TALES FROM THE FRONT DESK

Not the actual hotel where I am employed!

Wow.  That was a busy few weeks for me.  As I had hoped, working the 3-11 hours does allow me to work with my sister on the home staging business.  It does make for some long days, though. 

Things at the hotel have been busier.  We had a group buy out the entire hotel for a few days.  They had some cocktail parties in the lobby bar and I had to play bouncer a time or two when people wandered into the hotel despite the big signs on the door saying it was closed for a private party.  One guy was an ass about it - surprisingly he is a local realtor who I recognized from his picture in all his ads...you would  think having that kind of exposure would make you behave better in public!

Then there was the woman who took one of our Easter decorations up to her room with her.  We though she might just leave it there (she was intoxicated when she came in) but she packed it up and took it with her!  She may notice the extra charge added to her room bill...

The lobby bar seems to be a popular spot for meet ups which could me nothing else but  Match.com arrangements.  The sad thing is how frequently they come in and then want to try to serve themselves from the sideboard we keep with coffee, tea and snacks for our hotel guests.  When told they will be charged for it - they usually just ask for water or have nothing.  How sad that you would arrange to meet someone but we unwilling to buy a drink to  sit over.  (We have decided that there must be some post out there that incorrectly says we offer free beverages in our lobby and these folks come in expecting it.) 

Then there is the regular who occasionally comes in with a much younger woman who spends the night with him.  She is notorious with the staff for her sticky fingers.  She has taken so much stuff (some of which has been charged to his bill) including coming into the continental breakfast repeatedly and emptying the pastries, fruit and even smoked salmon plates.  The manager finally told her that she had to stop or she would have to talk to her gentleman friend about banning her from the hotel.

The most fun for me are the wedding couples arriving in all their finery to check into their honeymoon room.  All but one couple have been amazingly young.  Sometimes they come in and change into street clothes and head out again, more frequently they arrive hungry and we order pizza for them!  All that planning for the perfect wedding meal but no time to eat it! 

No stories tonight, though.  A quiet Easter evening - and then a couple of days off. 

WORKING NIGHT AND DAY

My sister and I had a very specific business plan for our home staging business.  We were not going to invest in a lot of inventory, pay for storage and hauling of furniture - no.  By specializing in owner occupied homes we would keep our overhead low and have a niche business.  Well, that lasted for 5 jobs.  On the sixth job, when asked to stage an empty house - we said yes. 

We are not sure why we said yes; does anyone in business manage to stick with their business plan?  We decided to go for it and see what we could do with a mix of our current inventory and a few pieces which made sense to purchase and keep. 

For two weeks I have been scouring Craigslist, making calls and sending e-mails in search of some specific items we needed - like a prop TV set.  I have been through furniture warehouses and every Ross, Home Goods, Marshall's, Target, and TJ Maxx in a 30 mile radius.  We have purchased and returned and re-shopped as we altered our plan and adjusted our budget.  We had a signed contract on April 11 and had to have the house furnished and ready for market in 10 days.

Then we lugged and hauled furniture, rugs, beds,  mirrors, towels, pillows, lamps, art and bedding into the little house and set it up.  It looks pretty great if we do say so ourselves...we hope it sells quickly so we get the stuff back into our hands to use again.  We are still adding up the receipts to see if we made any money...but it has been quite an adventure to furnish a house in 10 days on a budget of about $1800.00!

More info and Before & After photos will be on my Dwell to Sell blog and website.  Still looking for a prop TV...anyone have one for sale?  Cheap?!