Spooky season is upon us! Here’s 10 things you can do to provide some Halloween fun for your guests!
For most, Halloween might be a holiday you associate with fond childhood memories. Dressing up as your favourite superhero or spooky villain. Going door to door shouting ‘Trick or Treat!’ Getting to stay up late and stuffing your face with sweets. What could be better than that? Besides, just because you aren’t ten years old anymore, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the spooky season! After the last, somewhat topsy turvy year, the LBNB team think you should jump on the bandwagon and have some fun this Halloween. So how can you, as a business owner, provide a fun filled, spooky experience for your guests? We’ve come up with ten things you can do for your guests this Halloween…
1 Decorations
Depending on how spooky you want to get, you can decorate your property in different ways. For non-spooky decorations, use pumpkins, autumn leaves and lanterns. Want to include spookier elements? Use spider webs, witch hats, plastic spiders and bats, and anything that shouts Halloween!
2 Hot Drinks
As well as normal tea and coffee, why not learn how to make Pumpkin Spice Lattes? These are all the rage over in America, but they’re also gaining popularity in the UK! Or try to make Halloween Hot Chocolate. If you buy an edible ink pen*, you can draw faces onto marshmallows and voila! Ghost-mallows! You could even watch online tutorials and learn how to make latte art! You could learn how to draw pumpkins or bats onto the tops of hot drinks. *Edible ink pens can be used to draw on food and can be bought in supermarkets or online
3 Cold Drinks
For your adult guests, you could find a recipe for an alcoholic Pumpkin Punch online! For the kids, there are plenty of ‘Swamp Juice’ or ‘Witches Brew’ recipes that you can find online to create a fun Halloween treat for the youngsters!
4 History
There are always plenty of stories to tell about the places we visit, so why can’t the guests learn a little about your property? It’s pretty easy to do some research! You can use the internet, maybe a local library, or maybe even a local historian or history group! You could leave the guests little ‘Halloween History’ notes to read. These could be about the local area or the property itself – maybe there’s some ghoulish tales to tell about who once owned and lived at your property? Be careful not to scare your guests too much with gruesome tales! We still want them to enjoy a good night’s sleep!
5 Local Area
Are there any historical, spooky landmarks nearby? Maybe there’s some fabulous gothic architecture or a pumpkin patch down the road? You could point these out to guests and help them organise a day out to visit these places. Or if you are lucky enough to live somewhere that has a lot of stories to share, why not organise a local ghost walk? You could lead this yourself or ask a local expert to run it! You could make the ghost walk as scary as you like and ask people to hide along the route and jump out at your guests, or you can miss that out altogether and just tell the spooky stories relevant to your tour.
6 Carving
How you offer pumpkin carving may depend on what type of business you are. Self-catering holiday lets or glamping sites could leave a couple of pumpkins and a carving kit in the property. For B&Bs or smaller hotels, maybe you can put aside a few tables in the dining room for people to use throughout the day. Stock up on pumpkins and carving kits and let your guests have some fun!
7 Food
This is very much down to personal choice, but it would be great to see everyone in fancy dress on All Hallows Eve. Encourage your guests to get creative and dress up for the evening! Maybe you can put on a fancy dress competition for any children who may be staying with you. You could even have a fancy dress competition for the adults if everyone wants to get involved. There’s no such thing as being too old for a Halloween costume!
8 Fancy Dress
If you run a self catering hospitality business, you could leave your guests some Halloween themed treats to enjoy. If you run a business where you have a menu and serve your guests, how can you mix it up a bit? Have a look for Halloween recipes online and see what you can come up with!
9 Events
Depending on your budget and the time you have available, you could always organise a murder mystery event for your guests. There are plenty of templates online that you can use, or you could even pay for a professional one. Or if you’re up for a challenge, create your own! You could do this as a ticketed even with a one night stay included, or as a free event for your guests. However you do it, a murder mystery dinner party sounds like a great way to spend Halloween.
10 Books/DVDs
It’s always a good idea to leave some form of entertainment in the rooms for your guests to enjoy. Whether that’s a pack of cards, books or DVDs. So, sticking to the Halloween theme, why don’t you leave a selection of DVDs that they could watch on the TV? Maybe a few thrillers, murder mystery films, horror films or good old fashioned Halloween family favourites. You could do the same with books! If you don’t already have a selection to lend to guests, head down to the local charity shop and pick up some thrillers for your guests to enjoy!
