Use of kitchen in a B&B

For everything specific to B&Bs as opposed to holiday rentals.
dorie
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Location: Haute Savoie

Use of kitchen in a B&B

Post by dorie »

Hi B&B owners!

We have a chambre d'hote / B&B here in France. We don't let guests use the kitchen (for a number of reasons, we have tried it and it just doesn't work, damage, mess, inconvenience, general hygiene etc)

There are no photos of the kitchen on our site and we call the tariff B&B

Yet we have a lot of enquiries who seem to ask for B&B at first then further down the enquiry chain will ask if they can use the kitchen

We also have people who don't mention it and turn up with a heap of groceries then are shocked they can't use the kitchen.

For me, I find it strange. I wouldn't expect to use a kitchen in a B&B or hotel and likewise wouldn't ask a holiday rental to make me breakfast!

So I am intrigued, is this just us, or do others have this experience?

Happy Saturday!
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

Of course not. Unless it was specified that there was a guest kitchen, although a fridge available for cold drinks would be nice.
I've stayed in one in Champagne region that had one, and an honesty fridge full of their own champagne.
dorie
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Location: Haute Savoie

Post by dorie »

Yep we have a fully stocked fridge, wine beer, cold drinks, snacks etc

Even during their stay we have people come back with food. Our fridge ends up full of random stuff then of course they leave it when they depart (and its never nice stuff!) :)

We have even had people cook when we are out after they have asked and I have said no...
zebedee
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Post by zebedee »

It's not unusual for a basic guest kitchen of sorts in B&Bs in USA.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

zebedee wrote:It's not unusual for a basic guest kitchen of sorts in B&Bs in USA.
This one is not situated in The USA and so do not expect the use of any kitchen.
We have had a comment that tea making facilities would be welcomed. Sorry this is a Casa Rural in Spain we don't do that sort of thing.

Do not let them into the kitchen not even to talk to you. Some areas have to be off limits to guests.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Ecosse
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Post by Ecosse »

I'm surprised by your guests Dorie, as we, too are a gite/chambre d'hotes in Haute Savoie with a kitchen... and not only did this cause great confusion for our local tourist office ('But we don't understand... you must either be a gite with a kitchen and no breakfasts or a chambre d'hotes with breakfasts and no kitchen to fit in with our boxes'), but despite it being advertised, the majority of our guests are pleasantly surprised to find a kitchen... i.e. there's no presumption beforehand.

Our gite's kitchen is completely separate from our own - I certainly wouldn't be happy with anyone helping themselves to my kitchen utensils, herbs, spices etc... that's blurring the lines too much!

Could the name your chambre d'hotes be working against you? Are you called something like, 'Refuge le xxx' or (despite our experience) 'Gite le xxx', which may imply you have a kitchen?
dorie
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Post by dorie »

Neither the name or website implies we have a kitchen and this tends to be European guests not USA (although I still think the clue is in the name, bed & breakfast, that's it!)

I am sure they wouldn't go to a hotel and ask to use the kitchen :lol:

I would love to offer a small kitchen for people to have the option but we just don't have anywhere suitable for it. Plus from experience, people never treat it kindly so I would end up clearing up after everyone (we even had a stack of dirty plates returned to the shelf, under one clean plate one time)

I don't really mind people asking but so many people get difficult when we say no :(
petitbois
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Post by petitbois »

In France - open 14yrs & our very first B&B guests (english) arrived with a car full of beer & wine, which they kept in the bath. All our suites share a terrace area, so by the end of the week they were picnicing & drinking every night, so we had bags of cheese hanging on door handles, milk bottles on antique furniture, melons being cut on the desks I could go on...... Luckily we have a small store room at top of stairs, so we rapidly converted it into a small kitchenette, with tea & coffee facilities & a shared fridge. Over the course of that first season we were asked for use of a microwave, toaster, etc...so the room is now a better equipped kitchenette (without a hob though) & during the season we have a BBQ terrace for B&B guests next to the house. As years have passed we have found Dutch & Belgian guests will always bring provisions, & portable BBQ s have been used causing fire hazards (hence the BBQ garden...) Now the majority of our B&B guests are French & very few use the kitchenette, though they do like the coffee machine. We have 2 rooms with private tea& coffee making facilities which are really only used by British & Dutch guests. In all this time I have never had a French guest enter the premises with a bottle of alcohol, whereas our English speaking guests have the contents of a small bar in their rooms & the fridge. We had a regular couple who used to come for 2 weeks every summer armed with cool boxes full of ready meals (she worked in Waitrose) they never went out, having a late breakfast on us, then a ready meal in the evening. The smell every night of microwaved food filled the house for 2wks - our French guests could not understand why they came!!
dorie
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Post by dorie »

Shouldn't they just rent a gite? But then they would have to clean up after themselves but this way someone else can do it

We tried the BBQ idea, terrible mess of it and the left everything on plates etc for us to clean up before making breakfast the next day :(
petitbois
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Post by petitbois »

gosh, rarely happens here. we provide paper plates etc & cleaning tools, bin in the BBQ garden & so far (6yrs) everyone has cleared away. Guest kitchenette guests are good at clearing away, esp as there are other guests using the facility.
dorie
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Post by dorie »

I think we need more french guests!
petitbois
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Post by petitbois »

they are the best...OK they have their little quirks - late arrivals from Paris, extra bodies, forgotten babies & pets, but on the whole they are the very best. Had a super family this weekend here for a wedding. I have just entered their room (having given them the opportunity for a late checkout to use the pool before heading home) only 1 pillow/person used, rest together with duvets neatly folded in wardrobe, 1 bathtowel & 1 handtowel used for the 3 of them, neatly folded in bath, rest untouched. Bathroom has been wiped clean, loo roll hardly used, never entered the kitchen, nice comments in guest book etc.. They know where they are going, no hand holding, quiet when they return in early hours, hardly use bathroom, polite, friendly, appreciative, buy loads of jam & honey & promise to return.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Said it before on this forum and will say it again. Putting guests from country A,B or C is not great. We are fortunate to receive guests from all over the world. We would dare class country A as having certain behaviour etc.

What one should never do, when working in the hospitality trade is put all your eggs in one basket, in looking for clients from a certain country.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Ecosse
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Post by Ecosse »

I see absolutely nothing wrong with recognising national traits in guests, Casasantoestevo the human race is not a homogenous entity and how you are brought up has a huge bearing on the way you see - and behave - in the world. These differences make the world an interesting place, and one where we can learn a lot from each other.

Problems with this attitude only arise if you tar everyone from a particular country with a particular trait... especially if it's a negative one, because just as the world is not a homogenous entity, neither is the population of any given country.

As hosts, I feel it is important to welcome every guest in the same way, regardless of their nationality... but yes, I rarely need an extra cleaner on standby when we have a group of French guests in for the week :wink:
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

No this conversation is going, like many others on this forum which details those "little things" related to nationalities. It is going the way of critical attacking guests and only categorise them by an accident of history.
On this thread we have established:
Dutch & Belgian guests will always bring provisions. Is that the French, Flemish,or German speaking Belgians?
English speaking guests have the contents of a small bar in their rooms & the fridge. (English speakers? that covers a fair bit of the world's population).
(english) (sic) arrived with a car full of beer & wine, which they kept in the bath.
French guests could not understand (the behaviour of the English)
French- very few use the kitchenette
I have never had a French guest enter the premises with a bottle of alcohol.
I think we need more french (sic)guests! ( assuming that is after the post(s) about just how good the French are.
they are the best (the French). Which just happens to then go on to knock them back with what you call traits.

Reading the above posts we cannot establish any suggestion or any advantage of any nation. If we go back to other threads you will see this sort of subject matter only gets worse. That is quite disrespectful, these are people who the members, of this forum, earn their money from.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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