Our Members Speak Out

You were asked: What was your most embarrassing moment as an innkeeper?

“I was upstairs cleaning when thought I heard the downstairs front door close. I glanced out the window and saw that my guest's car was gone, so I ASSUMED they had left for the day. I marched in their room to change their towels and make their bed, and they were IN the bed! Yikes - I'm not sure who was more embarrassed. That was the first and last time I ever assumed that guests were not in their room.” – Connie Mattison, Klemme House B&B, Belmond, IA

“I had been open for less than a year and was getting ready to serve dinner to my parent's Bible study group. The group that was coming for dinner was looking forward to touring the bed and breakfast after dinner.

“I was expecting them any second when the telephone rang. It was the guests who had stayed in ‘Plum Creek’ the night before, calling to apologize because they had left a ‘personal item’ in the room. They wanted me to mail it to them, as it was a favorite of theirs.

I immediately went up to the room, which had already been cleaned -- the most embarrassing part, since my cleaning staff hadn't noticed the rather obvious item they'd left behind. Standing straight up in a Delft Blue china vase I'd purchased in Holland, was a very long, very big, anatomically-correct-in-every-way ’toy’ -- one that exactly resembled a certain part of the male anatomy.

I had nightmares for a week thinking about what would have happened if they hadn't called and fessed up, leaving my parents, their Bible study group, or worse yet, the next guests to stay in the room, to find their ’little toy’.

Needless to say, the very next day, I made up a detailed inspection chart and started requiring my staff to double check every room for any items accidentally left behind. And being the dutiful innkeeper I was, I donned plastic gloves, dropped their toy in a plastic lined box, and taped it up for mailing, per their instructions. Far be it for me to spoil their fun... and I certainly wasn't going to put it in the lost and found. (Note: for guests who may visit the Blue Belle Inn one day, the Delft Blue vase is still in the room... washed, sanitized, and full of flowers.)” – Sherrie C. Hansen, The Blue Belle Inn Bed and Breakfast, Saint Ansgar IA

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