Guest Room - Do you have one?

[JustMeUC]

I am watching HGTV and almost all of them seem to think they need a room for guests which certainly adds lots of money to the purchase or rent price. It was funny that the guy on the show just kindof said what I often think when his wife insisted on a guest room. He stated that they had never actually had an overnight guest during their entire marriage and if in the future they did have one he would rather just put them up at the Four Seasons, that they would save tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.

Perhaps I am odd but other than at my parents home, since becoming an adult I have hardly ever have stayed at peoples homes overnight in guest rooms, even assuming they have one. I just prefer to have my privacy and stay at a hotel. Is this really something that people do often, stay in their guest rooms? I can see at a vacation home maybe, or if you live in Hawaii or Miami or some other tourist destination, but probably not at the normal home.

If you have a guest room, does it really get used enough to justify the additional costs?

 

[drb391]

guest room = my couch

 

[Texas Proud]

I think it matters where you are living etc...

I got to work for my company in London for a bit over a year... as an agreement for me to work there I insisted on a 2BR place because I KNEW that a lot of people would come visit (heck, one of my sisters actually bought her plane ticket to London before I did)....

We have enough BRs in our house to have a guest room, but my wife has turned it into her room... no bed is in there and none can fit... we use our youngest's room as a guest room... she gets the couch....

 

[rescueme]

Yes, we have a guest room, along with a guest bath.

Yes, we have had overnight guests many times.

It all depends on your wants/needs/lifestyle (and if you can afford it)...

 

[FIREd]

I spend a lot of time in our guest room... because it doubles as my office. The queen-size bed itself is only used a few times a year (Quite a few people come visit as we live in an attractive area. Since hotel accommodations are rather expensive here, visitors appreciate the free room and board). There is a large walk-in closet which we use to store the vacuum cleaner, ironing board, step ladder and such but with enough space left for guest to hang their clothes and store their luggage. There is also a guest bathroom next door.

 

[REWahoo]

If you have a guest room, does it really get used enough to justify the additional costs?

Are you advocating a one-bedroom home?

With a three bedroom house, we have two guest rooms - three if you count the RV parked outside. We have guests several times a year, including family, old friends from out of town, and an occasional forum member.

A couple we've both known for almost 50 years is coming Thursday to spend the weekend. DD#2's family will spend a few days with us during the holidays. Well worth the expense in our case.

 

[Sue J]

We always had an "extra room" because all of DHs family lives out of town. We had a sofa bed and my desk and computer and a spare TV. When the kids were younger we had family visits 2 or 3 times a year. As the kids got older and the grandparents got older we had fewer visitors and a few years ago we finally got rid of the sofa bed.

The room is now for my desk and I added a much-too-comfortable LaZboy recliner and 32" HDTV. We have another spare bedroom upstairs (older son's old room) but right now DH has turned it into storage space for all the crap he doesn't want to put in the regular attic. I hate to see it used that way but no one comes and stays anymore so we don't need it for more bedroom space.

 

[Meadbh]

I like having a multipurpose space. My spare room has a daybed, which opens into a comfortable double bed and when closed serves as a sofa for watching TV. It also contains a folding table which I use for laying out projects, and with the addition of a cover, a lamp and a mirror can quickly be converted to a dressing table for guests. There is room for a treadmill and I keep my golf clubs in a corner. There is a built in wardrobe which is 75% full of my storage (yes, I have organized it!) and there is a guest bathroom next door. So it is perfect for occasional guests who will be quite comfortable for short stays but will not be tempted to outstay their welcome. So far I have had several guests for a night or two and I get to use the room in between.

 

[Midpack]

Yes, with a queen sized bed. It's probably been used 3 times/6 nights in 20 years. I doubt we'll have a guest room in our next house. Our next house won't have a formal living room or formal dining room either. Our current house has all three. I think it was just considered the norm until the past generation or so, not something everyone consciously decided on...

 

[MichaelB]

We have lots of space. DW & I learned early in my ER that an office with a door made a significant contribution to our domestic tranquility.

We also enjoy visitors, mostly family. Even when they live close by there are lots of sleepovers.

 

[Major Tom]

I live in a 280 sq foot studio, so no guest room

I did live in a 3 bedroom house for a few years though with the downstairs bedroom being rented out to a friend, so I had one guest room. It was only used very occasionally, but came in very useful at those times.

 

[W2R]

I have a guest bedroom, complete with a very nice queen sized bed, but really it is wasted space. Inflatable beds have become so much more comfortable and satisfactory these days. Instead of setting up a guest bedroom I should have simply purchased an inflatable bed and the pump for inflating it. These could be kept in the closet until needed.

As soon as I feel the slightest need for that room for any reason, that is what I plan to do!

 

[haha]

I have a one bedroom apartment, but a comfortable, long couch and several air mattresses. I also have good blinds in my LR so it is a fairly comfortable place to sleep wrt to light and also privacy.

Anyone staying on the couch can reach the bathroom without disturbing me, and vice versa.

I would like a spare bedroom, but it just costs too much to buy, and also the taxes and dues are considerably higher on a 2 bdr condo. I have decided that a very meaningful inflation is possible. Could not predict when, but given this attitude I do want to own, not rent. In 2012, rents in my neighborhood increased 15%, so I was happy that I had bought ahead of this.

I am glad I have a one bedroom, and not a studio. But if I lived where a studio was all I could comfortably afford, I'd live in a studio.

Ha

 

[NW-Bound]

My in-town home is a 5-bedroom house, plus a study. Yes, we occasionally have overnight guests. Now, as the children are grown, we have even more spare rooms. I use a couple for storage.

My boonies home is a 3-bedroom, one of which is a big loft with sleeping capacity for 6 (no sleeping bags needed). I have hosted my relatives up there for a family get-together in the "wilderness", and even had 12 at one time. My son had to pitch a tent for himself out on the deck.

 

[REWahoo]

My in-town home is a 5-bedroom house, plus a study. Yes, we occasionally have overnight guests. Now, as the children are grown, we have even more spare rooms. I use a couple for storage.

Here's a recent photo of one of NWB's storage rooms...

 

[NW-Bound]

Damn! Wouldn't that be really nice? Depth gauge at 90 ft?

As it is, my stash when converted into gold pieces can be hand-carried (but with some effort ).

 

[Dawg52]

I've got one. Doubt anyone would want to use it though.

 

[ksr]

I had one for years. In the 21 years I've lived in this house, I think I had overnight guest(s) use that room for 7 or 8 days total.

A few years ago my SO convinced me to ditch the unused guest room and make it a sewing/crafts room for myself. So we did. We now have a queen-size portable, inflatable bed that packs up like a small piece of luggage on wheels, in the rare case that we have an overnight guest. Even that has only been used once.

The truth is, I find I don't use the room much even now that it's been converted. Clearly we could just do away with the entire room.

 

[pb4uski]

Our current house is 3 bedrooms. As I keep reminding 25 yo DS who currently lives with us, we have a master bedroom suite and two guest bedrooms.

DS is using the smaller one (temporarily I hope and pray) and DW uses the other one as her sewing room.

We do occasionally have overnight guests (DD and a friend over Labor Day and hopefully a friend on a ski trip this coming January), and DW usually goes on a tear tidying up the sewing room to be a guest room. I recently suggested that we get rid of the queen bed in that room and get an inflatable bed for when we do have guests, but DW wasn't keen on the idea.

We have occasionally stayed at friends over the past few years and we routinely stay over when visiting DD (in a queen size inflatable bed in her spare bedroom which she uses as a workout room - actually DD usually sleeps on the inflatable bed and we use her bed).

 

[Keim]

I currently have a guest bedroom in the basement. This will likely go away next spring. My daughter is making noise about "being old enough" to live in the basement.

At that point we won't have a guest bedroom. Doesn't seem worth the waste of space for the 360 days a year it sits unused. Wife wants a sewing room. And I want a happy wife. 'nuff said.

 

[haha]

I had one for years. In the 21 years I've lived in this house, I think I had overnight guest(s) use that room for 7 or 8 days total.

A few years ago my SO convinced me to ditch the unused guest room and make it a sewing/crafts room for myself. So we did. We now have a queen-size portable, inflatable bed that packs up like a small piece of luggage on wheels, in the rare case that we have an overnight guest. Even that has only been used once.

The truth is, I find I don't use the room much even now that it's been converted. Clearly we could just do away with the entire room.

Offer it to Dawg for his overflow.

 

[MBAustin]

We have 2 guest rooms, one with 2 twin beds and the other with a queen. DS lived in one all summer during his internship and we had other guests, so both were used then. We have occasional guests other than the kids (2-3 times/year for 1-3 days). As DS already has a job lined up for after graduation in May (yippee!) and DD is also employed, I hope we are past the point where "boomerang" is likely. So next summer once DS is settled into an apartment, I will probably get rid of the twin beds and convert one of the two rooms to a study/scrapbooking area. We'll buy some air mattresses for when both kids are home at Christmas or when guests with kids visit.

As I'm thinking about this, I realize that the queen bed should probably go into the room that currently has the twins as it's the nicer room. So I should plan to get DS to help take apart the bed frame and move it when he is home after graduation.

 

[NW-Bound]

I do not know why a spare bedroom cannot be both a sewing room and a guest room. Do the guests mind sharing a room with a sewing machine?

I use day beds or folding futon sofa beds in a couple of the rooms. Do not want to make it too comfy for the guests to stay too long, you know?

 

[Sarah in SC]

Like MB, I have 2 guest rooms, same configuration. When we built the house for the two of us, I knew we'd not have full occupancy, but I imagine it is tough selling a custom home in any real estate climate that only has one bedroom!

But we've hosted plenty of guests, plenty of times. We like having the extra room for friends to stay over, and when we have parties and such, though for those lots of folks prefer to tent camp in the yard.

I do want to build a little guest cottage out back, just so we could try to find a permanent tenant to stay here when we travel. I just think that would be easier to find than someone to move into the house when we are gone.

I fight very hard to keep clutter from overtaking both of these rooms, and mostly win, but right now there are 20 shelves' worth of books in one while we do some work to the living room, and a great big pile of laundry (though not as big as Dawg's) in the other!

 

[bbbamI]

When we bought our current house, we believed a three bedroom, two bathroom house was a must. The reason being, our town (85,000 population) consists mostly of young families with children. It would be difficult to sell a one or even two bedroom house.

It's not too much space for us. We do have one bedroom as a guest bedroom...mainly because we bought new bedroom furniture a few years ago and wanted to keep the old suite. We also bought a new mattress and put the old one in the guest bedroom.

Seldom do we have guests, but it's nice to have just in case. ...and there are times when another bed is needed when one of us is not sleeping well. DH or I can go to that bedroom so the other can get undisturbed sleep.