Having a house guest. Being a houseguest. Read below.

LadyEmeraude

LadyEmeraude

Tis The Season
Do you have expectations when someone is your houseguest?

Do you communicate your expectations or mostly say nothing.

Expectations could be such as help with things in the kitchen
while they are visiting. Cooking. Doing their own laundry.
Changing their own bedding. Other things.

Do you like being a houseguest in someone's home?
Do you bring a gift of any sort. Take them out to dinner
or a meal. How do you like to say thank you.

This topic is open to anything. Take it where you want to
and if you want to.

I realize there are so many aspects to having a house guest
and being a house guest. The list is endless.
 

Been a long time since I've had a houseguest (by choice!) but no, I never had any expectations for them to have to help me with anything. Never even thought of asking although many times they just automatically did things to help. I don't miss those days. šŸ˜

Pretty sure I wouldn't be very comfortable being a houseguest at this point, either. If I *would* stay with someone, I'd take a gift and probably treat a good dinner out, too.
 
No expectations but I guess because they were decent. If not I bet I'd get enough of them. We had a guy for half a year who was kicked out of his house. I didn't expect him to do anything, but he's Indonesian and my food was so lousy that he said: Hey let me cook from now on. Absolutely fabulous. I could just sit and eat and I only said yumm delicious! Every evening he cooked! He taught me some recepies. Had he not cooked, he could have stayed too.

We once stayed a week with Canadians which was great. We paid for it, but not much. Way cheaper than a hotel. It was from a church, a counselling week. Awesome because they had this huuuuuge house they built themselves. They were originally Dutch but emigrated decades ago. So they had an extra part of the house for guests. Helped do the dishes. We got breakfast there. But had they lived in a tiny flat and we could stay on the couch, like I heard other people say who went there too, hmmmmmmm. We were very lucky.
 
We have houseguests each and every year. My sister in law comes to visit every summer. Last year she brought my father in law also since heā€™s currently living with her.

We didnā€™t have to set down any rules. My sister in law helped with all meals served without being asked. Not that I would have asked but Iā€™m glad I didnā€™t have too. She helped with dishes and did her own laundry as well as my father in laws.

They stayed for a whole week. She brought gifts for each of us including the dogs which was much appreciated and later we got a lovely thank you card for having them. We know, with absolute certainty that they had a good time. We ourselves enjoyed their company.

We have been invited to visit her at any time but havenā€™t taken her up on it yet. Maybe someday we will.
 
Last edited:
My niece visits me 2-4 times a year. She stays anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. I had stayed at a lot of other Officerā€™s homes when I was in the military, but now only occasionally when I visit an old friend. When I stayed in other homes, I would take my hosts out for dinner. I have also stayed in a lot of hotels.
 
debodun said:
I had to stay with someone after surgery. I assumed that being a host meant that they had to comply with any reasonable request, but it was I had to watch what they watched on TV and no TV after 9pm (I need a TV on to sleep). Also, I was made to bed down on the lumpy sofa rather than in the guest bedroom.
Click to expand...
IDK, being a host does not mean complying to the guests demands. There needs to be some give and take.
But you should have been made comfortable in the guest bedroom... especially since you had surgery!
 
LadyEmeraude said:
I have a friend who did not talk over the houseguest rules
as she put it. Her house guest brought her small dog and
my friend was not happy; they did work things out eventually.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's a thingy. My mom wouldn't even want me to stay there if I take the rabbits with me lol. They're not the type you can lock up in a cage and they love to eat rugs and make a mess.
 
We had houseguests for the first time in years last November. They were my SIL and her recent husband from Jacksonville and my BIL and his roommate from Miami. We didn't provide any guidelines because we know them and they are respectful. We usually go to an AirBNB together and I do know they can be messy.

BIL's roommate can't get through a full meal without smoking, so we put an ashtray out on the patio and welcomed him to go out there anytime he felt the urge. I didn't like that he sometimes stood out in front of our house and smoked in the morning but I cut him some slack.

BIL is a great cook, loves to cook big meals but makes a big mess, so we ate out for lunch and dinner. No real clean-up required. We all split the tabs and many times had leftovers that we just reheated.

I mentioned in a post in November that I was apprehensive. I was actually looking at renting an AirBNB for them but hubs seemed so disappointed I caved. We had people sleeping in the guest room, on a sleeper couch, on the family room couch and on a blow-up mattress but it all worked. They loved Dallas, and they are invited to come back any time.

We rarely stay with friends, but we have friends who had a home in Palm Springs (sold it) and a condo in San Francisco. We've stayed with them in both places and really enjoyed it. We've been invited to stay with other friends but we like our privacy.
 
Last edited:
LadyEmeraude said:
I have a friend who did not talk over the houseguest rules
as she put it. Her house guest brought her small dog and
my friend was not happy; they did work things out eventually.
Click to expand...
We had the extended family stay at Christmas when we lived in South Florida. One couple who were only remotely related brought their Irish Setter. We love all animals, but that was too much and we had two cats. He stayed in the garage, and I felt bad because I'm sure he was pampered at home.
 
Last edited:
Family arenā€™t houseguests, theyā€™re family.

I donā€™t want someone to travel for several hours to have them drop in for a few hours from their hotel. There are no rules. By the same token, I donā€™t travel 2000 km to stay in a hotel. The last trip we stayed for 3 nights at both places.

They can do their own touristy things while here. No rules.
 
I'm ok with people staying a few nights and I don't stay more than a few nights with anyone else

I would offer to help with washing dishes and maybe shout pizza or such one night - anyone staying with me is Ok as long as they don't leave huge mess everywhere.

My only absolute rule is no smoking in the house.
 
What friends and family I have are within a distance that we can all drive to see each other with only day visits. There would be no need to spend the night, but I always have the guest bedroom made ready, should something unforeseen happen.

Since my bedroom is off to itself with my own bathroom, overnight visitors couldn't intrude on my privacy. But I would not want to spend the night at anyone else's home because I don't know what the circumstances would be like over there.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top