'Coin cusine' or eating in rooms.

[Cerise]

After reading the various topics on rules and regs, I wonder if I am alone in wishing to discourage people from eating in their rooms.  I don't actually forbid it, but do my best to persuaded people to eat in dining room, on terrace etc.

We do not provide a food preparation area for guests, although they have got a fridge for picnic things and cold drinks and picnic bags and cutlery for their use.  We allow people to picnic on terrace or in the garden and to bring back takeaway pizza etc, but provide them with cutlery, plates, glasses and ask them to eat downstairs.

The house is also our home and we don't eat meals in our bedrooms.  We do have tea and coffee making facilities, but I really don't want to encourage people to eat meals there.  French bread seems to make enough crumbs in the kitchen and dining room without spreading all over the house, and in the summer I feel that it encourages flies, ants, insects of all kinds - and whisper - what about mice if you live an old house.

Am I alone in this stance?  What does everyone else think?

Maggi

 

 

[Quillan]

Hi Maggie,

 

I agree with you but when we had the inspection we had a coin thingy till 30 mins after they left. All you do is tug the old forelock, say yes sir, no sir, then get on as normal (as Miki said). The only guy I know who actually has one in operation full time didn’t get a rating coz he’s got one shower, two toilets and 5 rooms sleeping 14 people.

 

I totally disagree with some of the rules which I think are made by people who have no hotel/B&B experience, are totally stupid government type bureaucrats who probably failed at Grand Ecole and love flexing their muscles. I don’t want people eating in their rooms or cooking meals, I don’t want babies either (nor children come to that) they make so much noise but we have a cot, it was folded in the hall when the inspector came and it’s back down in the garage now. If we get a phone call booking a room and there’s a baby (or child) then we are full.

 

As I said before we want bums in beds and I will do what I need to do to get them and that means getting registered, what happens afterwards is totally different. Couldn’t do what they said for TDH so we stopped, for 3 nights. You just have to pay their game.

 

Don’t get me wrong it’s not at any cost nor are we trying to rip people off, we provide an excellent service, probably more than they will get anywhere else round here, in good clean comfortable surroundings with no corners cut at an excellent price BUT we do it our way which brings people back time after time which is by far our best advertisement.

 

So stick the tables in the room, a microwave near your plates, knifes and forks and when they ask where the guests wash up tell them you do it to make sure they are clean and sterile then point to the dishwasher (don’t forget to have the old dishwasher on boil wash when they come). Then stick them all back down the garage till next years inspection.

 

Chris

[winterbunny]

Cerise you are singing from my hymn sheet.  I don't want to act like an oldfashioned Blackpool landlady (with apologies and all that), but we are bed and breakfast, if we wanted to have them make their own meals, we'd have gone for self catering.  We don't eat in bedrooms and we offer evening meals or tell them where the best restaurants to suit their tastes are and they can have fridge space to put picnic stuff to eat elsewhere - but the problem of mice and ants is a constant battle, and I've been put off by the smell of rancid cheese in the waste paper basket, or even squashy fruit and banana skins unwrapped found in the drawers, crumbs pressed into the sheets etc.  No, now I simply ask them not to partake in this little activity.

Buns

[Dick Smith]

As a customer not a provider I never wanted to eat much in my room - perhaps a biscuit or something. Tea and coffee making equipment was always appreciated, especially if you wake up earlier than breakfast or late at night, but not real food. A small fridge is a nice idea (we never saw one), but most places we stayed had a terrace or such we could use if we wanted a snack.

[Missy]

[quote]After reading the various topics on rules and regs, I wonder if I am alone in wishing to discourage people from eating in their rooms. I don't actually forbid it, but do my best to persuaded people t...[/quote]

Quite agree! The morning 'croissant' on the breakfast tray in bedroom is a pest enough for me!.

What about setting a room for your guests where they can eat or an area of your terrace (if you have) and firmly but nicely tell them on arrival that THIS IS where they can eat their take away! Make it like a nice kitchen diner (NO NO cooker but at least a microwave if there are very young children for which they need to warm up some food and MOST OF ALL a sink available for THEIR washing up!) or else send them to the nearest bistro/restaurant/cafeteria...

Or as I have seen in many UK hotels and B&B :

Put a sharp notice in the bedroom 'NO MEALS TO BE CONSUMED IN THIS ROOM! USE THE DINING ROOM!' That is as sharp as it goes!

Translated it is somewhat softer but still sharp enough..

>>>La consommation de repas ou snack est interdite dans cette chambre. Nous vous prions d'utiliser la salle à manger ou la terrace pour cela!

Avec nos remerciements<<<

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi Maggie,

We've got a "sejour" with a coin cuisine which is for Jacquie to prepare breakfasts, so ostensibly it's not for the guests, although if they're pleasant, we like to be able to offer it as an extra. That means we have never had anyone eating in their (fully carpetted) rooms and would NOT consider permitting it.

What we'd do without such a living area, I don't know.

[Coco]

I'm not even going to consider fences in this case, I most firmly come down on the side of "this is a B&B NOT a self-catering gite"  They get their breakfast, provided by me and they can order an evening meal, prepared by me.  If they want anything else they go to a restaurant and eat it there, if they want a McDonalds, they eat it there or in their car.  I have allowed people to picnic in the garden and have offered glasses for the like (I just don't think anything tastes right out of paper cups) but fortunately it has always been French who have wanted to do this and they always come fully prepared!!  As far as I'm concerned, someone eating their own food in my property is of no benefit to me whatsoever and only creates work for me.  The ONLY exception I have to this is the availability of a microwave to heat up bottles or baby food.