thank you for mentioning having a telephone available. (If you can’t have one in the guest room, point out to your guests, “If you need to use the phone, it’s right here.”) I don’t have a cell phone, and it’s usually not a problem, but twice I have found myself in someone’s home when they were sleeping late in the morning and I really needed to make a local phone call but could not find a phone! It was inhospitable and really a little scary.
Oh, something else I have appreciated knowing about people’s guest rooms: Be sure to tell your guests if it is okay to open the window (will it set off your burglar alarm?!) or if there are other ways to adjust the temperature or ventilation of the room.
Wonderful tips! Thank you for sharing. Visiting from Fireflies and Jellybeans. Would love it if you would share this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/make-it-pretty-monday-week-5.html Wishing you a grand weekend. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
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Excellent tips, especially #8! I’ll be sharing this on Pinterest 🙂