The good guest guide

[howdidthishappenthen]

For guests and hosts. I'll start. The good guest asks if they should strip the bed linen when they leave. The great guest asks if you have any fresh linen ready the can put on for you. The crap guest leaves it as is, plus dirty tissues on the floor.

My guest slept in until mid day and left after eating my food, drinking my wine after leaving his donation in the car and leaving the spare bed in a mess. Great!

The good guest doesnt bring the cheapest bottle of wine it is possible to buy as their one and only contribution to Christmas Dinner and Tea and Boxing Day dinner and tea. The good guest doesnt then harp on about how they brought a bottle of wine. The good guest doesnt announce on Christmas morning that they were too skint to buy any presents after greedily opening all theirs and their sons. Said guest doesnt then bang on about how they're having really expensive hair extensions next week. The good guest would help with washing up instead of going to park their backside on sofa. The good guest wouldnt lay sprawwled out on sofa all afternoon so that the host who had paid for all the food, cooked it and then cleaned up would have to sit on the floor.

Not that I'm bitter and twisted

I don't expect my guests to strip their beds, nor do I do it when I'm a guest

Kath - that does indeed sound very bad guest manners.

I have never offered to change my own sheets when a guest!!

Really? I thought that was standard great guest etiquette.

The good guest doesn't eat or drink the last of something special without asking. (Disclaimer: this doesn't apply to the regular food/drink, of course.)

I don't like it when people strip the beds - washing bedding is a bit of a chore and I'm not always ready to do it straight away. Far better just to make the bed tidy. At least then it looks respectable until you have time to do the washing.

Also, we stay fairly regularly with a couple we know, and they don't have many people to stay so they don't always change the sheets between visits if we've only slept in them for a night and will probably be the next people to sleep in them anyway! They'd be annoyed if we stripped the bed every time.

I change the sheets before guests arrive, then leave them on the bed for the cat to sleep on/kids to play etc (we have a TV in the spare room.

DD visited with DGD age 2.5 and allowed her to sit in our guest bed, which MIL was going to sleep in, and eat a pot of pringles and drink ribena from a lidless cup.

Had to change bedding which had only been put on two hours before.

That is what bad guests do.

good guest: offers genuinely to help chop/stir/lay table (I am talking about family members here) make own tea/make me tea (I do all the catering and have an under 2), rather than saying vaguely from time to time, 'just ask if there's anything you want me to do' whilst warbling on about ailments/what a bad time she's had lately.

bad guest: fails to make any kind of contribution unless specifically asked and supervised closely; hovers annoyingly when I am trying to do something, asking dim questions/statements ('DMC, I think the potatoes are boiling over', 'DMC, do you think you should check the mince pies' ); clatters around noisily in middle of night waking already shockingly over-excited and over-tired DC up...

on bed stripping - I always offer, but wouldn't do it automatically, for reasons others have stated (so will have to settle for merely 'good', and not 'great')

and breathe

I'd hate it if my guests stripped the bed, that is for me to do when I'm ready for doing the washing.

I would hate it if my guests stripped the bed. The last thing I want to do once they're gone, is start making up beds again, and it looks messy otherwise. I always leave beds tidy and presentable for the hosts to choose what to do.

The good guest knows how to boil the kettle and where I keep the teabags.

Later on, the good guest knows where the best booze is hidden.

Please don't strip my bed, my mattress has crayon marks, nail varnish marks & some unidentifiable marks on it that I do not want my guest's seeing

I think the sheet thing depends on the bed. If it's a proper bed then best to ask. If it's some sort of sofa/temp bed then yes tidy it away.

Kath - I'd say, don't ask that one again.

Are DP and I good guests? We cooked and washed up dinner. We took the sheets off and folded them on the sofa bed (couldn't work out how the futon folded, though , and spent 2 days cuddling, feeding and reading to beautiful DCs aged 2 and 6months. And yes, I did a nappy change

purple you sound a lovely guest.
A good guest will fold up used towels and either put them in the wash basket or leave them neatly in the guest bedroom.
They will acknowledge, maybe even play with, dcs.
They will empty their wastebasket into the main bin before they leave - especially if there is something in there I would rather not encounter.
They will get themselves cups of tea/soft drinks if they are family and have stayed heaps and heaps of times.
They will not take over the tv remote control, should the tv be on.
They warn you in advance if they have any special dietary requirements.
They don't leave their stuff everywhere - all over the house - if they can help it.