Standard-fare takeaways from a stay at a hotel might include a travel-sized bar soap and a tear-off note pad where fledgling ideas for a new book have been scribbled. If there’s a bowl of them around, a traveler might tuck a printed box of matches or two into a weekend duffle bag; a tiny ephemeral something to remember a place by. If someone’s feeling especially spendy, they might decide to invest in the delightful hotel bathrobe that’s available for sale. They’ll reason that the bathrobe will be the key to recreating the feeling of calm and gratitude that’s enveloped them for the past 24 hours. (It won’t be, but it’ll remain a lovely bathrobe all the same.)
On my personal list of things that I most loved about spending a night at Tourists in North Adams, Massachusetts this past weekend, were comforts that I couldn’t exactly transport back to my Brooklyn apartment. There was an in-ground swimming pool framed in slate and flanked on three sides by white lounge chairs and umbrellas, for example. There was a pre-ordered breakfast service—a brown butter and rye waffle with a dollop of rhubarb compote and whipped skyr—delivered to me hot. There was a suspension bridge over a babbling river and live music. There was a king-sized bed with a miracle of a mattress, a bathroom mirror without toothpaste splatter, and an utterly spotless toilet that had not been cleaned by me. Almost heaven, Western Massachusetts.
But there were also other things—clever solutions dreamed up for providing a bit of comfort in a temporary resting place—that I could readily incorporate into my non-hotel life. They represent small efforts that make a meaningful difference in how a space and its objects can feel and function, in other words, my very favorite kind of effort.
In case anyone else is interested in very specific recommendations from the loveliest motor hotel in the Berkshires, here’s my list of takeaways. (In case it’s not abundantly clear, I’m not suggesting that anyone walk off with these solutions in their physical form, only that we receive these Very Good Ideas and implement them as we’d like in our own humble abodes.):