What's in a perfect guest room?

[NotAMammy]

I'm putting together the spare bedroom in our new house. I want it to be a really nice guest room, our families stay for long weekends when they visit so it'll probably be used a few times a year to start with. As well as the standard furniture: a bed, drawers, wardrobe and a chair I'm looking to add wee details to make it a bit more welcoming and luxurious. So spare blankets, water and glasses, spare toiletries and toothbrush... What else would you include in the room?

Don't forget the basket of san pro products .

Ah this fell off my watched list so hadn't seen the updates. I did have to laugh at another thread scolding about how many pillows her MIL had in their guest room though after being advised here to have a selection!
A bin is a great shout coffee I hadn't bought one yet.

expat I'll include a couple sanpro products with the general emergency travel kit. I'm drawing the line at condoms though, none of that carry one while they're staying under my roof!!!

TBH it has never occurred to me to provide sanpro. No-one who stays over requires them anyway as we are all too old.

A list of local hotels and b&bs

Definitley a mirror.
I stay at friends and putting make up on in the morning or getting dressed in an evening can be a struggle as bathroom often busy.

There was a thread about this a couple of years ago that ended up totally bonkers!
People seemed to forget they were stopping at their friends gaff for a night or two and not at The Apartment at the Hotel Connaught!

A decent bed you'd be happy sleeping on yourself, chair, mirror, bedside table and lamp should cover it. WhathaveI glad you mentioned that. I'm just doing up our spare room and was getting worried I wasn't doing enough.

A fantastic bed, nice and large, with fresh bedding. Extra blanket, extra pillows. Bedside tables either side with bedside lights.

A dressing table and chair with a three way mirror and good lighting.

Open hanging with hangers and some shelves. No wardrobe or drawers.

All of the above plus if you have lockable windows, a key to open them! Always good to be able to get fresh air in/ adjust the temperature of your room.

I remember that other thread - it was bonkers!

A fantastic bed, nice and large, with fresh bedding. Extra blanket, extra pillows. Bedside tables either side with bedside lights.

A dressing table and chair with a three way mirror and good lighting.

Open hanging with hangers and some shelves. No wardrobe or drawers.

We stayed in a hotel-come-private house recently which had vintage-style little plaques on the door, where you could hand write guests' names and slide them into the plaque. I thought that was very cool.

Decent bed with enough cushions/pillows to sit up comfortably reading.

Extra blanket in case of cold.

Decent mirror for putting on make up.

Bedside lamp that's easy to turn on.

Spare plug socket to charge phone.

Prefer hooks in back of door to a wardrobe as can't be arsed with completely unpacking.

Chair

Dressing gown and slippers

Nice towels

Toiletries basket to include ear buds.
I often forget my tweezers so they would be great.

Reed diffuser.

This thread is sliding in to the old thread territory!
People wanting dressing gowns, slippers, toiletries including ear budsand reed diffuser when kipping over at their mates!!
Blimey, you don't even get that at a Travel Lodge and you pay to stop there!

We are not Travel Lodge customers and nor are our friends. I'm not sure why you would not want to make your friends as comfortable as they are in their own home or usual hotels.

Bedside light, extra pillows, extra blanket, water and fresh towels is what we have.

Tweezers? Ear buds? Fluffy dressing gowns? Baskets of toiletries? Jesus. I'd feel seriously suffocated by that, as if someone was trying too hard to prove to me what an excellent host they are. Seriously creepy.

It needs to be comfortable and you need to offer things that make the difference to a bad nights sleep and a good one based on potential preferences so someone doesn't have to hunt you out. Thusly:

Decent bed
Decent duvet for the climate
Decent pillows. At least 4 for a double.
Full length mirror
Hairdryer
Towels and told where to find more if they needed ( hate searching for a hair towel!)
Books or info on local area if they aren't for round dem parts
Bedside table and lamps
Bottles of water
Chair for clothes
Accessible plugs

If someone wants a bloody earbud they can wait till they get home or ask surely?! I haven't had an ear bud in the house for 15 years. As for someone else's tweezers. No thanks.

My best friend once put a little posy of flowers from her garden in my bedroom when I visited her overseas. And a little welcome card made by her daughters. Now that was lovely.

But it can all go in the bin if you don't give me a decent pilllow...

We are not Travel Lodge customers and nor are our friends. I'm not sure why you would not want to make your friends as comfortable as they are in their own home or usual hotels.

It's around this point on a thread like this the expectations of what makes a nice guest room starts to get slightly bonkers.

Nothing up with having a nice room but as I said why would you expect or want some one else's slippers and house coat?
To be honest all I really want is to have a nice time with my friend.

What Whathaveilost said.

I'm waiting for someone to say Corby Trouser Press without a hint of irony.

An aromatherapy sleepy-time stylee pillow spray for insomniacs.

A creepy china clown thing that will come to life at night and dance about.

I think genuinely you need to make it as creepy or as uncomfortable as possible so they leave and never come back. I'm an introvert, can you tell?

I like a comfy bed, an openable window and a little table to put my book and drink of water on. The latter is especially important if your guest wears glasses. A couple of extra books and a box of tissues are a bonus, which reminds me, make sure spare loo roll is visible in the bathroom. Nothing noisy in the room - no grandfather clocks that chime the quarter-hour and and no computers that whirr at irregular intervals through the night.

Mine has -

Lovely bed and bedding
long mirror
bedside lamps
alarm clock
Curtains & Black out blind for flexibility
Spare blanket / throw on the end of bed
bath sheet and hand towel come out of airing and left on bed
bin
hairdryer

basket with bottled water, paracetamol, toothbrush, flannel, cotton buds, mini sewing kit, cotton wall balls, tissues, mini toothpaste, mini hand cream (unscented), mini shampoo & shower gel. I also have the MiL fave shower gel and hairspray which i get out when she is staying.
Hotel slippers (1st set from a hotel but found some cheap on ebay and put them in.....they don't often get used but nice to have)

I love having a spare room with all the essentials and tell people when they 'check in' that they are to use anything they like. it gives me worrying amounts of joy putting the basket together and restocking! I always wanted my own B&B but feel like I would go out of business with all the stuff i would give away

I would add that my spare room is currently a single room. DS is planning on moving out next year and then i will have a single and a double!!! oh the pleasure!!!!