Make your guest room feel like a luxury hotel
When I was growing up, my dad excused our stays at dreary roadside motels with one simple comment: “When you’re asleep, it’s exactly the same as the Ritz.” Au contraire, Dad.
Now that I have decades of staying in some of the world’s best hotels under my belt as a travel writer – and own a luxe short-term rental home with my husband in the Colorado mountains – I know that the littlest touches in a guest room can add up in big ways when it comes to your guest’s comfort (yes, even when they’re asleep).
On top of my own experience, I asked professional designers, all consummate hosts, for their best tips on creating a hotel-like guest room in your very own home. Warning: Your houseguests might not want to leave.
Have Wi-Fi passwords and phone chargers handy
“Do unto others, as they say,” says designer and author Charlotte Moss, who regularly hosts guests in her Upper East Side townhouse, and does so with such generosity that friends are often greeted with a bedside arrangement of freshly cut roses from her garden. While the flowers are optional, one thing is truly a must, Moss says: zippy internet access.
“There’s nothing worse than getting in late at night and knowing that you’ve got to answer some emails, and there’s nobody to tell you what the Wi-Fi code is,” she says. To solve that problem in a lasting way in her own guest rooms (yes, she has multiple), Moss enlisted East Hampton’s Vogel Bindery to make small leather-bound journals containing the Wi-Fi password and other household information. Of course, you could more easily – and inexpensively – create a similar touch by printing and framing your Wi-Fi network and password, and placing it on the bedside table.
Along those lines, designer Tina Yaraghi, founder of the Enchanted Home, also keeps an extra phone charger in the wall. “Sometimes people forget [to bring one], and we know people need their electronics to be working,” she says.
Leave plenty of snacks
One of Moss’s most genius guest room hacks is a mini fridge tucked in a cabinet, which she stocks with things her guests enjoy, from fruit to protein bars. “I learn what people like and what they don’t like and what their allergies are,” Moss says. Or, if she doesn’t know a house guest well yet, she goes for crowd pleasers: “There’s always a bottle of white wine, a bottle of red wine, and dried fruit and nuts.”
Even without a fridge, there are myriad ways to keep guests fed and happy. Moss also creates welcome trays with bottles of water, drinking glasses, bowls of fruit (grapes and figs), and candy and cookies.
Dress the bed in layers – with nice sheets
Our bed linens at home are fine, but the ones for guests at our Airbnb feel a bit like crawling into a cloud made of 680-thread-count cotton. “Don’t underestimate the power of really beautiful bedding, especially if it’s ironed,” says designer Catherine Ebert, who also emphasizes the importance of dressing your guest bed in layers, since people sleep at different temperatures. Her formula: ironed sheets; a cotton or wool blanket (depending on the season); a coverlet to make the bed look tailored; and a duvet folded in thirds at the foot of the bed. “And don’t skimp on the pillows, either.”
To make her guest bed feel more hotel-like, designer Sarah Tract adds a flurry of decorative pillows, as well as coasters on the nightstands for fresh glasses of water. Yaraghi gives her guest room scenes a final touch: “I like to spray freshly laundered linens with a fabric spray, which makes the entire room smell so good.”
Supply reading material
Providing good lighting on the bedside tables and a few options for reading in various genres, including poetry and laugh-out-loud humor, is one of Moss’s favorite ways to make guests feel welcome and indulged. “I go through my library, picking out books so they can hunker down in their room if they want,” she says.
They’ll be able to send a note easily, too, from a well-prepped desk: “There are postcards, notecards, stamps and something to write with.”
Supply easy caffeine access
If you’ve ever stumbled bleary-eyed into a friend’s kitchen, searching desperately for the coffee supplies, you’ll understand that offering easy access to caffeine is one of the kindest gestures you can make as a host. Moss sets up a coffee and tea station right in her guest rooms – including a coffee maker, kettle and a selection of teas. The goal is “to let you have coffee in the morning in the privacy of your guest room without having to look at anybody else,” she says.
If your setup doesn’t allow for in-room coffee, you can whip up something indulgent in your kitchen – such as a coffee station on a tray with locally roasted beans, beautiful mugs and your guest’s favorite coffee accoutrement (creamers, sweeteners, etc.). Leaving instructions on how to make the coffee or having it brewed at their chosen time is an added perk.
Arrange tiptop toiletries
Put those sundry mini bottles of shampoos and lotions you’ve been hoarding from hotel stays to good use. Moss recommends leaving a basket in the bathroom or guest room closet with all the things a visitor might forget to bring, such as toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, body lotion, shaving cream, a mini sewing kit, hair dryer, nail file, even nail polish and polish remover.
“Just think, ‘What would I need?’ ” Moss says. “It may sound like a lot of things, but (it) can make a big difference in someone’s comfort.”
And finally: Let them be
A cloying concierge does not last long at any top hotel. To offer truly peerless service to your friends and family, it’s essential that you leave them alone to get some R&R. “Verbalize that they should feel very comfortable to go up to their room whenever they want,” says Yaraghi. “Maybe they want to take an afternoon nap or catch up on work. Though I know I don’t need to say it, sometimes just stating it … makes us all feel at ease. Bottom line is it’s the small things that count, and I want them to depart feeling like they had a little getaway.”