Where do guests sleep if you have no spare room?

[SparePartz]

Asking people who only have enough rooms for your family members, not those with extra rooms and guest rooms!

We are considering inviting an older family member, who has recently lost her husband, to stay. I don't think they'd want to come if it meant staying alone in a hotel in the closest town a bus ride away. DS(14) has his own room, as does DD(12), DH and I in the third bedroom. Not sure I can ask DS&DD to share whilst she would be here. Sofa is not a sofa bed type, and could only sleep one anyway. Living area is one room and effectively the corridor between all bedrooms and the bathroom. The only thing I can think of is relative in DD's room, with DD on a mattress on the floor. Seems a bit rude though to not give guest their own space.

How do you house guests if you've not much space?

^ This.

My bil and his wife and kids stayed for 2 weeks. They all stayed in my dds room as she has a double bed and en suite. I moved her clothes into the airing cupboard and age slept on a z bed in her younger sisters room. This was when she was 11 though and in year 6. Now she's 15 I think she'd be fairly resistant although could be persuaded for one night probably! I'll probably get a double for the youngest dds (10) room so if we need people to stay we can sleep in it and she on the floor and they'd have our room. It does hardly ever happen though!

I don’t think it’s very fair to turf your children out their rooms tbh I think you just need to accept you don’t have space. Could you go to her or perhaps organise a family holiday with her.

For us it's the living room, with a Japanese-style screen up between that and the kitchen/diner. Doesn't give soundproofing, obviously, but offers privacy for changing clothes etc.
It only works as all our guests thus far have been physically well enough to sleep on the sofa (actually two modular things made up of a chaise-style sofa and a big square section IYSWIM), and happy to stay up until DP and I go to bed (not hard; we're not late-nighters!)
Don't know if it'd work for you.

DS has a pull out trundle bed underneath his. If we have a single guest DD sleeps in his room and the guest has hers. If we had a couple staying, they would take mine & DH's room, I'd take the trundle & DH on the sofa. But only really doable for a night or two, not a longer visit.

Me and DH would sleep on an airbed downstairs and give the guests our room (we've never had guests for more than a couple of nights though).

We don’t ask the kids to give up their room, they’re autistic and it would be challenging and unfair.
We discourage overnight guests, but when unavoidable, if friends they have a double airbed downstairs and if my mother and stepfather, they have our room and we go downstairs (obvs cleaned and bed changed etc).

When younger, DS and DD would bunk in together temporarily in DD's larger room and the visitor would have DS's room. Years ago DH's dad and wife came to stay and we gave up our room and slept on an air mattress in the living room.

Now DC are older (17 and 15) I can't ask them to share. This Christmas MiL came for five nights and poor DS was on the air mattress in the living room. It doesn't really work as we only have one big room downstairs (but separate kitchen) but DH is too scared to ask MiL to stay elsewhere. Thankfully we only have to do this every two years!

My parents are happy to stay in Premier Inn. It makes for a much more relaxed visit!

I think getting one of your dc to give up their room would be ok for a night or two but really 1 - 2 weeks is too much. You don't have the space for the relative to stay for that long.

Sorry forgot to add, it would be ok if your dc were really young but at 12 y o they need their own space.

Hotel. I need my bed due to disability and wouldn't want anyone else in it anyway. We don't have DC but if we did wouldn't kick them out either. But in your case it just doesn't sound practical really for that length of time.

Doesn’t sound comfortable for anyone! Especially for 2 weeks. Could you book a holiday together in a bigger air BnB and spend time together that way?

This

We do have a usable living room so one of us sleeps there with the dog, one bunks in with a kid and guests have our room. Normally only for a few nights

The visitor is hardly likely to pinch the dc's stuff now are they.

We give my parents our bed and we sleep on an airbed in the living room.

If you really want to have them stay in your house for a couple of weeks and they're elderly, you need to give them your bedroom and you sleep in the living room. Buy or borrow a really good blow up mattress. Good investment anyway in case of future guests.

Could one child do one week and then the next maybe? Sort of split between them .I think you are kind as your Aunt will have a nice break

It’s a very kind gesture, but I can’t imagine anyone having a comfortable 1-2 weeks with the arrangements you describe?

If I was invited to stay with family....and they said sorry you'll need to be in a hotel. I'd be a bit miffed!

The odd night, either one child sleeps on the floor of the other child's room, or the guest sleeps on the sofa.

A week (eg French exchange student) we moved the dining table into the lounge and put a mattress on the floor in the dining room so that my kids could stay in their rooms.

If there was no spare room, I would not be miffed, but I then would have the choice of booking a hotel, or not going.

No way would I sleep in my living room and give other people my bed, but that's just me.

So OP, unless you are personally happy to give up your room (you are the one doing the inviting) then don't invite this family member, unless of course they actually love hotels.

If the alternative was a blow up mattress or sleeping in a child's bedroom or on a sofabed for a couple of weeks, with absolutely no privacy or space to myself, the hotel would win hands down.

Surely DS14 on sofa in living room or on inflatable mattress (which can be bought off Amazon cheaply and have improved a lot in recent years) and guest in your ds’s room? Your ds would probably enjoy the novelty of it!

If I was your relative though I would much prefer to stay in a hotel so you might give her the choice?

You don't have room for her, and though your intentions seem kind, I think you'd end up making her feel very uncomfortable in many senses of the word.

Instead of shoehorning her into your family and home so you'll feel you're fulfilling some sort of obligation to her, find an Air BnB and drive her to and from it so she doesn't have to take the bus.

Be available to ferry her around so she can enjoy as much or as little of family life as she feels able to. People who are not used to young teens/ tweens or more than two people in a home at any given time can become quite tired in a different sort of home.