The Bed & Breakfast Guest Etiquette
Quiz
Now an
e-booklet.... by Andrea
Reynolds
$5.95
Copyright Andrea
Reynolds 2002-2008.
Mentioned
in USA
Today,
9/19/03
104
Ways to increase your B & B savoir faire, charm your
host and get preferential service at a Bed &
Breakfast
Andrea Reynolds is
available to provide a scandously humorous presentation to
Bed & Breakfast Associations on B & B promotion or
guest etiquette.
"Andrea, thank you...
I have already read it and found it very, very informative
and so amusing. Keep up your good work.
Rod A.
Chisholm, Hamilton ON
In a style made
famous by the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" show,
The B &
B Guest Etiquette Quiz booklet contains the appropriate answer
to very typical guest home situations (and also actual
guest faux pas and antics as multiple choices).
Experienced guests will enjoy taking this
amusing etiquette quiz... First-time guests will learn how
to be great repeat guests without
embarrassment.
Introduction
Back when travelers rode horses until nightfall, lodging
was quite primitive. Men would pay for a place to sleep,
often sharing a bed with one or two strangers, dusty
breeches and all. At dawn they may have washed or
shaved, had a meal, and rode off in separate directions.
Today, more and more business travelers
and tourists are enjoying a modernized, more enjoyable
version of this form of accommodation, by staying in
someone's private city or country home for two or more
nights.
Staying in a Bed & Breakfast has
advantages over staying in an impersonal hotel. You are
accommodated in a home-away-from-home with very nice people
looking after you. And for less than the cost of a
comparable hotel stay, you get a comfortable --often luxury
quality -- room and bed, private or shared bath, a
wholesome breakfast (full or extended continental),
sparkling conversation, lots of activity ideas and cultural
advice, and often, free parking.
As more North Americans are choosing Bed
& Breakfast accommodation over hotel stays, B & B
hosts would like first-time guests to know -- but are often
too kind to tell them -- that there are some major
differences between the two types of lodging.
Staying in a Bed & Breakfast
is like staying at your
future in-laws' home for the first time. (You want to
enjoy yourself, but you also want to make a good
impression.) The key is to remember that you are a guest
in someone's private home; you're not staying in a
hotel. We hosts want you to have a warm, relaxed and
memorable stay; all we ask is that you be a polite and
thoughtful guest.
The
Story Behind the Booklet
As a former bed and breakfast host I can
tell you that most guests are absolutely delightful.
Occasionally, however, we come across a few first-timers
-- mostly North Americans -- whose behavior and antics
can be outrageous. (Guests from other countries where B
& Bs are more popular don't seem to need these
tips.) You will be amused by some of them; disturbed by
others. Many of the tips in the booklet come from the
experiences of dozens of other hosts.
This booklet began as a six page article
hanging in the guest bathroom of my own B & B. I
noticed that as guests used the bath their manners improved
and I didn't have to say a word or post any signs. I
transformed the article into a booklet of 50 tips...and now
it contains 104 tips in the form of multiple choice
questions. I encourage you to test yourself.
PS If you're a Toronto B & B host or
a visitor to Toronto you may enjoy Andrea's
guidebook,
Romantic and Playful
Toronto.
CONTENTS
Tips are written
as multiple choice
questions (correct
answers are indicated.)
1. Introduction
2. The B & B
Experience
3. Reservations
4. Check In
5. Your Room
6. The Bathroom
7. Common Areas
8. During Your Stay
9. Breakfast
10. Check Out
11. What's Your Score?
12. Guests' Bill of
Rights
ORDER NOW
PHONE ORDERS:
Your debit
card with VISA logo or credit card is accepted in US
funds...
(571)
217-6928
(orders
only please)
Credit card transactions are also securely processed
through www. PayPal.com in US funds.
3 examples from The B & B Guest Etiquette Quiz
Do you know the best answer?
1. If you're a smoker and you're staying at a smoke-free B & B...
a. Feel free to smoke wherever you wish... after all you're a paying guest.
b. Smoke only in your own room or in the bath.
c. Smoke outside under open windows.
d. Ask your host if there is a designated indoor and outdoor smoking area.
2. Which of the following is OK to flush down the toilet?
a. Old underwear, books, toys, jewelry.
b. Hair, old food, bars of soap, stationery.
c. Used sanitary supplies, tissues, paper towels.
d. Toilet paper (and normal bodily secretions and excretions).
3. What do you do with the jam jar spoon?
a. Lick it before placing it back in the jam.
b. Use it to spread jam on your toast or muffin.
c. Use one jam spoon for all the jam flavors.
d. Use it to transfer jam to your plate, return it to the same jam pot, then use your own butter spreader to spread your toast.
Plus 97 more questions.
About the Author
Andrea Reynolds is the former owner of Author's Bed & Breakfast in downtown Toronto. It started with an assignment from a business school to write a profile about one of their home business instructors: a woman who operated a five-bedroom B & B. Andrea was hooked. Five years later she apprenticed herself to a Bed and Breakfast reservation service, then filled in as host for several vacationing B & B owners.
In 1995 she was able to open her own small B & B in Cabbagetown, a trendy but colorful area of Toronto. In 1997 she moved her B & B to a larger home with 3 guest bedrooms, two guest baths and a guest kitchen.
Her theme home was created to provide a home and office away from home for authors who were on media and press tours to promote their books. In addition to affordable accommodation, she provided promotion and office services, kitchen facilities for author-chefs who needed to prepare food in advance of television demonstrations.
Home invasions and death threats from a stalker convinced her it was time to hang up her host apron and return to giving how-to advice. She returned to the US and is a writer and marketing coach who specializes in helping experts, how-to authors and speakers build advice empires. She is available to speak to B & B associations on marketing your B & B services and handling tough B & B challenges.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Publisher's
News Release
Interviews: (Andrea Reynolds), toll-free
for MEMBERS OF THE PRESS + MEDIA ONLY: (571) 217-6928
(Virginia)
What do you do with the
jam jar spoon when you're a guest at a Bed &
Breakfast?
Test
Your B & B Guest Etiquette IQ
a. Lick it before
placing it back in the jam.
b. Use it to spread jam on your toast or muffin.
c. Use one jam spoon for all the jam flavors.
d. Use it to transfer jam to your plate, return it to the
same jam jar, then use your own butter spreader to spread
it on your toast. (The correct answer.)
(ERIE PA) Who
cares?, you say. Well, if you're the next guest at the
table do you want a stranger's crumbs (or worse) in your
jam? The problem is: not everyone knows the new etiquette
for bed and breakfast stays. The B & B Guest
Etiquette Quiz offers
104 tips written "in the form of a question."
When a contestant on Jeopardy! mentioned
that a B & B host had insulted guests by plastering
rules on sticky notes all over the home, Andrea Reynolds,
former owner of Author's Bed & Breakfast in Toronto,
knew there was a better, kinder way to enlighten travelers
new to the idea of staying in a Bed and Breakfast over a
hotel or motel. So she wrote a 24 page booklet of 104 guest
etiquette tips in the style of popular TV game show "Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire?".
Reynolds, once a family and consumer
science teacher, found that 70% of her guests were
first-timers. "I didn't want to be a critical parent or
make my guests feel uncomfortable, so after asking a dozen
hosts to tell me their worst guest stories, I wrote a
humorous article and hung a copy in each guest bathroom as
the only reading matter. Guest manners improved and many
guests said they were grateful for the guidelines. I get
better results when teaching with kindness than with
intimidation so the article grew into a lighthearted quiz
booklet. It still makes good bathroom reading."
Reynolds, interviewed by Sir David Frost
and other journalists on national television on the subject
of etiquette, advises: "Remember, you're a guest in
someone's private home. It's NOT OK to parade through the
common areas in your underwear, raid the fridge at night,
throw impromptu parties, sleep all day, snoop in private
areas, nor bring hookers into the home. (Yes, it has
happened.) But, it IS good to pay on arrival -- after all,
hosts hand you the keys to their house -- introduce your
partner by name, use your phone card to make long distance
calls, and go out for the day after breakfast."
Her 24 page oversize booklet,
The B &
B Guest Etiquette Quiz is available only by mail order
for $5.95
US.
For more information, email Andrea at info@AndreaReynolds.com
- - - E N D - - -
12 ways Hosts can benefit from multiple copies of this
booklet
1. Offer to supply copies to
conference
planners in your area
to insert in attendees' conference registration
packages.
2. Mail a copy to each
new
guest with her deposit
receipt and confirmation information.
3. Affix your B & B's promotional
label to the cover of each booklet and use them as
promotional
giveaways to generate
repeat and referral business.
4. Display booklets in each of your guest
rooms and bath rooms as guest reading
material. Replace as
they are taken home or become tattered.
5. Sell booklets at a profit in
your gift
shop.
6. Sell booklets at a profit to all the
guest homes in your local, area, or state B
& B associations.
7. Sell copies at a profit to other hosts
at your national or federal B
& B association.
8. Sell copies at a profit
on your web
site to new guests and
other hosts.
9. Provide a bundle of booklet to new
hosts who become members of your B & B association or
reservation service as a membership
benefit.
10. Supply copies to your local
tourism
board, travel agents, and Chamber of
Commerce, with your B
& B's promotional label attached.
11. Invite
Andrea
Reynolds to speak at
your regional, state, provincial, federal or international
B & B conference and receive a free booklet for each
host in the audience.
12. If you're an inn-sitter,
apply your contact info to the booklet and send it to hosts
in areas where you'd like to inn-sit.
ORDER
NOW! You may make copies with these
"licenses"
1 personal copy: US
$5.95
up to 4 copies: $23.00 ($5.75 each)
up to 9 copies: $49.50 ($5.50 each)
up to 99 copies:
$495.00 ($5.00 each)
100-249 copies:
$1182.75 ($4.75 each)
250-999 copies:
$3,996.00 ($4.00 each)
1000-2499 copies:
$8,746.50 ($3.50 each)
2500-4999 copies:
$14,997.00 ($3.00 each)
5000-9999 copies
$24,997.50 ($2.50 each)
10,000 copies or more:
$20,000.00 ($2.00 each)
...Or consider a licensing arrangement which saves you more. First published:
June 2001
Single booklets:
US $5.95
PHONE
ORDERS:
Your debit
card with VISA logo or credit card is accepted in US
funds...
(571)
217-6928
(orders
only please)
If you buy one booklet or a few for consideration, then later buy a larger quantity, I can make an adjustment so that all copies purchased are at the lower price.
Canadian residents: Let me know how many you want and I'll figure out the price in Canadian collars. I can accept cheques drawn on Canadian banks and US money orders, and credit cards only by www.PayPal.com.
International orders. We can accept international bank drafts and travelers' cheques, postal money orders in US funds or online credit card transactions through PayPal.
Have your B & B information imprinted on booklets. Ask for a price estimate. Minimum order is 1,000. OR affix your own labels to the cover or title page.
