Miss Manners: What is the proper etiquette when youâre going to be a guest at anotherâs home?
DEAR MISS MANNERS: My fiancé and I will be hosting two friends in our new home. We have one guest bedroom, and plan to set up the other person on an air mattress in our living room.
Both soon-to-be-guests know the situation. One of them has been repeatedly texting us, adamantly requesting, and even trying to guilt us into saving the guest bedroom for her.
We were initially planning on giving her the room, but quite frankly, I’m so annoyed now that I’d rather give it to our other friend.
What is the proper etiquette when you’re going to be a guest at another’s home? Is it acceptable to demand a particular room?
GENTLE READER: Although she sympathizes with your plight, Miss Manners cannot help noticing that you did this to yourself.
Telling your guests that one of them will be sleeping on the floor mattress — without specifying which one — was bound to leave both feeing like contestants on a desert-island survival program.
Ideally, you would have made a defensibly objective determination from the start: “Jasper is going to have the baby with him, so we think he will need the guest room.”
Now, you will simply have to choose and ask the other to be understanding. And, as you already suspect, unfair as it may be, you will likely get less resistance to sleeping in the living room from the silent friend.
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