What little things could we be doing better to serve guests?
Written by Jay Karen on June 28, 2011 – 4:04 pm
It’s a simple picture of a simple item found in my closet at the Lookout Point Lakeside Inn in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where I stayed last week. This is a plastic laundry bag, and its presence in my closet made me smile. Why?
I smiled because I rarely see such a thing at B&Bs and inns, and I see a lot of B&Bs and inns. A generic, plastic laundry bag hanging in a closet can be seen at just about any hotel, but it is a rarity at B&Bs.
I suppose I am a typical traveler, in that I bring more clothes than I end up actually wearing on a trip. This creates a little problem, because I now have dirty laundry and clean laundry, all of which needs to go back into my luggage. Sometimes I remember to bring a plastic shopping bag that I saved from a trip to my local grocery store, in which I can put my dirty clothes. But if I forget my own bag, the bag provided by the hotel or inn is a great thing to see.
I’m sure restocking those bags after each stay is a pain in the butt for housekeeping, and maybe that’s why a lot of innkeepers don’t have the bags – many of you ARE the housekeepers and can’t delegate the task. Maybe you never really thought about it. The expense can’t be too great, can it? Why don’t most of you do this? It’s a little thing that can mean a lot to a traveler.
What else have you seen at inns, or what else are you doing at your inn, that is little, but can make a big difference to a road warrior or leisure guest? I look forward to your responses below.
Jay
Posted in Uncategorized | 29 Comments »
Jay Karen, President & CEO of the 
June 29, 2011 at 6:11 am...
Even with the proliferation of GPS, we provide maps. Lots of maps. State maps, regional maps, town maps, things to do maps (Art Trail, Nature Trail, etc), birding maps, lighthouse maps. All available for free for guests to take away with them for their travels.
We have maps to adjoining states and provinces as many guests are doing the ‘New England Tour’ or the ‘2 Nation Vacation’ and want to find a good route to see the most.
Although many guests now turn down highway maps because of ‘James’ or ‘Susan’ (their GPS voice!) we do find a fair number of guests spread the maps out during breakfast to get an idea of what they might like to do and see so they can decide whether or not to let ‘James’ or ‘Susan’ recalculate or not as they wander off the main roads to see an osprey nest or buy fresh blueberries from a farm stand.
And guests are invited to put a pin in the maps on the wall to show where they’ve traveled from. (US and world maps.)
Monica
June 29, 2011 at 7:15 am...
We provide lint brushes for our guests. It’s a little thing; doesn’t cost much, but it’s a nice surprise to someone who is getting dressed up to go out to dinner or a show or a wedding to be able to successfully and efficiently remove the fuzz from their clothes.
June 29, 2011 at 7:37 am...
It wouldn’t be any more trouble or great expense to add a laundry bag to the long list of items already in the guest rooms. I guess I have never considered it because I personally associate that bag with an in-house laundry service, which we don’t provide. We often provide ziplocks to customers (especially bicyclists) for wet and/or muddy items.
June 29, 2011 at 2:00 pm...
Right on Jay. This is a small (but wonderfully thoughtful) amenity. We too love it when Innkeepers think about the little details that add up and make the total experience so good. Oh, and you would have loved staying at our Inn too…we also had laundry bags in the closet! Rick
June 30, 2011 at 8:15 am...
Guests often ask for a bag…I just never thought of putting one in the rooms.
After reading your comments, I will have them in the rooms today!
June 30, 2011 at 8:17 am...
Does anyone out there have a good, inexpensive source for the plastic laundry bags? I love having them in my hotel room because even with good intentions, I always forget to include a bag from home. So this would be a nice extra.
June 30, 2011 at 8:27 am...
We provide “Q tips” in every room in a little shaker jar. (These are actually sugar shakers with a narrow neck to discourage guests from putting used ones back into the jar.) The cotton swabs are popular year round. In the summer months we add sunburn spray (like Solarcaine.)
June 30, 2011 at 8:29 am...
Would you recommend a supplier for the laundry bags please? Thanks so much.
June 30, 2011 at 8:51 am...
We provide a small basket with nice paper plates, utensils,napkins and cups. We have a number of guests who like to bring meals back to the Inn to enjoy on the back deck, or who like to bring dessert back after a dinner out. Guests have commented that this little touch is greatly appreciated.
June 30, 2011 at 9:06 am...
Jay, you got my attention on this one. I went down to the kitchen pantry and found we have a box full of the laundry bags we pack when we travel and they have built-in pull straps to close them. Now, all our closets sport one …dare I say it…kitchen trash bag for guests to use as they see fit. I also put a box of the bags in the linen closet so it will be handy to replace the bags I expect guests will soon be taking home with them. Thanks for the suggestion. Tom
June 30, 2011 at 9:12 am...
Sure…to name a few (tell ‘em PAII sent you):
http://www.americanhotel.com/
http://www.innstyle.com/
http://www.hdsupply.com/
http://www.dnjspecialties.com
June 30, 2011 at 9:19 am...
We provide makeup remover pads in all rooms and black washcloths for makeup removal.
The guests don’t feel guilty getting makeup stains on the white washcloths, and we no longer have to throw away so many becase of black mascara stains that won’t come out.
We also take advantage of any amenity sales to add extra amenities like tooth paste sachets, sewing kits, salt scrub sachets etc during out high season months for added value, or when not cost prohibitive.
June 30, 2011 at 9:22 am...
We used to get our laundry bags from American Hotel Register Company…www.americanhotel.com
June 30, 2011 at 9:24 am...
and InnStyle too!
June 30, 2011 at 9:36 am...
On a whim, we added jewelry cleaner jars to the bathroom amenities. We have gotten more comments and seen more sparkly rings since. When the solution gets dirty, replace it with equal parts water and ammonia that you have added a good squirt of dish washing liquid (Dawn) to. Works like a charm!
June 30, 2011 at 10:12 am...
The laundry bags are a good idea. Does anyone know a supplier who makes bags that recycle? As so many inns are aiming for ‘green’ status we hate to add more plastic to the dumps and land fills.
June 30, 2011 at 10:45 am...
As hotels continue to brand themselves as “inns” by providing amenities found in B&B’s (full hot breakfast etc.) so to innkeepers need to keep current with amenities provided by hotels that their own guests will appreciate. Thanks for the “heads-up” Jay.
June 30, 2011 at 11:05 am...
Lip gloss, I have small pots of lip gloss in every room, the guests love the. We also have makeup remover cloths and a framed note in each bathroom asking that they use the make up remover cloth due to make up staining the wash cloths.You can purchase the lip gloss in a small pot with your logo on it from Greenwich Bay Soaps. Greenwich Bay is great to work with, reasonable prices and very prompt.
http://www.gbsoaps.com and hey they also have laundry bags (I just looked it up!). .25 each
250/case case cost 62.50 and shipping is free when ordering 5 or more cases, so I usually order soap, lotion etc. all at once for the free shipping. Check out their web site.
June 30, 2011 at 11:21 am...
At dNj specialties we custom print your logo on Laundry Bags, contact us if you would like more information, these are available in various sizes and have your logo printed on one side for a continuous advertising for your inn. We have a free setup special when you place your order before the end of July.
770.338.2121 or sales@dnjspecialties.com
June 30, 2011 at 11:59 am...
We have many of the same amenities as others such as make-up wipes and dark cloths, cotton swabs, etc. We also provide both scented and unscented lotions. We have larger baskets in the entry hall where our info center is with free toothpaste samples, insect repellent wipes, sun screen, sample lotions, etc. We have hampers of beach towels for use in the hot tub or to take to the beach, crocks and flip flops that get sanitized between guests, and spare hats (those logo hats from conventions and trade shows). Someday we will invest in our own logo hats, but meanwhile they are there. We have loaner umbrellas, walking sticks, Frisbees, etc. We also save the plastic containers from tomatoes and berries so guests can go berry picking when the blackberries are ripe. If guests have been swimming or boating or caught in the rain, we offer to dry their things for them, or we do it while they are out to dinner as a surprise. The logo laundry bags are a good idea and more classy than used grocery bags, so we will probably add them to the rooms. Thanks for this topic.
June 30, 2011 at 12:54 pm...
Thank you, Jay, for having a voice that can reach more people than we’ve been able to at The B&B Team. We’ve been suggesting this for a long time. The simplest answer is a 13 gallon, tall kitchen bag draped over a hanger. It doesn’t need to be fancy or even “for laundry.” It doesn’t need to have your name on it (though my various suitcases are full of logo’d bags I’ve used from hotels over time that I re-use time and again, even for shoes). The bag just needs to be there, because it’s “thoughtful.”
June 30, 2011 at 2:14 pm...
We have always included laundry bags for our guests at our 11 room inn. In addition, I can’t tell you how many times in the past 12 years my wife or I have personally washed and folded small loads of laundry for certain guests who may be long road trips and want to avoid a trip to the laundromat. No charge, of course. Obviously, we don’t advertise this as a general service or amenity, but we are more than happy to do this when we feel it may be especially helpful to certain quality guests.
June 30, 2011 at 5:11 pm...
Simple but extremely thoughtful. We too are a “Green Hotel” in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. The guest that is concerned about the plastic laundry bags we plan to include in our guest rooms will be relieved to know that you should be able to re-use this bag many times over. And since name recognition is one of our marketing goals (thank you Rick and Peter, B&B Team) we will at least check out the premium to have our logo on the bag.
Also, we are on well water, softened, and we think our water tasts great, we realize some guests in today’s bottled water world expect to not drink out of the tap. We provide Britta Filtered pitchers and glasses in each room thereby eliminating the plastic bottles from the recycling stream.
Thanks all for a great steam of ideas.
June 30, 2011 at 7:19 pm...
We have a vintage cloth laundry bag that hangs in our “Butler Pantry,” (in the hallway) which is available for guests. B/c we only have 2 rooms, I can do their laundry, if they want this service. (And our’s, as well, is done at no charge). But the plastic bag hanging over the hangar in the closet is a good idea, too!
July 1, 2011 at 12:20 pm...
It is a good idea and one I will follow through on. Since seeing you at the NYSHTA conference I added surge protectors with five plugs to each room to insure our guest have a secure place to plug in their phones and all their electronics.
July 6, 2011 at 8:16 am...
Great Post Jay! My two cents a very regular B&B traveler. The most basic of basic of hotels provide two pillows per guest in rooms – Many times B&Bs only provide one per guest.
July 13, 2011 at 11:12 pm...
[...] What little things could we be doing better to serve guests? [...]
July 19, 2011 at 6:57 am...
I never used an imprinted laundry bag,but always had a full size garbage bag in every guest room for their used laundry or any other purpose they needed it for.
September 21, 2011 at 7:44 pm...
After being a road warrior for over 15 years, laundry bags were one of the first things we added to the rooms when we bought the Inn last year. We have had numerous comments from repeat guests as to how much they appreciate the little touch, especially our corporate guests. DNJ does a great job on the laundry bags – we have our logo on the bag, just another way to remind our guests of us.