Presentation tips - simple (cheap or free) ways to improve perception of your space!

[Ken28]

I'd like to start a discussion relating to ways Hosts can make their spaces seem nicer, more luxurious, more homey, or just make the experience more memorable.

I'm looking for tricks people use that they've found to improve perception, without actually changing anything substantial.

For example, Paul said in another post:

@Paul154 wrote:

I've learned from my housekeeper that a chemical smell that says "this room has been cleaned for you"

is useful.

A little bleach in  the toilet water or in the water used for washing the floor. 

I have to agree - slight the smell of a chemical reinforces that the place has been cleaned.

So, those are the kind of tips I'm looking for... things that submininally elicit feelings in your guests that they don't necessarily realize.

* Do you fold your towels a specific way in the bathroom? Should they be placed in the bathroom on the counter, or set on a shelf?

* Do you fold the top of the comfortor down in a specific way?

* More pillows or less pillows? Do you 'chop' your pillows?

* Do you leave dining room table set for two, four, ... six? Or do you leave it a clean slate for them to use as they see fit?

* Do you play some music lightly for their arrival?

* Do you leave an empty shelf for them in the fridge? Does having only fresh vegetables or fruits make it seem like a healthier space?

* Do you leave blinds open or closed?

[Ken28]

Something I'm trying today is baking cookies. I have a similar-scented (salted caramel) candle that I plan to burn their last day... hoping it'll trigger them to remember the surprise of cookies when they arrived - without having bake them cookies the last day...

[Rebecca160]

@Ken28 great discussion!

i try to sweep the porch and clean the outdoor lounge chairs just before arrival, as that is what guests see first. Then they see my dog, who greets guests with tail wagging and happy barking. 

I ensure the living and dining rooms are decluttered and clean, as this is the next encounter for my guests. The dining table is set with cheerful fabric placemats and napkins, one for me and each guest. This lets them know that they are welcome to sit and dine with me, or not.  In the kitchen, I have a mug set out for each guest with a selection of teas, coffees and sweeteners, plus oatmeal makings and let them know they have a shelf in cupboard, freezer and refrigerator . I have the curtains open in their room for day arrivals and closed with a table lamp on for night arrivals. There is a water bottle, Chocolate and trail mix for each guest, along with flowers from my garden in the spring. The bed has two pillows and I show the guests were the others are located in the closet, along with extra blankets and lots of hangers. I point out the safety card adjacent to the door inside their room, plus the CO detector and fire alarm. The bathroom is always super clean. I have a selection of shampoos and soaps, from scented to Unscented hypoallergenic. Towels are not folded in any special way as I am just not good at that sort of thing! I do provide brightly colored, towels for each guest, each a very distinct color , so they do not get mixed up. I always wash the bath mat and bath rug between guests for sanitary reasons. Oh, and I clearly show them where to get extra clean towels and also towels for the spa. My house is old, but the overall effect is clean, cheerful and cozy

[Sandra126]

small thing that makes things look llike they just have been cleaned is to have everything straightemed, i e all the hand towels hang the same way with fold in the same direction, all dining chairs pushed in and identically placed, small things like that. Even if the place is clean but things are placed wonkily it will look as if it hasn't been cleaned.

Def not set a table, they may not be eating!

2 pillows  per person, different firmness if you can.

Sometimes I play music on arrival, I try to select what I guess the guests will like based on what I know about them. It is a game I play with myself if I have time when I wait.

Basically it is like having an open house when you sell property, you ''sell'' the house every time.

Regarding things being on or off, I find on check out that everything I had on will still be on, everything off will be off. Could be a guest respect thing, as in ''it was on when we came so that must be how she likes it''. So don't leave things on that you don't want on the whole time. Or maybe that's just my listing that it happens to?

[Kelly149]

@Ken28 my opening presentation is very specific (whole house listing guesthouse):

Music on

Temperature comfortable

Lamps on, but not full overhead lights

A couple treats out (chips & salsa, chocolates)

Window curtains open

Water carafe & fresh eggs in the fridge

No smells at all (I prefer neutral over perfumed)

A welcome chalkboard message

If I'm going to meet them, I usually let them have a few minutes to themselves to "meet" the space before I come up to say hello.

That opening feeling of finding everything better or just as lovely as they'd expected, like you, I hope it carries them thru to the end of their stay

[Ken28]

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@Kelly149 wrote: 

If I'm going to meet them, I usually let them have a few minutes to themselves to "meet" the space before I come up to say hello.

Giving them a moment to catch their breath is so simple, yet I never stopped to consider that! I feel like I'm always bombarding them with logistics (key codes, wifi passords, bathroom locations) from the moment they enter the front door. I'll have to force myself to slow down next time so they can feel more relaxed!

[Sarah977]

Hosting a guest space in my home, I'm always here to greet the guests (most I pick up at the bus stop), but when they first arrive, I'll just show them their quarters and point out pertinent things they need to know right away (where the light and fan switches are in their room, the bathroom (private) usage regarding the fact that I'm on a septic system and also need to be somewhat water-conservation aware, and then tell them I'll leave them to get settled and run them through the rest of it, like where to find things in the kitchen, how the door locks work, etc. when they've had a chance to relax.

Fresh flowers are great, not a problem for me as I have a garden. But it also need not cost anything to do something similar if you don't- an arrangement of autumn leaves, attractive foliage, rosehips which might be growing along the side of the road, can be really attractive and welcoming. A friend of mine had a great little business for awhile- she'd spend Friday afternoon driving a short ways out to the countryside, had a few 5 gallons pails in the back with ice cold water in them, gathered wild grasses, interesting foliage and wild flowers, then went early Sat. to the farmers market where she arranged them in bunches and sold them. She'd sell out within an hour, pocket $200-$300 and her only expense was her time and gas money. 

[Louise231]

1. Tuck the bed sheets in. At least under the end of the bed. On the side as well if the cover is wide enough. It's something people never bother to do at home, takes 30 seconds and gives it a bit more of the hotel/i just made the bed brand new for you feel, and it gets rid of a bunch of creases if you don't iron the sheets

2. Open a window. before a guest arrives! (shut it again if you need to because of the cold later) but it's amazing how many smells you don't notice because you're used to them that a guest picks up as soon as they arrive. THEN add the extra smell of your cookies, flowers, ect AFTER the air has been cleared. Layering a whole bunch of smells just makes it seam like you're hiding somthing. And after the guest has been in the home a bit they won't notice the other smells as they creep back in, but on arrival your dog/ last nights cooking/ the shower from the morning/ are all super noticable to a guest.

3. shake out you bathmat so it's got a fresh plumped up feel, rather than a slightly trodden look. This is totally random but even though your bathroom is sparkly clean and you swept and mopped, when you put the bathmat back down lookin weary it spoils the affect.

4. yes de-clutter, sorry but you might love the flower vase with funky patters, but if it's got no flowers it's a  bit redundant and its irreplaceable if a guest breaks it.

5. Match it, or hide it. If you want to add cute little pillows extra on the bed, fine but try and match them to something else in the room, curtains, chair, doesn't matter, but if it's nothing then it probably goes back 4. and you should just de-clutter it.

6. Matching towels, if you have 2 people staying, give them the same colour towels. Yes i know when you use them it's harder to know whose is whose, but getting a blue towel and a red towel makes me feel like i'm staying at my brothers and he gave me whatever he could find. And yes fold them, again at home you fold in half, the half again and just keep going untill it's small right? fold it in 3, creases on the inside, or roll it, (or whatever way you want to go with) but it's something like tucking the bed in. It's fresh and new for you, (yay), something you don't do at home, and it takes 30 seconds.

There's nothing cleaning related here, because i'm assuming that cleaning the bathroom properly, the floor, and the dusting ect are all just norms..

[Ken28]

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@Louise231 wrote:

Matching towels, if you have 2 people staying, give them the same colour towels. Yes i know when you use them it's harder to know whose is whose, but getting a blue towel and a red towel makes me feel like i'm staying at my brothers and he gave me whatever he could find. And yes fold them, again at home you fold in half, the half again and just keep going untill it's small right? fold it in 3, creases on the inside, or roll it, (or whatever way you want to go with) but it's something like tucking the bed in. It's fresh and new for you, (yay), something you don't do at home, and it takes 30 seconds.

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I've always made sure to fold the bath towels in thirds, then I fold the hand towel and wash cloth on the same stack.I confess, I've used multiple towel colors in the past, but only after guests confused their towels with mine... We shared a bathroom back then. I don't share a bathroom anymore, and my new guest bath has multiple towel racks, which should do the trick!)

I often wonder if I should hang the hand towels by the sink, but I resort to leaving them folded to reassure the guest that they're fresh.

On a related note - why do my guests always use their wash cloths as hand towels? Is it because that's the first towel in the stack? Should I put the hand towel on top and the wash cloth in the middle?

[Louise231]

@Ken28Maybe they just don't use wash cloths at home? personally i use makeup wipes/baby wipes for my face and find wash cloths a bit icky. But losts of fancier restaurants now-adays use wash cloths as hand towels to dry hands rather than paper towels, maybe guests are starting to see them like that instead?

I hang a fresh folded hand towel by the sink for each new stay, and leave the towels for the shower folded on a shelf further away, it's folded in 3 agiain and neat so its easy to see it's fresh. It's really obvious once its been used once.

[Louise231]

@Ken28Also random but i have a thing about guests not being able to go near my towel, i feel your pain massivly if a guest used your towel!

i have a seperate bathroom to my guests, but it's the only part if the flat they could access other than their bedroom, (the rest has locks, which are kept locked, just in case! )

But i refuse to leave my towels to dry in the bathroom, just in case a guest comes back drunk and uses my bathroom, (never going to happen but...) i leave them to dry on my wardrobe door in my bedroom, just. in .case. 

Totally nuts, 😉 but urg could not handle a guest using my towel!

[Sarah977]

@Ken28   My experience is that men rarely use washcloths and don't make any distinction in which towels they use for what. It's a towel, right? seems to be the perception. Most women do use face cloths and are well aware of their purpose. In another thread, someone mentioned that some Asian guests actually are accustommed to using hand-towel size as bath towels. 

[Sarah977]

@Louise231   Haha, I do tuck the sheets in nicely on the guest bed, but if I stay somewhere other than my home and the sheets are tucked in, I instantly have to untuck them before going to bed- it drives me bonkers to not be able to stick my feet out! (no way could I ever sleep in a mummy sleeping bag) Personal quirk, I know.

As for the bath mats, I have several and always put a fresh clean one out for new guests, just like I give them clean towels and bedding. The trick is to not use those thick ones, so it's not so much to wash, nor do they get sodden and trodden-looking. I use small rag rugs with a non-slip backing laid under. 

[Louise231]

Haha i do the same with the bed, but when they walk in the room, they're always like 'ooh so tidy' if they had my un-ironed clean but super creasy sheets on the top of the bed instead, they'd be like 'have you washed these?' (YES!)

I do a lot of short stays, washing a bathmat after a one night stay, i just feel is silly, hand & bath towels, and sheets, 100% yes. But bath towels, feels totally redundant.

All my flaws are exposed on CC!

[Ken28]

My things I do are:

* Tidy the fridge. I have a french-door fridge, and I make sure that the left-hand side is empty so they have plenty of room to keep their food. 

* I put a fresh (cold) bottle of water in their rooms.

* If I have any, I'll put flowers in the kitchen and dining rooms.

* I move a few small houseplants into the guest rooms (plants that normally live in the brigher living spaces).

* If they're arriving in the evening, I'll turn on the floor lamp (the one facing the ceiling), and turn off all other lights. I think it makes the room feel more welcoming.

* I point the blinds upward... there's not a lot of light in my bedrooms, and I think that the ceiling reflects the light better than the floor.