Guests Think Inn At Beulah Beach Is 'Fan'tastic!

As I've mentioned before, one of the best things about being an Innkeeper is all the terrific people we get to meet. People from all over the United States and Europe have come to stay with us. Each and every one of them with wonderful stories. I could sit and listen for hours....sometimes I do (well after the dishes are washed, beds are made, laundry is done, toilets are scrubbed...you get the idea).

My Beach Bum and I so enjoy sitting on the porch on the beautiful summer nights or in the living room in front of the fireplace in the winter months chatting with our guests. Okay and drinking wine as I'm doing here....busted.

Whether it's talking about their families, their businesses, their dreams, their curly hair (see earlier blog "Curl Talk"), commenting on the hysterical scenes as we watch people launching their boats at the launch just down the beach (another future blog idea).....we so enjoy it.

The bottom line is we have come to love each and every one of our guests. They become like family. We miss them when they are gone. We often get letters and emails from past guests to keep us updated on how they are. Keep those cards and letters coming. What's even better is the fact that they come back to stay with us and we get to see them again.

For fun, we keep Guest/Visitors Journals in each of our rooms. Our guests are encouraged to write in the journals - writing down their comments about the Inn, what they did, who they met, their favorite part about their stay here, etc. In this way we, along with future guests, can look at the Journal and see what they thought, where they went, where they ate, etc. It is not uncommon to see things like "the best part of the weekend is she said yes" ....as one couple who stayed with us wrote after getting engaged while here. Yay.

Anyway - we absolutely love to see what people write in the Journals. I admit, it's one of my favorite things. I kid you not! I will run, not walk, RUN (trust me it's not pretty) to see what folks say after they leave. I figure good or bad - it will help us be the best Innkeepers ever. So far it's all been good. But know that I can take bad too. Really I can. Every problem is an opportunity to do something good. Make lemonade out of lemons, etc.

Well - I wanted to share one particular story and entry in our journals. A couple came to stay with us last summer right after we first re-opened the Inn. They are both teachers in Texas and were here in town visiting his elderly mom. I just need to say, we had soooooo much fun with this couple. They wrote in the journal that one of their favorite things was "sitting on the porch drinking wine til ridiculous hours with us, being guinee pigs for my Beach Bum's culinary creations and kayaking on Crystal Lake." See, I have to drink wine with our guests....they like it, they expect it, I love it!

They weren't kidding about the "ridiculous" hours thing though. Do you know how hard it is to get up at 5:30 in the morning after being up until 1:00am to start getting ready for breakfast? Not to mention the fact that my wild curly hair looks even "wilder" in the morning. So to avoid looking like "Medusa" I have to give myself a little leeway to spritz my hair into submission. Okay, okay - I'll get back on point.

Anway it was summer and although the Inn has central airconditioning we get such a nice breeze off the lake that most guests don't want the air on. They prefer to have the windows left open so they can hear the waves and enjoy the fresh air off the lake. Our guests/new friends from Texas were off to go kayaking one morning and we asked how everything was their first night here. They said they loved it and had only one suggestion. They said their only suggestion would be to consider installing ceiling fans in the rooms so they could enjoy the sound of the waves but if there was no breeze off the lake the air would still circulate and they wouldn't need the AC on. We had actually thought about ceiling fans but the lakefront rooms would not allow it given the ceiling height. So......we took their idea/comment and acted on it the best way we could.

Our guests left for kayaking and I made a mad dash to Sam's Club in Traverse City about 30 minutes away. I found these great oscilating tower fans on sale - pictured in the photo to the left. Well, I bought five of them and drove back to the Inn lickety split. I put one in each room and in the room for these particular guests I added a note that read - "Ask and you shall receive".

When our guests came back - I told them I had a surprise for them! I could hear the hysterical laughter as they discovered the fan in their room. It did the trick and all of our future guests have benefited from the suggestion.

We laughed ourselves silly on the porch that night. Making cracks about them being our biggest "FANS".

When they left I walked up, okay fine, I RAN up to clean their room - okay, okay... to READ THE JOURNAL and then CLEAN the room. I doubled over in side splitting laughter - snorting and all - as I read these words:

"We had a FANtastic time at the Inn. We are big FANs of sitting on the porch and watching the sunsets. Yes, it's safe to say that we truly FANcy this place. We have become FANatical in our support of your new endeavor. We particularly appreciate Becca's FANciful decorating and design. The chances of us not returning are inFANtesimal. Thanks most of all for your good cheer and the care you lavish on the Inn and your guests!

Thanks - The Franks."

Now is that sweet or what!?! It still makes me smile. We have the best guests. I love them. Well - I'm off to CLEAN ROOMS and do some READING. Have a FANtabulous day.

Love,

The Lady Of The Lake