Tips for Hosting Guests in Your New Home
If you are reading this post, it means that the difficult part is probably over and the strictly fun part can begin. You have probably already signed the mortgage or the lease on your new home! This is very exciting, and you should be proud of yourself. Moving into a new space provides a really great feeling, and the control that you have over your new home is probably very refreshing. If you previously lived in an apartment or had roommates, your experience was likely very different. If you just bought your home, you now have full control over what happens to it. You can choose the color of paint on the walls, the flooring style, the decor, and everything.
You will likely spend days, if not weeks, deciding what to do with some of your new spaces. Should you turn one of the spare rooms into an office? How should you configure the dining room? The possibilities of layouts and design schemes are literally endless, and you should be in no rush to decide what to do with all of this newly acquired space.
If you have a spare bedroom, there are so many things that you can do with it. You can turn it into an office, like we mentioned. You can use it as a den. Or, most commonly, you can turn it into a guest room! Having a guest room gives you the opportunity to present guests with their own space when they visit you, rather than offering them the couch. While the couch is nice, nothing beats having a bed to sleep in!
While hosting is a lot of fun, it can also be a challenge. Sure, you could give them the grand tour of the house, show them to the couch, and call it a day. However, if you take the time to invest in being a good host, odds are you will make a really strong impression on your guests, whether they are family members, friends, or something else.
This post is going to take a look at some ways you can go above and beyond when hosting guests in your home, from thoughtful touches to items to have on hand. If you think anything is missing from this list, let us know!
Why is Creating a Good Impression when Hosting Important?
The first thing to really spell out in this post is why you should put all the effort in as a host. After all, if you are opening up your home to someone as a guest, is that not enough? Aren’t you the one already going over the top?
Yes, you are. However, if your guest is someone who you love and care for, odds are you want to provide them with a good time, leave them with a good impression, and make memories with them that last a lifetime! While your relationship is already enough to form these great memories, providing them with a memorable guest experience is one way to really make their time with you stand out in their memory and open them up to having a great time.
When you visit someone as a guest, you never want to be an inconvenience. Many people often feel anxious before staying with a friend or loved one because they don’t want to be a burden. Making premeditated effort as a host shows your guest that they are not a burden at all, and that their presence is a gift and a blessing to you. This helps to act as an icebreaker and provide an awesome experience for both the guest and the host.
Ways to Impress Your Guests when Hosting Them Overnight
1. Create a Welcome Basket for Them
This tip is sure to make your guests have a memorable experience. Have you ever arrived at a hotel, bed and breakfast, or friend’s home and been greeted with a personalized welcome basket? This is one of the best ways to make guests feel like they matter and that their visit was happily anticipated by you. Providing guests with a welcome basket shows effort and premeditation, which really helps guests to ease into their new temporary living space.
This welcome basket can include many things, but there are a few staples that it ought to have. Firstly, the welcome basket should be topped with a piece of paper laying out all important information to know about the house, including the Wi-Fi password and the garage code if necessary. Other great things to include in the basket are fresh towels, toiletries, reading materials, and thoughtful gifts to take home or items to use during the stay.
2. Ensure that the Guest Space is Entirely Theirs
This point is crucial and should operate as a bare minimum. When you invite guests into your home and offer them their own place to stay, you should make sure that the space truly is entirely theirs. This is hard to do if your guest is sleeping on the living room couch, but it is much easier if your guest is staying in a guest room. All clutter should be removed from the room, drawers should be empty, and there should be no need to enter the space at all while they are visiting. Removing all personal items that you may need while they are visiting before they arrive is a good idea, and emptying closets is a nice touch, too, when possible.
3. Provide Local Touches
Decorating your guest room and providing your guests with a local flare is always a really nice touch. If you live near the beach, this could mean decorating the room with a beach theme. If you live in the city, this could mean decorating the room with city-specific details. Also, any gifts or items that you provide to your guests can be locally sourced or locally focused. Providing guests with soaps and shampoos from a local boutique and snacks from a locally famous eatery is a really nice and thoughtful touch and providing them with a map of the local area or a list of the best things to do nearby is a thoughtful amenity as well.
4. Consider More than Just Appearance
Making sure that your guest’s space is visually appealing is very important. You want to offer them a clean space that is free of dirt, dust, and clutter. However, sight is only one of five senses! To go above and beyond as a host, it is a good idea to brainstorm ways to appeal to more than just the sense of sight. From a radio or speaker with calming music, to incense, candles, or air fresheners, to thoughtful snacks, to fluffy blankets and pillows, there are ways that you can appeal to each one of your guest’s five senses. This provides your guest with a wholly appealing experience and is sure to leave them with a great impression and a strong desire to come back!
5. Provide Fresh and Appropriate Bedding and Towels
Towels and linens should be one of the focal points of any hosting experience, and there are two key words to remember: fresh and appropriate. In this case, the word fresh refers to recently washed, nicely folded towels and recently washed, freshly made sheets and pillowcases. The word appropriate applies to the appearance of the sheets and towels themselves. Guests should be treated with soft sheets and towels, and they should typically be a solid color – white if possible. Repurposing your teenager’s old Scooby Doo comforter and pink polka dot sheets is not ideal, and hanging Barbie beach towels in the bathroom for your guests is suboptimal as well. Going out of your way to provide guests with fresh, white towels and sheets creates an impression of cleanliness and freshness that is sure to stick with them after they leave.
6. Clean all Areas that Guests Will Use
This is an extension of one of the points above. While you want to clean the whole house for the grand tour, you want to focus extra on the areas that the guest will be using more frequently. While cleaning the guest room is obvious, dedicating time to the main bathroom that they will use, the kitchen and breakfast areas, and the living room is important, too. If your main goal is to impress your guests, making sure that the toilets are scrubbed, the soaps are stocked, the towels are fresh, and the refrigerator is clean and fresh smelling is a good place to start.
7. Provide Your Guests with a Detailed Tour
Giving your guests a tour of your home is usually one of the first things that you do when you host them, but many hosts fail to go into sufficient detail. While it is important that they see each of the rooms, it is also important to point out where you keep the extra towels, where the thermostat is and how to adjust it, where cups and plates are stored, and more. Anticipating your guest’s questions helps them to have a more care-free stay, and you can easily address these questions during the initial tour of your home.
8. Consider Providing Device Chargers
If you know what type of phone your guest has, providing them with a phone charger at their bedside nightstand is an extremely thoughtful gesture. While they will likely bring their own anyway, providing them with a phone charger shows a high level of attention to detail and once again shows how much thought and effort you put into their stay. Providing them with a phone charger that matches their phone type is a very personal touch that can leave a lasting impression on them after they are gone.
9. Ensure that Guests Have Enough Pillows and Blankets
While there will likely already be pillows and blankets on the bed, ensuring that there are extras of both is a very considerate gesture. Some people prefer to be extra warm while they sleep, and providing them with additional blankets is a way to offer them warmth without altering the temperature of the entire house. Additionally, everyone has their own preferences when it comes to pillow firmness, and providing your guest with pillows of different firmness levels will help them to sleep more comfortably and soundly through the night.
10. Put Yourself in Your Guest’s Shoes
Our final tip is just to put yourself in your guest’s shoes and critically think about things you would want or things that would really impress you as a guest. This is often the best way to think of ways to go the extra mile when hosting. Have you ever stayed at a place that really left a lasting impression on you? Maybe it was because of a good welcome basket, or a bathrobe and slippers, a tray of snacks left on the bed, or something else. Whatever it may have been, trying to recreate this impression for your guests is often a challenge, and putting yourself in their shoes is a way that you can effectively brainstorm ways to rise to the occasion.
Thanks for reading our post with tips for hosting guests in your new home! Hosting can be a very exciting occasion, but it can often be intimidating if you are doing it for the first time. If you recently bought your first home with a guest room, it is likely that you have never really been able to go above and beyond as a host before. Hopefully these tips enable you to create a lasting impression on your guests and make memories that last a lifetime while they visit. If you have any questions about anything in in this post, or if you think we missed anything, be sure to reach out and let us know!
If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.
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