How To Be a Welcomed Guest

It is the holiday season and the time when families get together. Some travel only a few blocks and visit for a couple hours, while there are others that travel hundreds of miles, come bearing suitcases, and have the intent of spending quality time with family members. It will be a wonderful, fun-filled visit if you keep in mind some very simple manners and tips during your stay.

1. Pre-plan with your host how many days the visit will last. Don't be that retired uncle that "comes for a little visit," and then stays a week or longer. You might be retired or have some extra time on your hands, but that doesn't mean your host does.
2. Come bearing gifts. Everyone loves receiving gifts, even if it is said, "it is better to give than receive." Consider some of the staples that will get used up during your stay and put together a basket of goodies. This could include soap, hand lotion, shampoo, napkins, paper towel, tissue paper, and yes, even toilet paper. What better way to make for a memorable and appreciated gift than a basket filled with disposable items? But, keep in mind, if your host or hostess has allergies, you might just consider the paper products.
3. Pick up after yourself. You may feel right at home, but that doesn't mean you should clutter their house with your personal items. This is especially true for the bathroom you will be using during your stay. Contain your items all in one place so if the bathroom is used by other visitors, they do not have to work around your mess. Plus, do you really want them looking through your travel bag?
4. Help with food costs. One of the bests ways to always be welcomed as a visitor is to go grocery shopping and help offset the costs of some of the meals, whether it be breakfast items such as coffee, bacon, eggs and bread, or lunch items such as sliced meats and cheeses, or snacks for the evening.
5. Take your host and hostess out for a meal. Enough time will be spent in the kitchen feeding extra mouths, so why not give them a break? Find out what their favorite restaurant is and make a reservation. You be the host for the evening.
6. Suggest an activity. Your host and hostess may have some sightseeing plans to show off their city and surrounding area. Go with the flow on this one, but also, if you would like to do something, suggest it. Don't be shy. It might end of being something they have thought about seeing or going to, but have not had the chance to do. This could be going out to see a movie, exploring a new restaurant, wandering through a museum, or finding a new shopping venue. You never know -- you might help them rediscover their hometown.
7. Pay attention. If there is a way you can help, either by clearing the dinner table, cleaning up in the kitchen, picking up scattered toys if there are kids in the house, or even folding a load of laundry, do it. Rise above your shyness and offer up your services even if you don't see anything that needs to be done. The offer alone is worth a great deal.
8. Tidy up the day you are leaving. As well as gathering up all of your own items, look around to see how else you can make the place less of a mess for your host and hostess to deal with later. Take the sheets and pillowcases off the bed you used and put them in the laundry room -- maybe even throw them in the washing machine and start the cleaning process. Empty the wastebasket in the bathroom you have been using -- they don't need to see how many tissue papers you used!
9. And, finally, write a thank you note. The ten minutes it will take you to write a thank-you note will put a smile on their faces and a feeling of a "visit well-done." This can be done by e-mail, but don't you just love receiving snail mail?

So, remember, if "fish and visitors stink after three days" and you don't want to be either one of those, follow the above helpful hints. There will probably be another invitation to come visit!