Contests

Day 80: Cottage Guest Etiquette

Here are a few pointers on how to be such a gracious guest that you get invited back. This could also be called "Tough Love for Cottage Guests".
The most important thing to understand is that no matter how great the experience is for you, this is still work for your host. Work that is on their time, at their paradise. But that work can be greatly minimized and a pleasure for your host if you just follow a few basic rules of etiquette.

1. Eating is one of the major activities at any cottage. Meals, snacks, pre meal snacks, after meal snacks, it's an orgy of food. Ask what the host would like you to bring. If they say that famous Canadian line "Nothing" they're lying. It could just be that they haven't thought that far in advance. But ask. Fridge space is usually at a premium in cottage country. If you brought a ton of perishables the host didn't need; they are going to perish. Instead offer to bring up a dinner complete with beverages. Bring enough for everyone!
You will surely be invited back if you offer, in advance, to take care of dinner one night and breakfast, for example.

2. Bring a thank you gift. This doesn't mean a cute little knick knack that looks like a beaver relieving himself in the bushes. Best bets – chocolates, alcohol, and maybe flowers (see below for gift ideas).

3. Never show up early. I usually call just as we are leaving so our friends will have a vague idea when we will get there.

4. When being at the cottage includes kids most of the rules are slightly different. Kids want to be busy, so plan activities that involve them. This doesn't mean packing up the X-Box and plugging them in all weekend. Bring board games, plan a scavenger hunt, or organize a cottage Regatta. One year we had a paddle boat race complete with prizes.

5. If you are invited don't assume that includes anyone else. Bringing along another guest is a guarantee you and your buddy won't be back. Which brings us to your pet, bringing your beloved Golden Lab, Charlie, who smells like a dead squirrel, to a cottage that is not dog friendly will secure that you won't be back.

6. Don't go rummaging willy nilly through the fridge making yourself something to eat. You may have just eaten what your host had planned for tomorrow night's supper. Asking the host what's for dinner right after lunch is also considered bad form as well.

7. Boats and most water toys of any kind are expensive to run. Going out on the Sea-do may be a blast for you, but remember they don't run on air. Boat gas is very expensive. Offer to pay for a full tank of gas. If they don't let you, at least you offered and they won't think you are an inconsiderate.

8. Respect that although you are just there for a couple of days the people who own the place are there most of the season, so don't be leaving wet bathing suits or towels on the floor. Better yet, be extremely tidy. No one ever gets demerit points for being tidy.

9. Bring life jackets for kids: We always have enough life jackets for adults, but smaller kids must have their own. Make sure you've dealt with this before you show up so that there isn't an emergency run to find life jackets (or worse yet, the planned  boat ride or tubing can't happen because the kids don't have life jackets).
Same goes with having enough sunblock, bug spray and towels. You don't want to be asking your host to borrow theirs.

10. When you receive an invite it always includes an arrival and departure time. "We'd love to have you for the weekend. How about coming up Friday night until lunch-time on Sunday." Leave on the predetermined designated day. Asking to stay longer or just not getting off the lawn chair will guarantee that this will be your last weekend there.

11. Bring your own towels and bedding. Cottagers don't offer laundry service. They usually have a septic system and don't want to be doing your laundry, or worse having to run into town to use the launderette for your laundry. Your hosts are not your parents or the owners of a B&B. They don't have to take care of you.

12. If you want to be a good guest, do the dishes.

13. Don't freak out if there is no running water, which means no flushing toilets. Think pioneer and don't drink any fluids after 7:00 pm unless you like stumbling out there in the dark searching for the wee little house in the woods.

Bottom line, bring stuff , leave the extras, and have fun.

If you're still trying to figure out what to bring, here is a list of suggestions:

• Do they have a Keirig (or similar type of coffee maker?) Bring a couple boxes with an assortment of coffees/teas that they like.
• You don't bake or have time to bake? Just bring some nice goodies from a local bake shop.
• Does your host have filtered water? If not, bring water. They always need drinkable water.
• At least one or two meals. Really stumped, don't cook, or you're short for time? Costco always has prepped salads, chopped veggies, and great meat.
• Want to bring a gift? Bring something that they can use for the cottage. Never been there before? The Cottage Bible makes a fantastic gift for newer cottagers, or a gift certificate for summer reading.
• Help stack firewood, or help with winterizing our boat. That's a gift that you just can't buy.
• Is the person who is cooking for you a foodie? Buy them a new cookbook, and even better, a barbecue cookbook. My cousin gave us this with a lovely picture frame that looks like a Muskoka/Adirondack chair with the William Sonoma Barbecue Bible. 
• My Mom understands my love of making little nibbles, dips, cocktails. So she has brought lovely dishes for cold dips, for hot dips, and a cocktail recipe book.
• Other gifts that I have appreciated and loved: Beach towels (we always seem to need them), napkins, both disposable and cloth, platters for nibbles.
• And speaking of nibbles, any snacks work. Keep it simple. Cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, fresh veggies and dip. Keep allergies in mind.
• At a cottage, it is usually not the stuff, but it's the effort. Does your host have an issue with the dock or some other thing that needs fixing? Helping them with your time and/or talent is HUGE. They need stuff moved to the cottage and you have a truck? Bingo.

Now, you can be a great cottage guest and if you follow these suggestions, you'll most certainly get invited back.

Source: Mairlyn Smith

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