How to be a great Bed & Breakfast host in Southern Tuscany.

How to make your guests happy in b&b in Southern Tuscany. A list of suggestions for hosting Bed and Breakfast in a room in your home.

If you have a spare room in your home, or, perhaps if you have a cottage in your garden, or a great space in the attic, (or a boat you don't use?) and you have occasionally thought 'hmmmm', you would like to make some money from it, (towards mortgage payments say) by renting - there is a way that you could do this.

And it will make you money,

You can have a wonderful time doing it.

Plus, it is easy.

I found out all about it last year. I advertised on airbnb.com

I put my online ad page together, clicked it off really easily - and 'hey presto'! I was up for business.

People began to book! Before ever having time to worry about what I'd done, there were guests driving up the road, parking their cars by the side of the house, almost - out in the field (because we don't have anywhere else out there BUT fields!). Some brought their kayaks, others their kids, a couple honored us on their honeymoon. Young world travelers arrived with their backpacks from far away places such as New Zealand, Czech Republic, New Hampshire, even closer to home - from Florence. Older people (usually artistic and sensitive characters) were very happy here too.

The sun shone, day after day. My home turned into this true paradise. I got fantastic reviews. I was booked from June to half way through October.

Agreed, I do have a lot going for me, what with the sun shining every day, a huge starry sky at night, wild deer, wild boar, pheasants in the fields round the land here. My location in Southern Tuscany is a beautiful, desirable, hidden, remote, beachy, wild sort of a place - on the wine and food trails. My house is the real Tuscan farmhouse, or 'casale' as it is called in Italy, still in its primitive form (with the cattle barns downstairs). The sun sets opposite us over the loveliest national park called 'the Parco della Maremma', every night

What more could you want?

You want to be made super comfortable too don't you? Wouldn't you like to feel connected physically, geographically, spiritually, to the place where you are staying. You are a traveler passing through, but isn't it true you want to be a 'part of it' if you can, not outside of it, whilst being treated like a guest? I learned that a host's job in and around the house is to try to help their guests feel connected with everything that's going on around them so when they go off for the day, they're PART OF IT ALL!

These are some of the aspects and tips of hosting to Bed and Breakfast guests (in a room in anyone's home, anywhere in the world), that I think make people comfortable and happy.

When they were happy I was too. Isn't that the point of holidays? Aren't they just great?

The beds and linens should really be super comfortable!

A nice clean room is a must, even if it is a simple room. (Better to put money in a comfortable mattress than in the decorative trim).

Have itineraries and phone numbers of things to do, places to go to, ideas for a fantastic day out (which you have tried and selected, which you really know will be the best near you, or not far away). Get informed on the sites and where your guests will want to go. And where you think they'll enjoy that they DON'T know about. Imagine you are them and - well what would you like to do? What is fantastic!

Give yourselves time to get the house all clean, the bathroom spotless, the sheets all ironed, the shopping done, the garden watered...everywhere fresh and pretty. The garden, the plants watered, the pets all fed - before the guests drive up the road!

Set up a time you'd like guests to arrive, say after 4 in the afternoon, so that you will be finished with all the domestic work and might have had time to rest and freshen up.

Have a bottle of cold water and a glass of wine ready to offer in the refrigerator.

Put a small vase of flowers in the bedroom.

Welcome the guests by going out to greet them.

Offer them some refreshment straight away, informally. I do it in the kitchen, as they come in. It's an immediate ice breaker. My companion is always with me, so they feel more assured. He's a reassuring sort of person.

After showing the rooms, explaining how things work, where the bathroom is, leave them to themselves, wherever they want to be for a while, so they feel their privacy and freedom completely.

They'll want to know where to go out to eat that night, so you try to find out what they had in mind (budget, or close to home, or great night out, whatever). Book it for them.

Find out what time they want breakfast, more or less.

Leaving candles for when they come back at night, so there's an intimate feel to the house is pretty and caring. I put candles in the entrance, the kitchen and the bathroom. (Electric lights attract mosquitos here and electricity is very expensive in Italy).

Breakfast is good when it is made with local produce. Here in Italy we serve caffe latte with toast and honey and jams, a local yogurt with fresh fruit (I put in figs or grapes from my tree or neighbors peaches) and sometimes I serve cornetti (which is like a croissant).

Varied breakfast fruits and breads each day is fun. Some hosts might be out to work, so if you are one of them, I heard from their staying guests that they enjoyed helping themselves to what was prepared for them on a tray. And of course who can't make their own coffee?

Discover if guests want to be alone at breakfast or not. Mine usually wanted to know where to go; so at some point during breakfast we'd work a plan out.

Help them make their plans and give them what they need to go, like beach beds, lend the map.

Put music you like on. Then guests put on theirs. I was given a stack of music this year!