...to ask you about guestrooms?

[Littlewhitedove]

Our two adult children have recently flown the nest so we have two double en suite rooms that are now spare rooms.
What makes a spare room into a lovely guest room? What added extras would make you, as a guest, feel welcomed and wanted?
I have ordered new towels and added some pretty decorative items but I'd really appreciate some other ideas so I can make the rooms feel extra special.
Thanks x

I always keep travel toothbrushes and toothpaste (ones you get on a plane or hotel) that are in quite nice packaging in my guest bathroom, but just make sure there's plenty of toothpaste and a spare toothbrush in a packet available. Also visible spare toilet roll, and generic shampoo, conditioner, and showergel already in the shower. I have pretty bottles with labels on and just fill up with those big bags so it feels like a hotel - actually just looks nicer and better for the environment!

Couple of magazines on the bed for ladies, doesn't matter if they're new, just something to do is nice.

Precisely. This is not the spare guest bedroom in your home for your friends and family, this is a set up you were hoping to get strangers to pay a lot of money to vacation in (out of interest, I’ve always wondered where holiday let owners buy those weirdly abstract and impersonal pieces of artwork they put everywhere. Is there some kind of holiday let warehouse which sells a starter kit??)

From a holiday let or a hotel, I’d expect all of the things I can see in your photos. But like me, my friends are mostly people who work in the sort of jobs which take them away on business travel quite frequently. Miniature toiletries, complimentary bathrobes and a raised suitcase rest are not things any of us would coo over in a friend’s guest room. If I went to a friend’s house and they’d decked the bedroom I was sleeping in out like a hotel room, I’d assume they were making a joke reference to this being the fourth hotel I’d stayed in that month.

This is beautiful! Do guests ever use the dressing gowns? I feel like none of my friends or family would want to!

I actually can’t believe someone wrote “new bedding if you can swing it.” In what appears a serious tone. Who the actual fuck buys new bedding every time they have a mate or family stay 😂

we have now Hit peak batshittery

I didn’t mean every time, dumbass.
I just meant not ten year old bedding.
Not everyone can afford to buy new right now.

This is the thread that keeps on giving 😂😂

I place chocolate on guests' pillows. Even for my sister, and we visit one another frequently. She always puts fresh flowers in her guest room for me.

I'm starting to feel sorry for people who are dumbfounded by such rather unremarkable gestures to gracious living.

@ComtesseDeSpair i wouldn’t have furnished them differently if they were just designed for ‘unpaying’ guests from the beginning. But they have never been anyones personal bedroom so of course they’re not full of our own crap. One of those artworks is in fact very personal, and was sent by the artist friend in the US as a housewarming gift. I don’t expect cooing, but I’m also not offended when people compare our house to a small boutique hotel.

@thisplaceisweird yes, not every guest but some love them. The guest who stayed last weekend always wears one in the morning.

Every bedroom in your house comes with an en-suite...?

That's most unusual. Normally it's just to the main/master bedroom. You must have a 'movie star style' house.

Definitely a how the other half live thread.

Tissues, Range of pillows and a light you can turn off once in bed

I’ve seen this in houses built by builders, owners of plumbing companies, tile shops, etc for their own families.

It’s fantastic.

Condoms arranged in a fan shape on the bedside table.

Oh no, not ten-year-old bedding! You know buying new is déclassé?

*That's most unusual. Normally it's just to the main/master bedroom. You must have a 'movie star style' house.

Definitely a how the other half live thread*

from my knowledge of US TV and films, massive “movie star” houses rarely have guest bedrooms.

guest are always given blankets for the sofa, or occasionally allowed to sleep in the “pool house”.

😂

I'm starting to feel sorry for people who are dumbfounded by such rather unremarkable gestures to gracious living.

This is the most Mumsnetty sentence ever 😂Did you tilt your head and do a 'tinkly laugh' as you typed it?

Exactly. I have family members who think blankets are something to be passed down to the next generation.

When I have guests... I stay up all night... And stand behind the kitchen counter top which doubles as reception.... In case my guests want room service 😁

I’ll top that. We man the bar. That’s for the guests who don’t want to use the minbar in their room.

Amateur, if you’re not setting up a trestle table in the conservatory spa and offering your guests a full range of massage and therapy services, what are you even doing?

I saw this once on telly and thought it was a brilliant idea if you tend to have guests staying after parties:

a hangover basket with paracetamol, anti-seltzer, water bottle etc

Of course. And every guest gets to choose their meals from a seasonal menu provided by our chef.

I provide a noisy drunken hen party to be a bit rowdy on the landing and bang their doors at 3am for a real hotel stay experience.

How folks stay at a friends over night or have a friend to stay over, has my mind boggled.

People are actually posting like they it’s totally normal that if staying rhe night with a friend, they will be sitting in their rooms alone , eating fruit and biscuits, drinking tea ,sitting in a comfy chair, reading books, doing puzzles, listening to music. Like some form of high end hotel experience.

when I’m stay with a friend or have a friend to stay for the night, I simply can’t imagine going off to my bedroom and sitting reading , doing puzzles eating shit and listening to music, we spend time together, have dinner, go out, whatever, we don’t sit and luxuriate alone in the room, like it’s a free hotel stay 😂😂😂😂

the mind fucking boggles. It really does.

The house is too big for you if you have two spare rooms with facilities. Too much temptation for people to use it!

Sell and buy two houses each with one bedroom. One to escape to by the sea, and where you can send your guests with a BYO bedding etc. instruction.

As you can guess, I don't do guests in my home. They prefer not to stay with me either, wonder why lol? I don't mind cooking lunch, but that's it. They can all feck off and leave me alone.