Your overnight guests are welcome – so let them know it

Ijust received the most timely email from a reader, anonymous for reasons which will soon become clear. She’s obviously a woman of great good sense. I would say that, though, as her request chimes exactly with what I’ve been thinking. She writes: “Please might you consider doing a piece on guest bedrooms? Even the most welcoming and generous friends often have a blind spot about their guest rooms. PS Please don’t put my name to this. It might offend friends!”

I have been wanting to write about this for a good long while, but given the situation and none of us visiting anyone for ages, it wasn’t appropriate. But now, as we all start going a-visiting again, it feels like a good moment.

It is a joy and delight to cosset your best beloveds, to create for them a special retreat both comfortable and personal. Here are my essentials, the things most wanted on voyage.

ESSENTIAL CHECKLIST

A comfortable bed should go without saying, but here we are. I have slept on guest beds so saggy or so hard that in all honesty, I thought they formed part of some sort of chiropractor’s pension fund. Follow the Goldilocks principle and hunt out one that’s just right.

As luxurious bedlinen as you can find. I think thread count is mostly snobby marketing nonsense, but good, cool, smooth sheets and pillowcases are divine. You know it when you feel it. Also add extra blankets for those who feel the cold, and enough pillows to sit up in bed and read. Don’t go over the top with the pillows and throws though. Getting into bed shouldn’t feel like scaling Everest.

Think about the possibility of an electric blanket or hot water bottle, essential for the British summer.

A bedside table, or two bedside tables if you’re hosting a couple. They don’t have to match but they do have to be at the correct height for drinks, lamps, and so on.

Good reading lights, either table lamps or wall lights, which you can turn on and off from the bed.

Plenty of sockets where you need them. By the bed for phone chargers, by the dressing table for hairdryers. An actual hairdryer is a good addition. Also, a mirror with good lighting for make-up and hairdrying.

I leave my guests a pillow spray, a sewing kit, a pad and pencil and a postcard with the WiFi code on it

h An alarm clock that doesn’t make a loud ticking noise. I know everyone uses their phones now, but I was once stuck in an Italian house in the middle of nowhere with a phone charger that decided not to work and a dead phone and no way of knowing what time it was. I slept terribly as I was so terrified of oversleeping and I’ve obsessively travelled with a small clock ever since, and provided one for guests. h A bottle of water and a drinking glass for each guest. I am in two minds on whether to set up a hotel-style tray with a little kettle and coffee and tea. On the one hand it seems naff, but on the other it’s very nice to be able to make one’s self a cup of tea in the middle of the night without having to wander about a strange house, potentially waking others up in the process. I have one in my guest room because it’s at the top of the house, three floors up, and it’s quite a long way to the kitchen. I have a tray with a bone china teapot and mugs, a small cafetière, good coffee and tea, milk in a thermos and a tin of posh biscuits. If that’s naff, oh well, nevermind. I also put a bowl of fruit on the side, and if I know my guest has a particular favourite treat – a flavour of crisps, say, or brand of chocolate – I add that, too. h I put a small basket on the bedside table of useful things – including a pillow spray, a small sewing kit, a block of Post-its and a pen and pencil, a postcard with the WiFi code written on it. It’s thoughtful to place a stack of magazines and books that you think your guest might like somewhere in the room. h If you have enough space, a comfortable chair is an enormous kindness. And of course you should never have a chair without a table for putting a drink on, or a light to read by. h With bathrooms, whether they are en suite or shared family bathrooms, make sure you have enough space on the towel rails and/or hooks on the door for your guest’s towels and robe. Offer lots of towels, too, the fluffier the better. h It may not be possible to put a whole wardrobe and a chest of drawers at your guest’s disposal, but making proper space for their clothes is important. Clear out a drawer, make some room in the wardrobe, put hooks on the back of the door, and make sure there are plenty of hangers (not wire ones).

TEST RUN

Sleep in your own guest room, for at least one night, ideally a whole weekend. It’s the very best way of ensuring comforting perfection.

Do you have a question for Debora or a domestic tip to share? Email her at askdebora@ telegraph.co.uk

Your guests deserve not just a comfy bed but luxurious bed linen, too