Day 5 - 2019 Month of Celebration: What are Your Most Fun (or Funny) Hosting Experiences?

[Laura2592]

When interacting with the public, there is always the opportunity for fun and humor. Time to share your tales of the diverting, pleasant and silly things that have happened to you while hosting. 

We recently arranged a proposal at our cottage for the guests. It was a surprise, and in addition to helping come up with a plan to distract the proposee, getting the location sorted, and the champagne chilling, the proposer wanted a photographer to capture the moment. We made some recommendations for a local photographer-- a wonderfully game woman who was more than eager to share this event. She hid behind  some shrubbery to get candid shots of the "down on the knee" ask. Nerves were abounding for the guest as the big moment arrived.

Cue the neighbor's chickens. Our fantastic next door neighbors have free range chickens who wander into the yard at our cottage. Guests usually love watching their antics. One particularly strident hen kept flapping around in front of the photographer who was doing her best to stay concealed and get the shot of the big moment.

The hen started clucking in consternation and pecking at the photographer's camera bag, making a racket that almost revealed her location. As the guest slipped the ring on his beloved's finger, the photographer leaned forward and stepped on the hen who let out a tremendous shriek and ran out into the shot.

The guests have photos of them looking very surprised and then laughing at this incensed chicken who made a rather indignant appearance in their engagement photos. 

Please share your tales of fun or funny hosting situations as we reflect on all the little joys that being a host can bring.

[Andrea-and-Francis0]

One of our funny stories is when a young couple stayed in our basement apartment & thought it was fun to hide our stuffed animal toys (which we have stored in a basket for when we have guests with children) & they placed them in funny areas around our entire apartment after checking out. One stuffed animal was found handing over the TV, another peaking out from the bed covers, they literally were everywhere & it was a scavenger hunt for me to find them all & put them all back in their baskets 🙂

[Laura2592]

@Andrea-and-Francis0  that's really cute! Sounds like something that would really tickle me. We had a "cranky" uncle growing up (he was just an introvert in a house of loud extroverts) who would do things like that and we would howl with laughter. Thanks for sharing!

[Miloud0]

Salute @Laura2592, 

Thank you for sharing this interesting subject 

Thanks, 

Miloud

[Inna22]

@Laura2592 love the photo!

[Laura2592]

@Inna22  That was all Stephanie the moderator. I asked the guests for pics for our website but have not gotten one yet. Stephanie captured the spirit of the occasion perfectly!

[Inna22]

@Laura2592 I was trying to figure out why the porpoising guest was not in the picture but I thought you wanted to protect their privacy. That's funny in itself that I thought it was the actual picture! And I just remembered my funnies moment. It was when my housekeeper was drunk- if you may remember I posted about that. Was not funny at that time but one of my best stories now

[Stephanie]

@Laura2592 @Inna22 - treat yourself and google "chicken photobomb". You won't be disappointed! 

[Solveig0]

@Laura2592  hahaha! we have misbehaving chickens too! But we've fenced them in, after they started raiding neighbours' gardens (oups!). But other than having guest help move chickens to the chicken pen, and help slaughter the old ones, no funny experiences as such. I'm sharing one of those moments (not the slaughtering one...) in my holiday calendar contribution on monday so I won't say any more here...

[Spencer133]

Wow

[Susan1404]

@Laura2592- love the chicken and proposal story- it make me cackle LOL.  I guess one of my most recent guests proved to be the funniest so far.  The daughter booked the reservation for herself and her parents to stay a long weekend.  My airbnb cabin sits across a very large 35 acre hay field from my house and normally they arrive at my house first, then follow me down there.  They missed my message telling them all this and because it was still daylight, they saw the cabin and took the only road they could see - the really rocky, rough, muddy one.  I happened to see them driving down there, so I jumped in my truck to catch up to them.  When I got down there, the mother seemed a bit agitated.  She was walking around to the side of the cabin and peering down under the chimney area.  As it turned out, the daughter had told them they rented the ground floor and the mother thought that meant the crawl space underneath the cabin LOL.  I quickly assured her that they had rented the bottom floor, not the crawl space!

[Donna240]

I was once checking out a couple who had stayed for a week and as I walked through to see if anything had been damaged, I walked to the couch and started to lift a cushion, as I continued to ask how the trip went. I usually rotate them around after each guest leaves to check for damage and keep the wear even. The look of shock on the faces of my guests and their sudden halt in conversation, made me drop it quickly and give myself a silent scolding, "OMG, you have just insulted this couple, what an idiot!"

As it turned out, they had opened a bottle of wine I had left in the apartment, as a way of displaying that I had a wine rack. It had been spilled all over the couch cushions and they attempted to wash it, which only made the stain permanent, since the upholstery could only be dry cleaned. They had flipped the cushions to conceal the damage. When confronted in an email they said that they were too embarrassed to tell me....ya think so? Anyway, I think the timing was hysterical.

[Helen427]

Brilliant topic & contributions @Laura2592 @Stephanie

@Donna240 @Spencer133 @Susan1404 

@Solveig0 @Andrea-and-Francis0 @Miloud0 @Inna22 

How are those of you who have been Missing In Action here in CC these days?

It would be nice to see you return to the fold.