Last month we had some out-of-state relatives come for a 10 day visit. We live in a high tourist area, so it is understandable that people would want to come here for vacation.
We enjoy having company. And we enjoy showing off our beautiful area. But being retired now, we live in a smaller home and are on a fixed income. The smaller home doesn’t have a guest bedroom, so our company had to sleep on an air mattress. They didn’t complain and I was thankful for that.
We tried to think of interesting places to take them. But because they didn’t have much money to spend and we couldn’t afford to pay for their expenses at the normal tourist places…it somewhat limited our ability to show them around. They didn’t have a rental car so we had to take them everywhere. They didn’t have a list of things they wanted to do, so we had to come up with economical ideas.
It was all rather awkward and I longed for a bit of privacy at times. But there they were…always ready for us to come up with the day’s activities.
While they were here, I was thinking about what would be the perfect house guest. I guess it would be someone who has an easy-going, upbeat personality. It would be nice if they had an itinerary of places they would like to go and even make arrangements to go to some of those places on their own. If they had a rental car, they could go out and explore on their own. Wouldn’t it be nice to have them come back in the evening and share their adventures? We could sit and talk about what they saw.
I’m not complaining. Our house guests were far from perfect. But it was still nice to have the visit.
But next time I’m a house guest, I’m going to try to remember what a perfect house guest would look like.
In the meantime, I probably should be considering what a perfect host/hostess looks like too!
Jeanne's Journey 
This is an interesting post. I currently have houseguests that have just flown from one coast to another to come stay with us. I was confident they would find this area as charming and wonderful as we do, but all they do is complain and point out the negative. It is less than charming behaviour and I am at my wits end with this couple. I respect others opinions, but his feels very deliberate and they are bringing me down. Most people that visit this area find so many wonderful things about the culture and scenery, not these folks! They find something condescending to say about most of what we have shown them. I do not know how to deal with this, but am not being a good host by sitting upstairs avoiding them as I currently am, but I cannot bring myself to go back downstairs to sit with them. I wish they would leave but we have 7 more days!!! They are bringing me down, and I have lost all motivation to show them one more thing in this area as everything bores them. Although they are great guests in other ways. Pitching in, helping with dinner etc., they are underwhelmed about everything and not afraid to verbalize it. These are not my friends, they are my boyfriends friends. I would not spend time with these people if he were not his friends from before. He too is sick of listening to them berate our the area we live in, which is truly quite wonderful and unique. I am having a hard time at this point holding my tongue, which is why I am writing this. Good thing I have lots of extra wine, it is helping with all their extra whine!! Houseguests from hell!
Good heavens! I sympathize with you. Perhaps you could politely challenge them to look for at least one positive thing each day. In the meantime, I hope the next seven days go by quickly. And thank goodness for the wine!