Travel season can often mean hosting out-of-town guests in your home. After living in NYC, we're used to putting house guests up in our tiny apartment. It's taken some real patience on their parts and ours, but we've made do with an inflatable mattress...
When they're older than us, they take our bed and we move to the less comfortable mattress in the living room. When they're younger than us, we stay in the comfort of our bedroom and they take over the living room with an air mattress, the sofa, or even sleeping bags! So please tell, Apartment Therapy readers, how do you accommodate guests in your home? Image: Top 10: Sleeper Sofas / Sofa Beds

Comments (25)
i have a 2-inch memory foam mattress topper i keep under my matress for people to sleep on in the livingroom. it's surprisingly comfy. i actually slept on it myself for the first time a couple weekends ago when my bedroom floors were curing after sealing the concrete.
I am lucky to have picked up a three bedroom house under a 1,000 square feet. Admittedly, the third bedroom is small and makes a wonderful office or if I had a kid it would be a good kids room with a twin bed. So my guests stay in a guest bedroom and when it gets really full I picked up a sweet mid-century day bed that makes it's home in my living room but also makes into a twin bed with the toss of the cushions a shake of a blanket.
Currently couch and/or inflatable mattress. Soon to be loft bed in the office/guest room, but we'll keep the mattress for when we have lots of visitors :-).
I usually re-arrange my son's room for guests. He is happy sleeping in the living room.
I have been thinking about buying a roll away bed since I have the space to store it. Anyone have any good tips on where to get a good one?
They sleep at a hotel.
But If I was a bit nicer, they could sleep on a cool inflatable mattress that is CRAZY comfortable. COSTCO!
The couch is quite comfy. I don't think they mind a bit until morning comes and my sheer curtains don't block the light from coming in!
Sofa bed with mandatory Costco 3-inch memory foam mattress topper. Huge difference. Especially since we have family visiting from Middle East and Europe, and we like them and want them to stay as long as they'd desire. If you visit us and we don't have the topper on the sofa bed, we probably don't want you to stay long ;-).
One guest (or one couple) in the teeny guest room on the double bed. One more guest, on the futon in the "exercise" room. More guests than that (maybe when my domestic partner's two sisters and nephew all come together) and my partner and I will double up and a guest will get my room. So it all depends on the numbers!
If it's my parents, they stay in my room and I sleep on the sectional in the living room.
If it's by best friend, he sleeps on the sectional.
If it's my long-distance boyfriend - He sleeps in my bed with me.
While my daughter and her kids lived with me, waiting for her to get back on her feet, she had a loft built in the front room, which I always thought of as the parlor. It's the sunniest room in the apartment, I was always just a teeeeeeny bit resentful of losing it as a space for me to spread out and relax. Now that she's moved on, I've decided to keep the loft as an imaginary upstairs extra bedroom. I created a tansu-style staircase/storage thing to replace the scary dorm-like vertical ladder, and that, of course, looks smashing, stuffed with books, vinyl, dvds, etc. The stuffing makes the boxes more secure for plenty of running up and down. The loft itself is equipped with a storage shelf for books, radio, a mirror, lamps and room for 3 tweens and 2 or more toddlers. We'll be putting it to the test this coming week when the nieces come up to visit for a week.
Our guests sleep on the murphy bed in the living room, which was a deal-sealer when we found this apartment. Closet by day, spare room by night!
We purposely picked out a sofa that was comfortable to sit on, but not tooooo comfortable where people would constantly want to crash at our place... they just get the stiff little $400 pleather sofa from ikea out in our living room. Someday though we'll probably be nice enough to buy a futon...
(BTW, all my family lives in town... so that mostly applies to friends who still live with their parents who try crashing at our place... understandable right?)
:)
Guests here would have three choices. The futon in the guest room actually makes out to a three-quarter bed (very old fashioned since it's bigger than a twin and not as big as a full)....so it's mainly for one but two might be able to sleep on it if they didn't mind cramped sleeping.
The other two choices are the comfy couch in the living room where if I take off the cushions it's just a bit smaller than a twin size bed and the twin inflatable mattress that I used to use while camping.
I don't know if I would ever keep a "real" bed around because then I feel like I would be encouraging people to stay over a lot - LOL - and I'd rather it be a weekend or less.
Best thing I did for my first place was spring for the upgraded mattress on my futon. I also have a black and white screen, so after folding out the screen, they have just enough privacy.
I make them sleep in my bed, unless they are staying over on a work night and then they usually make me sleep in my bed. I don't have a spare bedroom and would rather my guest have a nice sleep.
I make them sleep in my bed and I sleep on the couch. Unless it's a work night and then they usually take the couch and I take the bed.
The first two go on the queen bed in the guest bedroom, then there's a twin mattress for the office floor, and a pretty comfy fold flat couch, and after that it's sleeping bags in the sunroom (mostly for the boyfriend's college gang). Of course, larger groups are welcome to bring their own air mattresses as well...
We haven't figured out yet how to accommodate six couples and an infant for Thanksgiving, but we're working on it!
This will probably scare people who don't like out of town guests. We have a double bed in our guest room that most people get to use b/c it's comfy and separate with a dresser and night stand and even space in the closet for out of towners. THEN, we have a twin futon in our living room and a sofa that people can sleep on and THEN, we have a sectional with a queen bed and a chaise. We also have space in the office for a twin size air mattress. All in total, we can sleep 8 extra guests in our house or 6 people comfortably. This ridiculous amount of guest quarters has resulted from constant out of town guests and way too many "crazy" parties on New Years. Keep in mind we only have one bathroom so no one stays too long! :)
We do the age-based sleeping arrangements, too.
What's the story with the third sofa? (Orange with nailhead trim.
Age-based sleeping arrangements. If it's a couple, then they stay in the guest bedroom. If it's family, they can sleep on the couch or guest bedroom...they get first pick. If it's anyone younger than 29 then they can sleep on the couch or wherever they pass out, sometimes in our very own bed with us! We have an air mattress but have never used it for guests... we usually take it with us to other peoples places( we call in urban camping).
I was just wondering, where did the photo come from second one down, with the pinkish velvet sofa? I would love to have the picture frames. Does anyone know? Thanks
My guests either sleep on my sectional downstairs, or if they are close to me, (like sister or best friend) in the same bed with me. I do not give up comfort because I pay the bills. :-)
when my mom came to look after me for a couple of days in April when i had surgery, she stayed in a hotel a 5-minute drive way.
i MUST get furniture - soon!
:-)
We have a fold out futon in our guest bedroom. The rooms in our house are fairly tiny, so when we don't have guests, we find the room more usable without a bed taking up the space.