(TNS)—Staying with friends or family is one of the most popular ways to save on travel. While your hosts are more than likely happy to have you, there are a handful of surefire ways to increase your chances of never being invited back.
HomeAdvisor recently conducted a survey of 2,000 Americans to uncover the biggest house guest pet peeves. Staying for an indefinite period of time and snooping through your host’s belongings are the biggest no-nos, according to the survey, followed by showing up unannounced and bringing another guest along.
Guests who critique their free accommodations, messy visitors and smokers also give hosts headaches, as well as those who fail to follow the house rules, are too loud at night and don’t discipline their children.
The list doesn’t stop there, though. If you want to stay in your host’s good graces, leave your pet at home, keep the volume on the TV at a reasonable level and make sure to depart on time.
If you’re worried about not bringing a gift or sending a thank-you note, you probably shouldn’t be. According to the survey, both of those inactions barely register as peeves. What’s more, more than seven in 10 respondents admit to not bringing a gift, while nearly six in 10 said they don’t send thank-you notes.
Millennials aren’t as worried about their house guests being loud at night or letting their kids get out of control, but snooping really bothers them. Indefinite stays also irk millennials, but not as much as Gen-Xers and baby boomers.
Baby boomers also cite showing up unannounced as their biggest pet peeve and consider a failure to discipline children as a bigger pet peeve than hosts of other generations.
Interestingly, millennials are more likely than other generations to show up early, while Gen-Xers are most likely to show up empty-handed. Baby boomers, on the other hand, are most likely to clean their host’s house without asking.
In addition to not bringing a gift (70.6 percent) and not sending a thank-you note (59.1 percent), leaving used sheets on the bed after departure (45.8 percent), showing up early (40.8 percent) and never treating the host to a meal (37.3 percent) are among the most common offenses house guests make, according to the survey.
More than three in 10 house guests also admit to using the host’s toiletries, departing late and failing to offer help with cooking.
While roughly one in 10 house guests say they’re guilty of staying indefinitely, only 2 percent indicated that they’ve brought a pet or failed to discipline their children. We can only hope they at least sent a thank-you note.
©2016 Travelpulse
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