welcome packs

[goosie]

I agree with your OH Elena (sorry!) I would much rather have s surprise of fresh fruit during my stay picked from your garden than a shop-bought box of chocolates when I arrive. Maybe I'm not a fussy renter?

[catherinedonegal]

i agree with your oh too elena - i would love to stay in a place where the owner gave bits of fresh fruit and veg during the stay. it just seems so natural and welcoming and not at all staged (which those of us with less resources to hand, or living on site, will have to resort to).

[Giddy Goat]

we left a lovely Thorton's Easter Egg for our Easter booking and although we got great feedback the egg wasn't mentioned.

Until this year our welcome basket has included a decent bottle of champagne for each group. Only one family has ever mentioned it - that's in three years of renting!

So this year GG has put her hoof down and is leaving a bottle of good local red wine in the basket with the other contributions - and returning guests only will receive the champers.

And if the pound continues to drop, a nice photograph of a basket may have to do in lieu!

[Hells Bells]

The only mention of our welcome bottle of wine has been from our French visitors who have all appreciated it.

[Mouse]

This year I'm supplying only stuff like oils, vinegar, sugar, tea, coffee, milk, fruit juice & water plus our thank you gift of a couple of bottles of cava.
(plus they do also get toilet rolls, tissues & soap etc for all their stay)

I'm firmly of the belief that anything other than that isn't really appreciated, people visiting here see the shopping as part of their holiday - so that's fine by me.
I do, like LV, offer to do a small shop for people who arrive after the supermarket is closed and that does seem appreciated.

I like the idea of dried pasta and sauce tho', even if its not eaten its easily passed on for the next guests.

Mouse
x

[la vache!]

What sort of tea and coffee do you all supply? And is it in unopened boxes? I've got to be particularly careful this year and a box of PG Tips in the local supermarket cost's a fortune, but the Liptons so weak it is horrible. Nescafé Gold Blend is the only instant coffee I'd drink, but that isn't cheap either.

[pepsipuss]

We are always being asked by clients if there is anything they can bring from England and the answer is nearly always tea. We make it clear we are willing to pay and sometimes they allow us to and sometimes not. Returning visitors always seem to bring them (or Marmite) as a gift so we are now well stocked up. We usually get Tesco red label which comes in foil packs inside large boxes and if it is a lot of people we put in a whole pack or if not just a few in a jar.

For coffee, we use a reasonable local one which comes in different sizes of jar - we put in a small jar full which we have refilled from a large one!

[Mouse]

LV I have one of those glass kitchen jars which I fill with english tea bags, the price isn't too bad here...then as guests buy the fruit ones and leave half empty boxes I pile those in another jar.

Coffee is a bugbear between me and Mr M. He likes the really strong spanish ground coffee (called Bonka! ) after guests stop laughing at the name, they open the packet, use it once and then I end up throwing the rest away. So this year I'm getting a smoother blend (even tho' its more expensive)

I'm ditching the coffee machine (a pain to clean on changeover, and inevitably gets left for days with cold coffee in it) and have bought 2 large cafetieres so I can just swop them over on changeover and clean the dirty one at my leisure (in theory)

Mouse
x

[Margaret]

Hope I am not complicating this topic but it seems to me that we have 2 separate strands here which I at least am confused over.

I call 'welcome pack' the supplies which we put into the apartment before guests arrive. These include enough for their first breakfast but don't include treats as such. I think it is essential for people to know before they come what is provided - I am quite happy for them to arrive with packs of loos rolls but it is not essential. Also, they tend to arrive after the shops have shut, asking where they can buy stuff for breakfast when we have almost everything here they can need - either in their apartment or available to buy.

Then there are the fun extras, which I agree should be a surprise - bottle of wine, a cake, fresh fruit from the orchard, whatever.

Would it perhaps be useful to discuss the 2 things separately?

[Ju]

What sort of tea and coffee do you all supply? And is it in unopened boxes? I've got to be particularly careful this year and a box of PG Tips in the local supermarket cost's a fortune, but the Liptons so weak it is horrible. Nescafé Gold Blend is the only instant coffee I'd drink, but that isn't cheap either.

I buy large packs of PG tips from the UK (or get family to bring them) and then put them into a jar in the gites. We leave an unopened packet of good quality, fair trade, ground coffee. This mostly used, but as it is the same brand we use ourselves any leftovers go straight in our own jar.

I don't leave instant coffee. I can't stand the stuff myself, and any that the guests leave goes straight in the bin.

[la vache!]

I've just found some Tetley English Breakfast Tea, so I'll try that myself and if it is OK, put that in the gites. The water is so soft here that tea tastes much stronger anyway.
Ju, do your guests use the ground coffee? Nine times out of 10, the cafetières are never touched by UK guests in the gites, so I assume they mostly drink instant coffee.
I've decided to leave tea, coffee (of some sort) and milk this year as a result of this thread. The milk I got for today's guests was very much appreciated as they had all arrived after the supermarket shut, they had brought something to eat this evening and milk was all the needed (although I think the wine was appreciated after a very long drive, too).

[Ju]

Yes, I would sy 9 times out of ten the coffee is used, and at least 6 out of ten use it up.

i don't have cafetieres though, just filter machines. I leave filters too of course.

The tetley breakfast tea you can get in france is foul!

[la vache!]

i don't have cafetieres though, just filter machines. I leave filters too of course.

The tetley breakfast tea you can get in france is foul!

When I wrote cafetières, I meant the filter machines, it is just what I know them as that is what they are in French (not the glass pots with the thing you press down on, which the French despise).
I'll try the Tetley breakfast tea myself, but the PG Tips on the English shelf here costs about 3 times as much and I can't afford that. There is Twinings too, as well as Liptons, I guess I should taste them all before deciding what to do.

[J&J]

Susan If it's the Tetley breakfast tea in the blue box it's disgusting!
We used to go to Makro in the UK and buy a big box of 250 individually prettily wrapped PG Tips bags, around £12.00 if I remember correctly. We then threw away the box and transported them in a carrier bag over to France. If I am allowed to bring them hand luggage on Ryanair I can bring you 250 in three weeks' time. They were very popular with the guests, 90% disappeared. I agree, the PG Tips in Super U are far too expensive'

Judith

[la vache!]

Susan If it's the Tetley breakfast tea in the blue box it's disgusting!

Oh well, as guests are coming to France for their holiday, they will just have to make do with whatever the French do. I rarely go back to the UK and my OH doesn't have enough space in his rucksack to bring over endless teabags for guests (as well as my cheddar and my own PG Tips). I will just state that the tea provided is not real English tea so they know to bring their own if they want to. When in Rome, and all that.