Man
comes to the front door of a guest house and says he's Mr Smith, booked in for
two nights.
Proprietor:
'Would you like me to carry your bag from the car, sir'.
Guest:
'No, she can walk, but you can bring the luggage.'
Innkeeper:
The room is R1000- a night. It's R50- if you make your own bed.
Guest: I'll make my own bed.
Innkeeper: Good. I'll get you some nails and wood.
Paddy is booked into a guest house,and looking
round,notices a sign on the wall. He says to the owner: "What time do you
get in by?" The owner looks confused and says:
"Well ,I am the owner, I live here. Why do you ask?"
Says Paddy,"Well,on that sign there,it says
guests have to be in before you!"
I do believe in laughing through the turmoil of
running a Guest House and let's face it there are lots of opportunity for a good
chuckle every now and then. At the time I was not amused, but I often tell
people about the grading assessor who gave me 3 out of 10 for my furniture.
When I queried it she waved her hand in exasperation toward my antique
furnished room and exclaimed, "but you only have mismatched second
hand furniture". You can only smile...And apply to have a new grading assessor allocated to your establishment.
A fellow guest house owner told me about one of her guests who asked in a
strong ‘Indian’ accent whether her young employee (fresh out of high school,
and not yet with an ear accustomed to foreign accents) had “toilet paper” . The
young lady promptly went to get what she heard the guest had asked for – the
guest was of course very surprised when she returned, as he had in fact asked
for “today’s paper”! Fortunately the guest had a sense of humour and not only
had a good laugh about the incident, but shared the joke with the guest house
owner!
Sometimes my ability to smile lands me in
trouble. I once walked out to greet guests and there they were sitting in
their car, while the husband lets rip with a tongue lashing of note. What to do
- turn around and leave them to it? But what if they take that as inhospitable?
In the end I pretended not to hear them and industriously started deadheading
the nearest daisy bush. When the wife timidly walked toward me I smiled bravely
and told her to come in - I'll make them a nice cup of tea. She explained that
her husband was very upset with her map reading abilities. At that stage Angry Hubby was slamming car doors and huffing and puffing with the luggage, but the
next minute he tells me to wipe that smile of my face! Me? Wipe the smile of my
face? In a flash it was gone. I then calmly pointed toward the Right of Admission sign above my front door and told him to put his luggage right back into the car as he would not be sleeping in my guest house.
Today I can laugh at this incident , but at the time it was not funny - I am in the business of welcoming guests into our home, not chasing them away! But that is the promised blogpost about the day that I fell back on the "right of admission reserved" sign.
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Man comes to the front door of a guest house and says he's Mr Smith, booked in for two nights.
Guest: I'll make my own bed.
Innkeeper: Good. I'll get you some nails and wood.
A fellow guest house owner told me about one of her guests who asked in a strong ‘Indian’ accent whether her young employee (fresh out of high school, and not yet with an ear accustomed to foreign accents) had “toilet paper” . The young lady promptly went to get what she heard the guest had asked for – the guest was of course very surprised when she returned, as he had in fact asked for “today’s paper”! Fortunately the guest had a sense of humour and not only had a good laugh about the incident, but shared the joke with the guest house owner!
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