My Favourite Guest

They smile, wave goodbye then put your cheque in the bank. But hotel managers are more than just desk-jockeys looking after a few beds. Ryan Bailey meets a few and hears their, often weird, stories

A friend of mine once turned up at a Paris hotel at 11pm in the pouring rain. He didn’t have a reservation, but what the heck – it was a Tuesday in October, and he had three gold credit cards in his pocket. With considerable drama, the snooty staff finally gave him a room on the ground floor next to the lift and the toilets, charged him €300 and feigned hearing problems when he asked for help with his bags. Suffice it to say, the owners of the hotel were not interviewed for this feature! While some places forget their temporary lodgers are actually human beings, others positively revel in the personal lives of their guests. Of the 60 hoteliers on the Ryanair route map called for this feature, these are the guys we liked best.

Karin Kaiser (left)
CO-OWNER, ACASA BED & BREAKFAST, FRANKFURT
Fly to Frankfurt (Hahn) from 43 destinations across the Ryanair network
“A couple who were trying to get married stayed with us for months. He was an American IT consultant and she was a Russian musician. They met on the internet and although their friends at home doubted them, you could tell they were in love. When they finally got married, it was a truly emotional moment for my husband and I. We also had a lady who stayed with us while heavily pregnant, so that her first child could be born in Frankfurt. It was so exciting to be expecting a baby in our home every day, and we couldn’t believe it when she returned three years later to have her second child. Sharing that joy again with her new family was an unforgettable experience, and we would love nothing more than for her to have a third with us.” Doubles from €79 a night, including breakfast. 49 Varrentrappstrasse, tel: +49 699 798 8821, www.hotel-acasa.de

Aline Moignot
CO-OWNER, THE BRUSSELS GUESTHOUSE, BRUSSELS
Fly to Brussels (Charleroi) from 22 destinations across the Ryanair network
“We have lots of regular guests, including a lovely couple from London who we first saw as newlyweds. They’ll be staying for the fifth time this Christmas. I like to think that all our visitors are special, but our absolute favourite was a Dutch MEP. Because we’re located just a few minutes from the European Parliament, he would visit us two or three times a month. He’d share stories about his work and his hometown of Friseland with my husband and I over breakfast, and it really felt like he was part of the family. Unfortunately, he retired five months ago. We’ve genuinely missed him, and it was quite a painful goodbye when he left. But he has promised to visit us again soon.” Doubles €200 for a two-night minimum stay, including breakfast. 31 Chaussée de Haecht, tel: +32 2219 4799, www.brusselsguesthouse.be