Mommy checks in at her exclusive, VIP hotel.
Ever since I started working for Westin Hotels and Resorts, my two children, Shane and Brooke, have become comically obsessed with hotels. Whenever I travel, they want to know my room number, how many floors the hotel has, and whether or not there’s a pool. We also have to FaceTime so they can see the view from my room. Regardless of the vista, the response is always the same, “Wooooooahhhhh.”
Two years ago, one week before Mother’s Day and pressed for time, Shane, Brooke and I decided to convert our house into a hotel for the weekend rather than take Mommy to a hotel. We’d each become a hotel employee for the entire weekend. We named it “The Harding Hotel” after the street where we live. As soon as Rachel returned home from work on Friday of Mother’s Day Weekend, we happily checked in our first and only VIP guest.
The Harding Hotel will open for business again this Friday for the third consecutive year. Seeing our children understand the importance of giving back to the individual who does so much for our family has been very rewarding. Equally gratifying is how seriously the kids take their roles. It doesn’t hurt that their positions are more important than mine. I’m the Director of Operations while they both carry the title of General Manager. They take great pleasure in being able to boss Daddy around for 48 hours.
If you’d like to turn your home into a hotel for a loved one this weekend, here are 10 easy steps:
1) Create Name Tags. Take a bad picture of yourself and your kids, assign the hotel job title and in one sentence write why you love your guest. Then get the badges laminated which will make this official business.
This hotel manager means business.
2) Create a custom itinerary. The more activities you can plan for the weekend, the better. Be the best concierge ever, even if your job title isn’t concierge. Consider laminating the itinerary also.
3) Buy mini chocolates. Putting chocolates on every pillow in our house is my kids’ favorite part. Beware: chocolates may go missing throughout the weekend. Don’t laminate the chocolates.
4) Put a room number on every door inside your house. Or maybe it’s not numbers, but something like an animal. I saw that in Vegas, where a hotel had room numbers AND an animal, which can be helpful at 2 a.m.
5) Create a breakfast menu. When your guest checks in give them the laminated menu so you know what you need to get at the grocery store. Prepare breakfast on both mornings.
6) Customize a “Do Not Disturb Sign,” and enforce the rule whenever the sign is displayed on the VIP’s door.
7) Make room keys. For everyone, not just the guest. Shane and Brooke take great pride in pretending to open their bedroom doors with pieces of paper they designed to be room keys.
Room key design by Brooke Heuisler. Guess which animal she didn’t draw.
8) Make room keys for anyone who visits. If you are having any friends visit, they deserve room keys also. The delight of unsuspecting guests who had to check in with Shane and Brooke upon entering our “hotel” was a special treat.
9) Have a front desk. Our front desk is a random table that sits in our living room all year long, and now I think its only purpose is to be the front desk on Mother’s Day Weekend.
10) Write a note. Handwritten notes are becoming obsolete. Write a thoughtful note on why you’re so honored to have this guest stay with you and then sign it from “The Director of Operations” or whatever title you bestow upon yourself.
When we created The Harding Hotel, my expectations were minimal. We threw this together in about two days and, in hindsight, that was the appeal of the operation. Turning your home into a hotel doesn’t have to be elaborate; it just has to be unique to the individual whom you are celebrating. Make the playroom a spa, take them for a run and call yourself a Run Concierge and encourage your kids to ask for tips. Just have fun and include the young ones whenever possible because they often have the most creative ideas, like forcing the guest to order bacon both mornings. They also have radiant, genuine enthusiasm which always makes for a good stay.
Happy Mother’s Day to every Mother out there. The world is truly better because of each and every one of you.