Guest rooms: Ideas and tips

◼ With the addition of a few niceties, your spare bedroom will be as inviting to visitors as a fine hotel room. - Martha Stewart

Set out essentials such as towels and an alarm clock, then provide little luxuries as well: bottles of water, foil-wrapped chocolates, and a few cut blooms in a vase.

Assemble a small personal library, including some magazines and a daily newspaper (useful for local listings like concerts). A radio for morning news and quiet evening listening is a thoughtful addition; you might also include a portable CD player with a selection of music.

And make certain there is a full-length mirror...

Compile a list of some favorite local places -- restaurants, cafes, museums, antiques shops, movie theaters -- and provide timetables, if appropriate, for buses, ferries, or trains.

Appliance Manual: Guests may be baffled by the nuances of your stereo, climate-control, and burglar-alarm systems. Provide them with a handy guide to using your keypads and remote controls: Type or write instructions, and collect them in a convenient book like the ring binder shown here. Mark sections with tabs for each piece of equipment....

On my list?
A big bed
Memory foam
The usual hotel-room staples
Local info: Here it could be the "Menu of Menus' restaurant listing, 101 ThingsToDo, and any other tourist guide things, maybe a local map.