Gussie Up Your Guest Room

Every couple of years, my husband and I welcome a visiting journalist into our College Park home for a few days at the beginning of his nine-month fellowship with the University of Maryland.

At the end of the year, I like to ask our fellows to list what they enjoyed most about America.

I wouldn't have been surprised if our friend from drought-plagued Burkina Faso, a landlocked African country that brushes the Sahara Desert, had recalled how he marveled at the glass-enclosed waterfall in the lobby of the Greenbelt Marriott, where we treated him to brunch on his first Sunday in America, or if he had described how much he enjoyed American cheeseburgers, which had added a few pounds to his paunch by the time he flew home after his long stay.

But those weren't first or second or even third on his list of American favorites. What he had liked the best was among his first impressions of our country full of monuments and history and greatness: the unopened bar of Dove soap that I had placed on top of the guest towels on his bed in the green-and-white first-floor room we reserve for company.

Abdoulaye had taken two showers in the first 12 hours he stayed with us: once before bedtime and another as soon as he woke up the next morning. He was mesmerized by our abundance of water and the luxuries it allows: gardens full of flowers, green grass, daily showers.   

So he was touched when, as he said, "You gave me my own soap," as if he never imagined he could own a bar of his own. He even packed it up and took it with him when he left our house and moved into his own apartment.

When company stays overnight at your house, they, too, will remember the little niceties that you offer them to make their stay comfortable. Here are 10 ways to show your company that you care about their comfort:

• 1. If you have the space, convert one room into a true guest bedroom. If the room must double as a sewing room or storage space between visits from the in-laws, remove your stuff before company comes. If you cram your guests onto a sofa bed in the corner of a home office—or if you're constantly entering the room to retrieve your things during the visit—they'll feel like they're invading your space. It's better to offer them a room that feels like theirs. You can clutter it up again after they leave.
• 2. It can be stressful having company—and just as stressful being company. Offer your guests their privacy. If you can, make a guest room on the ground floor. That separates the guests from the main sleeping floor and allows each of you some privacy from the other. If it's near a bathroom, all the better.
• 3. Give the gift of a good night's sleep. Don't force your guests to slumber on the lumpy, worn mattress that you rejected when you bought a new one for your own room. Replace it with a super-comfortable one that won't leave grandma with an aching back. Can't afford a new mattress? Flip the old one before company arrives. Invest in a pillowy mattress cover to make the surface extra soft.
• 4. Make room for guests to do their thing. Clear the closet and empty several dresser drawers so they'll feel free to unpack their clothes. Place a comfy chair in the room, where someone can sit to put on shoes. Hang a full-length mirror.
• 5. Offer extras before you're asked. Equip the room with a water pitcher and glasses, plush towels, an unused bar of soap, extra toothbrushes, an iron and a hand-held hairdryer.
• 6. Touch up the room with luxuries. Make your guest room look as nice as a hotel room with a thick comforter, matching pillow shams, coordinating throw pillows and one set of expensive sheets. If you haven't painted the walls lately, brush on a coat of crisp beige or taupe. Warm up the floor with throw rugs.
• 7. Include in-room entertainment. Stock the room with a few favorite books and magazines. Add a TV and a dorm room-sized refrigerator so your company will feel free to retreat and relax in their PJs with a snack or beverage before bedtime, just as they do at home.
• 8. Consider adding a wireless network at home so guests can log on to the Internet using their own laptops. One homesick fellow we hosted stayed extra nights at our house because his more permanent home away from home didn't have Internet access at first, so he felt cut off from his family in Pakistan.
• 9. Add lighting. Bedside lamps allow your guests can read in bed and turn off the lights without getting up Plug in low-voltage nightlights in the bedroom, hallway and guest bathroom to help company navigate their way in the dark.
• 10. If your guests are regular visitors, frame photos of their last visit and place them around the room. The more personal the touches, the more you show your visitors how happy you are they're spending time with you.

If you are interested in hosting an academic fellow through the University of Maryland's Humphrey Fellows program, contact Lucinda Fleeson.

Sharon O'Malley is a freelance writer who has lived in College Park for 12 years.