Get Ready for Summer Guests

Living in Kelowna, Canada’s Riviera, means that we receive frequent house guests which puts our hostessing skills to the test.

Summer sees all of us hosting more out-of-town guests. Here are some ideas to help make having house guests less stressful by improving your hosting skills.

A Guest's Perspective

The first thing that all great hosts understand is that being a guest in someone else’s home is stressful. Therefore, our first objective is to help alleviate the stress and tension of invading someone else’s space. Conversely, it is just as important to be a good guest and to know how long to stay with out over staying your welcome.

Having house guests is never easy or without effort. Both host and guest need to be conscientiously aware of this but good hosts have an uncanny knack for making it appear effortless.

Test Ride Your Guest Room

• The first step to perfecting your hostess skills is sleeping in the guest room. Don’t wait for a fight with your spouse to try out this bed, do it tonight. It's the best and most effective way to analyze a guest room.
• Compare the bed in your guest room to your favourite hotel. How does your guest bed stack up?
• If possible, invest in a good mattress set. Don’t let the guest room be the dumping ground for replaced mattresses.

Use Quality Linens

• Next, look at your linens - are these hand-me-downs or are they good quality linens?
• Generally the best linens are white with a thread count of at least 300.
• The dyes in darker fabrics tend to make the fibers rough and irritable.
• How about the pillows? Are there extra blankets and pillows in the closet?

Bedside "Musts"

• When I travel, I often need to read before bed in order to help me fall asleep.
• A guest room needs bedside lights, an alarm clock, and even a few good books or magazines left on the dresser.
• I try to leave a few that I know a particular guest will enjoy.

Window Treatments

• Do the window treatments block out the light?
• Studies prove that the best sleep is only found in dark rooms.
• Drapery treatments also offer privacy which will help to make your guests feel safe and secure.

Neutral but Welcoming Decor

Fresh flowers and a couple of treats in case any one gets hungry in the middle of the night are a nice luxury left on the dresser. When decorating the guest room aim to make it neither too feminine nor too masculine. Stick to middle ground so that everyone feels at home.

For great articles, tips, inspiration and more, visit www.casaGURU.com—The smartest way to find licensed and insured house experts—from home stagers to contractors to home Inspectors and realtors.

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