A welcome pack for your guests

[Quincy]

Hello everybody!

I hope you're all doing well today.

There have been a lot of great topics recently have helped a lot of us here in the Community Center. Today I wanted to ask if you have a welcome pack for your guests with different kinds of leaflets for events or other recommendations in your area? Or perhaps there are specific things about your place that you highlight? Would there be any tips and tricks that you would like to share with us here in the CC? Also, I'm very curious as to how you present your welcome pack so feel free to share some photos 🙂

I look forward to your replies!

Quincy

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Quincy

as we host in a big city whith rich cultural life and a lot of tourist attractions we are trying to help our guests to get the most of their short stay by providing a lot of informations and recommendations. Our guests love it, of course 🙂

We offer:

1. a few books about Zagreb,
2. "Zagreb news" newspaper for tourists,
3. city map with tram lines included,
4. monthly brochure with all the events, exibits and cultural programmes ,
5. brochure abut Zagreb tourist attractions + one about surroundings ......all provided by Zagreb tourist board and few private tourist agencies.
6. we also have a map with most popular excursions offered by few travel agencies.   

Then we have sorted leaflets on the wall display :

  

..... and a clipboard with hand picked street events , festivals and recommended places like Asian/Croatian/Vegan restaurants, best night clubs, places to eat breakfast etc... . We regulary search the internet for new events and print it at home . It is very time consuming and there is no way our guests would find half of it by themselves.

 Few months ago we hosted 2 groups of guests who came in Zagreb for a big concert . It was held by the lake on the other side of town so we prepared maps and instructions how to get there, which tram and bus to take , how much it will cost them etc.... 

We want our guests to have a good time while exploring our city because that's why they come here after all 🙂

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

During Advent in December, there are a lot of fairs, events and festivals all over the city center. So we made and printed custom map with red dots to mark all those places : 

We use the same map template to mark important places like tourist info center / grocery stores / farmacy / public garages etc... There is no way our guests get lost heh 🙂

[Quincy]

This looks awesome @Branka-and-Silvia0!

You have everything very organised, and I love the way you prepared for your guests who were coming for the concert. I can understand why your guests like this so much since what could be better than getting information from a local 🙂 If I were to be a guest and would see this, I'd be very happy as well! 

@Kimberly54 @Farah1 @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0 @Lisa658, look at this fantastic post from @Branka-and-Silvia0. I was wondering if you also have something similar for your guests? 🙂 

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Quincy@Branka-and-Silvia0 A map with descriptions and labels can be very helpful to guests but i will not engage myself in such practice because a map can sometime makes the guest believe that you are advicing them to go to the places which you labelled on paper. I once help a guest to find a local restaurant, the guest later told me that he got some troubles with the service of that restaurant but never wanted to tell me exactly what happened there and it sounded like he was blaming me for tell him about this place. From that time i changed the ways that i used before to help guests and focus more on my properties facilities,location and speed of action. Happy hosting!!!

[Lisa36]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  - that is brilliant.  Makes me want to do something similar but I leave guests lots of tourist brochurs and maps and take away leaflets.  The only thing I leave which is different is a board with postcards of our lovely city which guests can help themselves to.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lisa36

Some Leaflets are very usefull,  for example guests can find out where to rent a bike or a car , where is a loundry service or night clubs , where they can order a pizza or a taxi,  book an excursion or a guided city tour etc... our guests reaction when they see it is always very positive . And it costs us nothing except some effort to collect them  🙂

I like the idea with postcards, really nice touch 🙂

[Sara562]

We have a comprehensive compendium and lots of flyers / information about local activites and services available at the cottage already so I believed a gift pack of treats would be more welcome and appreciated. 

This winter season I made up bags with homemade postcards & fridge magnets (our own scenic photos) as reminders of the location.  I also included some homemade apple cider vinegar (made from apples from the property), a small tube of luxury hand lotion, homemade hot chocolate mix with marshmellows and a family size packet of popcorn.  My cleaners delighted in putting these bags out - none of their other properties offered anything similar.  All items had the cottage logo on, had the handmade crafted and cared-for look with swing tags etc.  I also tried to accommodate all gender bases (mum, dad, kids) as families are my primary demographic while thinking about younger/older peoples and being budget conscious. 

Twenty packs later - ONE group commented.  No other single word privately or via feedback was seen.  I am still a little astounded, but am not giving up.  This next batch has a summer theme with homemade sangria mix (using my own dehydrated fruit and spices), a small tube of insect repellent, homemade (and home-grown) rosemary rub and rosemary salt for bbq items, a small jigsaw and a homemade elf christmas decoration.  So here's to doing things with love, not for love.  Immensely grateful for any other suggestions. 🙂