Guest highlight #1: Junie

Given my last blog post could’ve been interpreted as a bit of rag on hotel guests across the board––how about a positive guest interaction narrative?!

About two weeks ago, we were experiencing an unusual (but actually usual at this point) lengthy wait for laundry shipments at The Monhegan House. We hadn’t received fresh linens off the ferry in a few days meaning we were out of pretty much everything from towels to bath mats, queen fitted sheets, duvet comforters, and most other housekeeping necessities. Because of this, several rooms were left half-made up for guests with the promise of a dutiful housekeeper (myself) to fix them all in the evening when laundry finally came in. As someone who dreads putting off the hard stuff until the end of my shift, I clocked myself back into work around 4 PM thinking it would be a drag.

But then I made my way to Room 11.

Normally when last-minute room services like these occur, we wait until guests have left the room, typically while they eat dinner or head off for a day on the town. But even after three unanswered heavy knocks and “housekeeping”s, I was surprised to turn the doorknob of Room 11 to find a young girl drawing alone at a desk, seemingly undisturbed by my interruption.

I always feel awkward when I have to make beds or clean rooms in front of guests, it feels like a guessing game as to whether they value cleanliness or speed more, but this little girl seemed different.

She turned her head to calmly look up at me. Instantly I recognized her as she had complimented my earrings earlier in the morning while checking in at the front desk as I walked past her and an old woman, presumably her grandmother.

“Hi there!” I said before over-apologizing in my chronic imposter-syndrome/people-pleasing fashion for entering the room while she was inside.

“Hi. That’s okay,” she replied cheerfully.

After explaining that I would just need to quickly make up her and her apparently absent grandmother’s beds, she thanked me for my “hard work” in a not-so-little-kiddish eloquent way. Before long, we got to talking about all things art, housekeeping, and Monhegan before the little girl introduced herself as Juniper, or Junie for short. I quickly discovered that Junie had many hobbies including but not limited to drawing, writing, researching, painting, reading, and above all, conversing.

As I finished perfecting my hospital corners and folding the duvet into thirds, I felt a tap on my shoulder from behind. Junie handed me a tiny slip of colorful paper which read “Thanks for all your hard work. From: Junie.” I knew she had made the adorable card ahead of time due to the lack of “To: Helen” information which made the whole pre-planned ordeal all the more endearing.

I couldn’t help smiling while thanking Junie about a thousand times and telling her what a wonderful artist she was (which was not an exaggeration for her age which I guessed to be around nine or ten). Plus, I’m a sucker for kiddos and this was the first real meaningful interaction I’d had with a guest before.

The next day was business as usual. I went about stripping, cleaning, and remaking my rooms but before long a familiar face popped into the door of a room I was working on. Junie followed me from room to room, keeping me company and asking impressive questions that far exceed what most adults ask me about my life around the hotel. Junie reminded me a bit of myself as a middle-schooler: quiet, reserved, curious, mature around older folks, etc. She even rocked the same long bob haircut that I too sported in the fourth grade. I jokingly coined her my “housekeeping apprentice” though she didn’t really assist much in the cleaning process aside from taking my mind off of the grunt work. I didn’t mind.

I bumped into Junie a few more times throughout her stay. Once on the road, a few times in the lobby. Each time she would ask me if I had a lunch break, though unfortunately I never did nor did I find out what her plans were if I had had one.

On Junie’s last day at the inn, she found me as I was loading the dishwasher in the parlor.

I felt the same adolescent finger tap on my shoulder as I had the first day I met Junie and knew straight away who it was.

“Well hello there, Junie!” I beamed down at her.

“Hi. Um it’s my last day and um I just wanted to say that you’re uh really nice, and cool, and kind, and I thought maybe I could give you my address so we could keep in touch.”

Floored with cuteness overload, I was practically blushing as she handed me yet another tiny scroll of torn aper with a street address neatly penciled in.

“We MUST keep in touch! Maybe we can be pen pals!” I offered, which seemed to make her happy. After admitting that she was indeed my favorite guest of all time, I bid Junie and her grandmother who had allegedly “heard all about” me from her granddaughter, farewell.

I haven’t found the time to write out a nice letter to Junie yet, but I think it’s high time for a post card to be sent out to my favorite little housekeeping helper.