Why We Do What We Do

I thought I'd share a little about my day today with all of you aspiring innkeepers out there.

It started out as kind of a tough day. I'm in the kitchen preparing breakfast when the phone rings and it's the assisted living facility that my elderly mother is in. She has taken another fall. Nothing terrible, but skinned knees, etc. Yesterday's post I talked about does this lifestyle fit you and adding children into the equation. Well, it's also a huge challenge when you have elderly parents.

After the phone call, my mood had definitely changed (and not for the better).

Since we have a romantic niche here at Sandlake Country Inn, we deliver breakfast and hot beverages to our guest's door. We offer a lot of privacy that is not typical in a lot of b&bs. So anyway, I continue preparing breakfast for our full house which is quite a production. When doing breakfast delivery, one of the challenges is that all items need to be ready and hot at a precise time. All of our guests ordered their breakfast to be delivered at 9:00 sooooo, it's 8:58 and I hear from my kitchen that one of the rooms starts to run their double jacuzzi tub. Great! There is no way they're going to be in the tub and enjoy the hot breakfast I've busted my arse to get it to them on time! I deliver the breakfast outside their door and there it sat...10 minutes...15 minutes...25 minutes....35 minutes!!!! I was fuming at this point. I just couldn't believe they could be so rude. Yeah, I know I was definitely on my "high horse"!

At check-out, of course I had my smile back, gave gracious good-byes and breathed a sigh of relieve that everyone left on time. Now it was time to turn over all 4 rooms.

I went into the room of the breakfast offenders and read their diary book and here is what it said:

"We had one fairy-tale experience at this place. If ever there is heaven on earth, I would say that would be the deck of the Starlight Suite. The stars, the breeze and of course the sound of the waves. It was magical. "The Best Romantic Geetaway"! I loved the experience and we will be back! Love, S & P p.s. My husband chose the best gift for my B'day! Thank you!"

Sometimes you get all wrapped up with the everyday tasks and hassles and forget what a difference you can make in people's lives.

Yes, we have the best job in the world.