Spare Bedroom in Touristy Location

[tepao]

We have a two bed flat in a very central location in London. It's very close to all the sights. A hotel around here would be about £200 a night for something that's not awful. We have lived in London for 5 years and never had a spare room/office before. We very rarely had visitors. Now we have a spare room, it seems like everyone wants to come and 'see us'. I do wonder how much of it is about seeing us and how much of it is about grabbing a free hotel room. Would this annoy you?

When I read your post it put me in mind of my grandparents. I' m talking here about over 100 years ago BTW.
When they got married they left a very industrial city in the North East and they set up home in what was then a very desirable holiday destination by the seaside, about 40 miles south of their home area.
And what they got was a succession of relatives coming to " visit" them. For years and years. In reality looking for a cheap holiday. And they had a lot of relatives.
And yes it annoyed them!

So Im afraid OP that whilst I'm sure your visitors are pleased to see you the location of where you are must be a big attraction for them.
And yes I would find it rather wearing and annoying.

Yes we had loads of relatives just inviting themselves to stay with us when we lived somewhere touristy. They think they're so subtle but it's really obvious when Aunt Beryl who couldn't even be arsed to turn up to your wedding suddenly decides to visit you for two weeks in mid-July. Thankfully Covid shut that nonsense down. Suffice to say, now we're 20 mins from all the relatives, not a single one of them ever visits us.
We're now thinking of relocating to New Zealand and if we do, we will refuse to let anyone stay with us TBH because they clearly don't care about us at all.

Tell the relatives that you have taken a lodger.

Why not go official and do chargeable Airbnb..? . Tell relatives of course they can have a discount.. As in no more freebies you cfers!!

@Shesellsseashellsnotinmystreet has a great idea! Monetise it. If a friend of yours had an air BnB and you wanted to stay would you ask for mates rates? Or free?

I knew someone who
moved to Wiltshire and virtually ran a b n b every weekend because friends always wanted to visit.

Not Swindon, then!

I always had 'visitors' when I lived in Galway and London (zone 2).

Now I'm in Cheshire, no one bothers much.

We hope to be moving to a seaside destination at the end of this month. We are hoping people will come visit us. It never occurred to me we potentially could have repeats that we haven’t requested. I’ve onlviewed it from the positive.

My late parents moved to Devon from a mining area in the north east. Lots of family wanted to visit.
Towards the end of their time there they moved back to a town about 20 miles from where they were born.
But didn't tell anyone straight away. One day an over bearing cousin phoned to say that they were coming to see them in a couple of weeks. When told they had moved back home they never saw them again.
Also didn't attend eithers funeral.

Coastal Maine, so yes I get lots of visitors. I’m almost always delighted to see them. I wouldn’t mind certain family members visiting a bit less…

Unfortunately, I can relate to this. When my mum lived in other parts of the UK, family from overseas almost never visited. As soon as she moved to London, though, everyone saw her as a way to save on hotels, including distant family members she never otherwise heard a peep from and who had never bothered to visit her when they previously came to London when she was living elsewhere.