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Hosting family and friends when they’re in town is literally a pastime for my husband and I. When we have visitors, making sure they’re delighted, relaxed and comfortable is very important to us! We always want our guests to feel like each stay in our home feels like a hotel. Over the years, there are a few personal touches I’ve made to our guest bedroom decor and bathroom to make each stay cozy and relaxing. Continue reading to learn my guide for not only getting your guest room ready, but also, personal touches you can add to make each stay unique.
Tip 1: Create a Plush Inviting Bed Scape
I recommend creating an inviting bed-scape so your guests automatically want to relax and unwind after a long day of travel. To do this, I create a layered look with plush pillows, fresh and soft linen, layered blankets so they can find their temperature comfort level and neutral colors that are soothing.
Some of my favorite sheets are these from Amazon. They come with deep pockets, they’re soft with a decent thread count and their durable after many washes. A few other bed accessories are:
- Two 24″x24″ European Pillows
- Two 22″x22″ Velvet White Pillow Covers for the European Pillows (Tip: I always recommend going a size down in decorative pillow covers to make the pillows appear more plush!)
- Plush Queen Sized Pillows for Sleeping
- Neutral Metallic Wall Art
- Satin Pillow Case
Tip 2: Create a Welcome Basket
One of my close girlfriends introduced me to the welcome basket concept and I’ve loved it ever since! They’re super easy to put together and your guests will love you for making one! I recommend filling this basket with little snacks, sweets, water, toiletries and more! Here’s a checklist of what we keep in our guest welcome basket:
Welcome Basket Checklist:
- Woven Basket (Shop here)
- Wi-Fi Password Sign (Shop here)
- Bottled Water (still and / or sparkling options)
- Salty snacks such as a bag of popcorn, almonds or trail mix
- Sweet snacks such as gummy bears, chocolate or cookies
- Socks for his / hers
- Disposable Slippers (Shop here)
- Eye mask (Shop here)
- Lint roller (Shop here)
- Gum
- Cough drops
- Vitamin C packs
- Chapstick
- Travel Floss (Shop here)
- Medicine
- Makeup remover wipes
- Poo Pourri Travel Size Spray (Shop here)
- Manicure set (Shop here)
- Sewing kit with safety pins (Shop here)
- Hair scrunchies (Shop here)
- Disinfecting wipes
- Hand Sanitizer
- City guide or magazine
- Dual Phone Charging Cables (Apple & Android – Shop here)
- Facial Masks (Shop here)
welcome basket checklist
FREE DOWNLOAD
This is a helpful downloadable checklist you can print and reuse time and time again to build the ultimate guest basket!
Tip: 3 Provide a Sign with the WiFi Name & PW
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve stayed at someone’s house and felt bad for asking what the WiFi password was at a strange hour! So to make things convenient for your guests, why not make a handy sign for them to reference? We purchased this one from Amazon for our guest room:
Tip 4: Provide a Full a Length Mirror
While bathroom mirrors are nice, they’re often not long enough for your guests to see their full outfit. If you plan on going out, your guests will thank you for providing a convenient full length mirror! Here’s the one we have in our guest bedroom from Ikea:
Tip 5: Provide Luggage Racks
While there’s nothing wrong with placing suitcases on the ground, it’s much more convenient for your guests to have something to place their suitcases on so they do not have to bend over on the ground. I also recommend providing two in case you host more than one person. I often notice hotels and other locations place one luggage rack in a room meant for more than one traveler, which has always puzzled me!
Shop these durable racks here on Amazon.
Tip 6: Provide Optional Satin Pillow Cases For the Ladies
My ladies will understand this tip , and will thank you – provide a silk/satin pillow case for them to optionally use. Not only are silk/satin pillow cases comfortable, they’re better for your skin and hair as they do not create as much friction throughout the night as cotton. Tip: I usually provide a darker color satin pillow case in case someone has oil or hair products on their hair.
Tip 7: Provide Clean White Towels
As you’ve probably read in my Bathroom Remodel post, I prefer placing white towels in the bathroom for a number of reasons. White towels are easy to care for and stay the cleanest in my opinion because they can be washed with bleach. When neatly folded or rolled, they enhance your bathroom’s appearance of feeling clean.
Tip 8: Make Sure There’s a Place To Charge Electronics
There’s nothing worse after a long day of travel than carrying around a cell phone or tablet that’s almost dead, and staying in a room with limited power outlets. Over the years, I’ve evolved our guest room to provide multiple power plug options. One way is by placing a lamp on the nightstand that has power and USB plug options as shown in the photo below. Another option is by placing a digital clock on the nightstand with multiple USB port options for our guests.
Tip 9: Towel Racks!
A random pet peeve of mine is staying at a place where there’s no where to hang our wet towels! Wet towels should be hung to dry and air out properly. If the towel racks in the guest bedroom are already occupied with other towels, or better yet, there isn’t a towel rack in the guest bathroom, the most convenient option you can provide for your guest is to purchase a towel rack that can conveniently hang on the back of the bathroom door.
Tip 10: Fan Options
I’m not sure if this is a cultural thing, but so many of my friends and I love to sleep with a fan. Some guests enjoy wrapping up with a warm blanket while the ceiling fan runs, while others enjoy the white noise of a floor fan running at night. We’ve provided both options in our guest bedroom. The ceiling fan is ran by a remote that is conveniently stored on the night stand, the other floor fan is small and can fit into any corner.
Bonus Tip: Automated Blinds
Elevate the comfort of your guest bedroom by having custom automated shades installed for the window. You can measure and order blackout shades in a variety of colors to match your bedroom decor. We ordered ours here from Select Blinds. Upon receipt, these blinds are easy to install and guests can control the height of the blinds with a remote control.
My Favorite Amazon Finds For Our Guest Room:
22″x22″ Pack of 2 Pure White Velvet Pillow Covers (More color options available)
I luv how thoughtful each of the add ins for the guest room are! I’ve moved into a three bedroom house of my own roughly a year and a half ago and my intention was to always turn one if the rooms into a guest room. But I’ve yet to get around to completing it, because life keeps getting in the way. But this post has given me some ideas for it; so that’s a good step! Thank you so much for sharing!
I really love these ideas. Just because you have a guest bedroom doesn’t mean it should be sparse. In fact, I think it’s even more important to make it extra inviting.
That’s a good idea to leave the password. I’ve had family wake me up in the middle of the night to get the Wifi password.
Dollar Tree actually makes adorable signs that you can put the password on. You can hang them in a room, and they make lovely decor. The Password area is a chalkboard so it can be changed if needed.
Oh…I so much love the idea of the welcome basket! I think I should do the same for my own room at home!
Great ideas and love the basket one. We can try for our guest room because it can be helpful to whoever come to sleepover.
Such wonderful ideas here! A welcome basket sounds like a wonderful thing to do
Great ideas and will make the holiday even better
Thank you!
I would love to add a slim Keurig and a table top mini fridge to mine. That way my guests can enjoy a nice cup of coffee without leaving the room! Put some creamers and bottles water in the fridge. On the table the Keurig on a coffee tray, with a candy jar from Dollar Tree for the Kcups, and containers for sugars/sweetener. Add a cup with some stirrers or spoons.