Guest Room Ideas & Cozy Tips

Today I’m sharing simple guest room ideas and cozy tips that will help you get through the holiday season while entertaining guests! These tips can be used year-round to ensure your guests feel at home during their stay.

Entertaining season is about to officially be in full swing! Can you believe Thanksgiving is only a month away? Since we’re hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas this year at our house, I’ve been working to give our guest bedroom a bit of a homey refresh. A few weeks back, I shared my guest bedroom mood board & design plans. And today I thought I’d share some simple guest room ideas and cozy tips, as well as the progress we’ve made so far in the space!

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Although it is not sponsored, Serena & Lily did provide me with some of the product I requested for this post. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Start with a Cozy Bed

Regardless if you have a dedicated guest bedroom or your guests sleep on the sofa or blowup mattress, be sure to make the bed ultra cozy.

I turned to Serena & Lily to give all of our bedding a refreshing update. They’re known for their high-quality bedding and right now they’re offering up to 30% off all bedding and beds!

Here’s how our guest bedroom looks now! Such an inviting retreat!  Although we’ll be making a few more changes, the new bedding totally changed the vibe in the room. The star of the show is the new windowpane linen duvet cover and shams. I love that the plaid feels seasonal, but still works in the summer months thanks to the timeless blue color palette. The linen is soft and has that lived-in vibe that is cozy and polished all at once. This look is perfect year round, and can change seasonally with simple layered throw pillow updates! I’m loving it paired with this plaid wool lumbar pillow for the fall and winter months!

The sheets in our guest bedroom were about four years old, so I wanted to freshen them up for the extra guests we’ll have this year. I prefer white bedding for the most part. It gives that ‘luxe hotel’ vibe and I love the simple colored band on this set. They’re really soft, inviting and the perfect weight, too!

In the late fall and winter months, I also add an extra layer to our bed in the form of a quilt or coverlet. This washed sateen quilt is so soft and I love the matte finish!

Folding back and exposing some of the bedding layers makes the bed look all the more cozy! Don’t you want to just dive right in?!

I’m hopeful that our new bed will be delivered by mid-November for our guests to begin using immediately! I’ll share more updates on the bedroom space once it does!

Provide Extra Blankets

Even with added layers on the bed, I like to set out an extra blanket or throw. Particularly when hosting couples or two people in one room, as one person may require extra covers even if the other doesn’t. Most guests likely won’t tell you if they feel the temp in your house is too cold at night, so this provides them flexibility without feeling like a burden.

Set Out Fresh Towels

I used to always just tell our guests they can take any towels they need from our linen closet. But, now that our linen closet is overrun with pool towels and other random messes, I like to set the towels on the bathroom sink or on the bed for their convenience.

Our old guest towels were approaching 15 years old, so I decided to move those to the garage for random cleanup needs. I then ordered these new white and navy banded towel sets. Once again, they have that slightly “luxe hotel” vibe and I love that they coordinate with the room itself. I’m hoping they help mask just how much work our guest bathroom needs 😉 They’re so soft and have that nice fluffy feel that is so luxurious against your skin.

Provide You Wi-Fi Information

Simple things like providing your wi-fi information can help guests feel much more at home! Most networks allow you to set up a guest login if you’re not comfortable giving out your main account information. I keep ours in a frame, printed out on printer paper and cut to size.

Leave Out Water & Snacks

I try to remember to leave a few bottles of water in our guest bedroom to avoid late night trips downstairs. It’s also fun to stock the room with snacks and breakfast bars that guests can eat at their own pace. You can see in the image above I added these items, along with the wi-fi password and towels, in a woven basket tray in the room. I then put the water bottles in this cute striped pouch, but it would also be cute to fill with toiletries.

Add Helpful Accessories

After hosting guests a fair amount these past few years, we’ve picked up on comments like “Crap – I forgot my phone charger” or “XYZ was snoring all night”. Following are helpful accessories you can stock your guest bedroom with to help your guests feel as comfortable as possible:

• Extra phone chargers and extensions cords
• White noise machine (we have this one)
• Earplugs
• Extra shampoo/toothpaste/tissues/etc. For years, I’ve filled a glass canister with travel size toiletries for the guest bathroom counter. I’ll also sometimes add sample size luxury products (like you get from department stores with beauty orders) for guests to play with.
• Alarm clock
• A mirror (we plan to add this one to the space once we finalize the wall treatment we’ll be adding)
• Flat surfaces like a bench or luggage rack

Keep The Clutter to A Minimum

As tempting as it can be to over-decorate your guest bedroom, I like to keep the clutter and tchotchkes to a minimum. This is especially true with the nightstands and other flat surfaces. Not only will guests then feel like they have a place to set their belongings, they also won’t feel like they’re accidentally leaving something behind when surfaces are more visible and bare. This is one of the reasons I mentioned in my design plans post that we’ll be getting rid of our bookcase in the space!

PS – our raffia nightstands arrived last week and I couldn’t possibly love them more! How gorgeous is that raffia texture?!

Leave Ample Closet or Drawer Space

I always like to leave a spot in the closet with extra hangers or spare space in a dresser. Particularly if your guests will be staying with you for more than one night.

Provide Reading Material

I usually have a few coffee table books in our guest room that our guests can flip through. It’s also helpful to leave magazines and other items like crossword puzzle books or other ways to pass the time if your specific guest is into that!

Spend A Night In Your Guest Room

When one of us needs a good night’s sleep or has an early wake up time, we’ll typically sleep in the guest room. I can’t tell you how much this helps you address items you may not otherwise think about. This includes how well your window coverings block light, if you have any annoying sounds or lights in the space, and how well the air vents work/don’t work. We also quickly realized just how much comfier our guest bedroom mattress is compared to ours! 😉 If you address these issues before guests arrive, you’ll help make their stay much more enjoyable!

I hope you found all of these guest room ideas and cozy tips helpful for hosting over the coming months!

Following are sources for all of the items in our guest room.

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