Twenty-Step Checklist to Guest Comfort

All the great marketing, advertising, and promotion in the world won't be enough to get you the repeats, referrals, and extended stays you need for a successful inn if they are not backed up by genuine comfort and hospitality. How does your B&B measure up? Here's our 20-step self-assessment checklist:

1. Check into your own guest rooms. Innkeepers have been told for years to sleep in their own guest rooms. It's good advice as far as it goes-but it doesn't go far enough. Try to experience your guest rooms the way your guests do, by packing (and unpacking) two suitcases, putting away toiletries for two, showering, shaving, putting on makeup, and so on. If at all possible, you and your spouse/partner/friend should experience your guest rooms together, since typically two guests occupy a room at the same time-you'll get a better feeling for how the room lives. You'll quickly realize the need for good lighting on both sides of the bed; for nightstands on which you can set reading glasses, water, tissues, a book, and more; a bathroom with good mirrors, lighting, and open shelf space; and closet, bureau, and open space for your clothes and other personal items. If you want to attract business travelers, try to use a laptop and telephone to check on your inn's business.
2. Staying at other B&Bs is essential market research. You can't be a good innkeeper until you've been a guest. By over-nighting at other inns, you'll get new ideas, and will learn what works and what doesn't. Whether you chose to reveal that you are yourself an innkeeper is an individual choice; we suggest trying it both ways. The key point is to see what it feels like to be a guest, so that you'll be equipped to empathize with their needs, concerns, desires, and misapprehensions.
3. Stay at other lodging properties, including boutique hotels and motel chains. Standards have risen tremendously at the average motel/hotel property; rates are extremely competitive. Between $64-99 a night usually gets you a clean comfortable room with a good bed, TV and telephone, inoffensive furnishings, average-size bathroom, so-so linens and towels, a simple but adequate breakfast, sometimes afternoon tea and cookies, usually an exercise room and swimming pool. Though not memorable, the experience is rarely objectionable, and the price is right.
4. First impressions count. Although there will always be factors that are beyond your control, like weather and traffic, build up a reservoir of good will in your advance communications with guests. Answer emails promptly with a complete signature. Respond to phone messages in a timely fashion. Go the extra mile when taking a reservation by offering to assist with dinner reservations and/or theater or concert tickets.
5. Don't forget about the outside of your B&B. Is your parking area well marked and well lit? Is there a well-lit and smooth path between the parking area and your inn? Are the grounds well-tended, with lots of flowers in season? Are the windows clean, with enough lights lit to make it look welcoming?
6. What about the second "B" in Bed & Breakfast? It's the rare innkeeper who eats his or her own breakfast. "We ate that way the first year we owned the inn, and gained 20 pounds!" is the usual explanation. Perhaps weekend guests enjoy a splurge meal, but your midweek guests are probably just as concerned with their health as you are with yours. Many recipes can be made lower in fat and calories while higher in fiber with no increase in effort and cost, and no decrease in flavor. Offering choices for personal taste and preference is as easy as putting the fruit or pancake syrup in a separate pitcher rather than pouring it all over the waffles in advance. Keeping multi-grain, low-fat breads and muffins in the freezer to heat up on request is simple, as is offering apple or tomato juice to the folks who don't care for OJ. Fresh or baked fruits are essential, and yogurt keeps for a long time in the refrigerator. Most importantly, breakfast should feel like a special experience; you can bolt down a bowl of cold cereal at home. Flexibility in serving time, type of food, and serving style should reflect sensitivity to guests' needs which vary tremendously from the midweek corporate traveler to the weekend honeymooners to a vacationing couple who enjoy breakfast conversation with the other guests.
7. Afternoon/evening refreshments: Do you welcome guests with hot/cold seasonally appropriate refreshments? Are those refreshments available at all hours, for the early riser looking for a cup of coffee, to the guest who likes a steaming mug of herbal tea at bedtime? Do guests have a place to chill a bottle of their own wine or store a chunk of cheese? If your rates are on the high side, do you include these extras in the rates, or do you make the guests feel like they are being "nickel and dimed" to death by requests for 50 cents per soda?
8. Death to clutter! A guest room is not a stage set; it needs to "live" as good as it "looks." Many innkeepers want their guest rooms to look perfect when they show them to guests, and often, to the innkeepers' eyes, an empty table or dresser top looks bare without a figurine here, or a china bowl there. Concerned about the time and expense required for fresh flowers and plants, artificial ones sprout like weeds on walls, canopy beds, and other horizontal and vertical surfaces. Be merciless! Keep horizontal surfaces clear of anything but essentials (lamps, radio, telephone, etc.). Walls and windows are enhanced by lovely fabrics, paintings, and wallpapers-as long as it's done with a light touch. If you must use artificial flowers as a decorative element, keep them dust-free, and replace them frequently.
9. Test-drive your beds. Unless you provide turndown service (and make the extra pillows disappear), place four usable pillows (in pillow cases) on each bed, and forget the mounds of decorative pillows. Don't expect guests to know that you're not supposed to sleep on pillows with shams on them. Make sure (by sleeping in them with your significant other) that your beds don't sag or squeak. Even with top quality bedding, queen-size beds will often sag without extra supports. Wood-frame beds need to have their bolts tightened frequently, or they become annoyingly noisy.
10. Make sure your inn has at least one TV. Even if you've decided in favor of a no-TV policy in both the guest rooms and common areas, have a TV available for major events and emergencies. Whether it's the weather, war, or the World Series, there are times when guests' need to watch TV is more important than your vision for the inn.
11. Run your inn to suit your guests-not the other way around. Your policies should reflect the needs of guests before those of innkeepers (i.e. breakfast menus and serving times, check-in times, cancellation policies, and so on). Hair dryers, for example, are now standard equipment in most motels/hotels, so travelers are less likely to pack one. The guest-friendly approach is to place one in each guest bathroom; the guest who steps dripping from the shower before breakfast is not likely to track down the innkeeper to ask to borrow one. Consider the pros and cons of accepting young children and pets, perhaps in a separate suite or cottage. A rigid 9 o'clock breakfast will make it difficult for business travelers to stay at your inn. An inflexible cancellation policy may preserve one night's income but will lose you far more in bad feelings. Evaluate carefully your guests' needs for access to telephones, televisions, and clock-radios. Romantic getaway inns may chose not to offer telephones in the rooms, but the discreet placement of a phone jack can make this option available to guests who request it. At the very least, a cordless phone adjacent to the guest rooms makes it easy for guests to have a private conversation in their own room, instead of chatting in the living room for all to hear. A separate phone line, dedicated to guest use, is essential.
12. Value-price your inn. Some B&Bs are overpriced at $75 a night, while others are a great value at $350. It all depends on what your offer and where you're located. Guests will be most comfortable when they feel that they are getting good value for their money.
13. Make sure that private matters are kept private. Religion, politics, and sexual preference are private matters. Religious pamphlets are not appropriate bedside reading; inquiries into the marital status of your guests are inappropriate. In most cases, artwork with a strong religious overtone is not the best choice of décor; leave a welcome letter waiting on the bed, not a bible open to the psalms.
14. Keep your marketing and informational materials complete, concise, up-to-date, and accurate. Website information, brochures, confirmation letters, and in-room welcome letters and folders should not confuse guests with outdated information and/or rates. Not everyone can read a map; be sure to give directions in written form as well. Follow your own directions from the Interstate to your inn, and see if they are really clear when read in a dark car. Remember that a welcome letter is not a list of rules, but is an ideal way to remind guests of everything you try to mention in your arrival orientation.
15. Let hospitality be your hallmark. Make sure that your guests know that your primary goal is for them to enjoy their stay at your inn. Guests greeted with genuine warmth and hospitality are much more likely to overlook the problems which occasionally arise, and to express their needs constructively, rather than complain when it's too late.
16. Learn from your guests. Whenever possible, change your inn, rather than stressing yourself out trying to change your guests' behavior. If guests consistently fail to use your coasters, leaving white rings on tabletops, cut a piece of glass to fit over the wood, and the problem is solved. If you find guests rearranging the furniture, figure out why. Are they dragging a chair to their bedside because there's no table? If they are borrowing glasses from your kitchen, and ice from your refrigerator, they are telling you with their actions that you need to have a guest pantry and refrigerator.
17. Minimizing complaints. Ask guests sincerely if there is anything you can do to make their stay more comfortable, then really listen to the response. Ask a second time if you suspect they are merely being polite. Use an in-room comment card to solicit additional feedback - not everyone will tell you to your face if there's a problem.
18. Resolving complaints. When problems arise, focus on the guests' point of view. What would you consider to be fair if you were a guest? No defensive finger pointing. This is not about right and wrong. Your only goal is to transform unhappy guests into happy guests. Smile! Everything goes better when your sense of humor is intact. Learn from the complaint, and take active steps to keep it from re-occurring. When you experience the occasional bad apple, don't let it spoil the barrel - just toss it away and forget about it.
19. Don't forget the concierge factor. Guests return to inns because of the innkeepers. The growing awareness that you've done everything possible to ensure their comfort will bring them back time and again. Your helpfulness with dinner reservations, suggesting driving routes and hiking trips, auction houses and antique stores, back-country fishing and kayaking adventures will ensure that they share the good news with their friends. Remember that no minimum wage motel desk clerk can offer this level of service, knowledge, and convenience, so be sure that your guests know what you can do for them.
20. Your in-room materials should repeat and enhance the information in your orientation tour. Many innkeepers take great pride in their welcome-to-the inn speech, where they detail all the information about the inn's amenities, rules, and special features. Unfortunately, many guests don't hear, don't listen, or don't remember. Don't just say that there are extra blankets and pillows in the closet; open the door and point them out. Don't just say that breakfast is served in the dining room at 8:30; include this information in your room folder or welcome letter as well.