How many guests bedrooms do you have?

[Mrs. Dinero]

Another thread got me thinking about how much they actually cost.

How many extra bedrooms do you have?
How many guests and how many nights per year are they staying?
Could you live without the extra rooms?
Do you really enjoy them?

Ballpark figure of annual savings if you downsized to a house with less bedrooms?

[buystoys]

We have three bedrooms for the two of us.  One is a guest room, one our master, and the third is being redone to be my hobby hole.  We also have a den where we keep the computers and part of our library. 

We could live without the guest room, but it's nice to have when we need it.  It's better than putting people on the air mattress in the living room.  Once we get the hobby hole completed, I'll use it almost every day.  It will be wonderful to be able to leave a project out and just close the door so I don't see the mess.  I don't do a lot right now because I don't want to get everything out and put it all away every day.

There's not really a figure for us to downsize.  The 3/2 in this area is very popular whereas a 2/2 or 2/1 is difficult to find.  We might save a little bit on heating and cooling the third room, but it wouldn't be a lot. 

[Deleted]

One, I have zero desire to clean, maintain and pay for rooms that aren’t being used more than a few times a year. Heck the only reason I have that is the lack of available, decent 1 br homes.

If anyone has a problem staying over that can’t make it on an air mattress or couch there is a hotel across the street.

I have had one overnight guest since moving in 6 months ago, with Uber/Lyft I don’t have anywhere near the amount of overnight guests I used to since it is so easy to take those home after a few cocktails.

[MJ2.0]

I'm renting a 2 bed condo and I have a son, so zero. There is a lovely Holiday Inn Express just down the highway.

[TheOtherMe]

While I have two bedrooms, neither is set up as a guest bedroom.  

In the 9 years I have lived here, I have had exactly one overnight guest.  I'm not setting up a room for a guest.

If they don't want the couch, they can stay at a hotel.

[plugginaway22]

Yes we are in a 4 bedroom house with 3 guest rooms.  Raised our 3 kiddos here and have done over the whole place in 24 years.  We pay about 5k in annual property taxes.  In our area, there is nothing I want with fewer bedrooms, unless we want to start over and re-do the place.  Maybe if we were ready for a 2 bedroom condo, but DH and I love to garden and it would be very difficult to give up our private backyard.  Lot of waste keeping it heated and cooled?  Taxes are not that significantly less with a 3 BR home.
Two of my kiddos live out of town and do stay in their old rooms maybe several times/year.  Our DD1 lives locally and has a 3 bedroom home.
Downsizing has been in my sights, as far as keeping the property in shape so that we could sell if the perfect property came up for sale.

[taz157]

We have a 4 bedroom house. DH and I use the master bedroom. DD has her own room. We have a guest bedroom that is used very often (DH’s parents stay her when they are on this side of the state, which isn’t often anymore). The 4th bedroom is if/when we have another kid. After 4 miscarriages, not sure if/when that will happen... Currently, the 4th bedroom is closed majority of the time and has “stuff” in it that can be moved if/when needed.

[Deleted]

I have 5 bedrooms.  Three are being used by myself and the two boys.   One is set up as a guest bedroom.  One is just empty, but easily converted to a guest room with an air mattress.    Do I enjoy them?  I don't know.  Not really I guess, but they're nice to have when I need them.  This Summer I had 8 guests for 2 weeks and it was actually comfortable.   Downsizing would mean moving to town or getting rid of my horse set up, so not really interested in that unless I have to.   The cost difference is more due to the acreage and outbuildings than house size.   


As to the question could I live without them?  Heck yeah.  I could live without 4 of the 5.  I'd make the boys share a room and I'd sleep in the living room.   I could live without a lot of the things I have.  

[giramomma]

0 guest bedrooms.  We're a family of 6 with four bedrooms. Folks still have to double up, since I take one of the bedrooms to teach in.

But, we did set up our lower family room so it could accommodate guests. Still, no guests, aside from sleepovers for the kids.

I find the lack of guests to be more of a function of proximity to family and lack of family more than anything else. An only child that has an only child for one parent doesn't make for a large nuclear family, kwim?

We also live within a 1.5 hour drive for most family. So staying overnight isn't a real need, either.

What could we save by putting everyone in a two or three bedroom home? Not much, actually. PITI is 850, due to us putting down a 55% down payment on the house. Post WW2 homes that have 2-3 bedrooms run 100K more than our house because of the neighborhood. I'm not willing to pay 350+ for 1200 or so sq feet.

Even two bedroom apartments in the hood cost more than 800/month in rent. Of course, we would save a couple hundred on utilities.  But i don't know that I'd want to make 6 people in 700 sq feet work long term.

[Cookies Galore]

We have a guest bedroom that also houses the linens and my dresses, and it's the place where I throw random crap to get out of my sight. It is used by actual sleeping humans a few times a year.

We have a three bedroom house for the two of us. Third bedroom is really small and has my hubs' grandmother's green velvet couch in it so it's just an extra tv/video game room. Comes in handy when we have parties and our friends' kids have a place to go. We could definitely live in a two bedroom house, which I'd actually prefer. Hell, the first nine years of our relationship were spent in small one bedroom apartments.

[NoNamePerson]

One if needed. I can sleep on my sofa as well as in my bed.   

[Tiny]

I have 2 bedrooms - one for me and one with computer, cat boxes, and some storage of odds and ends- it's never been used as a bedroom. I use an aero bed in the living room when someone spends the night. If I didn't have cats I'd probably have a twin bed (or some sort of something that converts into a bed) in the computer room for guests.

In the past I've have one person overnight 4 or 5 times a year (I'm close to the airport so I usually have a late arrival/early departure guest). A family member has stayed 5 to 7 days once or twice in the past - but they mostly just needed someplace to sleep/shower as they were doing something on their own during the day (they weren't here specifically to visit me.) Since I've had to play host very minimally I didn't mind - it was like having an extra cat, but one that actually made the coffee in the morning before I got up.

When I was house hunting I was looking for a 3 bedroom house - mind you these are old time houses - so the bedrooms would have been 11*10, 10*10, 10*10 - in an 1100 to 1200 sq ft house. I wanted a "cat room" and a spare bedroom (hobby room). Instead I got 2 big bedrooms and much bigger dining room (my hobby room) and a huge living room in my 1200sqft house.


And as an aside: I recently saw a 2bedroom house in my neighborhood for sale - and they had a murphy bed wall unit in their 2nd bedroom (which was used as an office). I thought that was pretty cool. And I wish I had thought of that 20years ago... I would have spent the $$ for that in my current house.

[Deleted]

Interestingly enough, even with all the extra bedrooms, I'm looking forward to the kids being out (or my 8 year old being willing to have a lower level bedroom), so I can have both the upstairs bedrooms (there are 2 up and 3 down).  I will turn the 2nd upstairs one back into the office it was pre-kids.   I have no interest in having an office in the lower level even though I have tons of space for one down there.  

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

We have 4 bedrooms, but only one right now is set up as a guest room.  One room has exercise equipment in it, another room has an old waterbed that needs to be put back together (it was taken apart for the room to be painted and never put back together).  Both rooms have been used once, but the single available guest room has been used several times over the past year......probably for a combined 6 weeks or so.

[countrygirl2]

We only have 3 bedrooms, never thought we would be grandparents so was not even a thought when we bought this house.  I mean son was married 15 years and no kids. Now we need another guest room but not to feasible.  Maybe we will eventually get another bedroom in the basement, don't know.

[dannylion]

I live by myself in a 4-bedroom house.  

One spare bedroom is my sewing room with built-in cabinets and work counters.  I could shift some of the other furniture and squeeze in a camp bed if I had to.  One spare bedroom is my "library" lined with bookshelves.  It's already a small room, and the bookshelves and reading chair/lamp/table arrangement limits the floor space.  Again, furniture could be rearranged to accommodate a bed if necessary.  The third spare bedroom is the "guest room" with an actual nice bed and other accommodations for guests.  It is currently largely inaccessible because it is also the repository and staging area for the upstairs decluttering project.  

So, I have lots of potential room for guests, but it would take considerable work to make it happen.   

I never have overnight guests, so it has so far not been a problem.  I've lived alone for so many years that as much as I would enjoy seeing certain cousins or far-away friends, I think I might dread the thought of sharing my space with other people, no matter how welcome they might otherwise be.  I have clearly become a grumpy old person.  

[lynnerself]

There are just the 2 of us now in a 4 bedroom house. One bedroom has always been the office/ craft/ storage room. What used to be my kids bedrooms could now be considered guest bedrooms. DS comes home to visit 3 or 4 times a year. But now that DD and her husband have an infant and only live an hour away, she no longer spends the night. We might have other guests maybe once a year.

We are looking to downsize in about 3 years. But will still want a 3 bed/ 2 bath house. Unfortunately I want an upgraded house even tho smaller and so there will probably be no savings.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

I have a 5 bedroom, just 3 of us. The 2 extras have been used on and off as personal studies for particular people, general rooms, and now I'm in between redefining purpose. We also have a front room and parlor and the parlor also is not really well used. The parlor has a desk and a piano in there, with large built in book shelves. But I haven't played in years and neither of the kids had too much interest in taking it up. I think I it's time for another purge of books and a reorg of that whole space.

We were in a 550 sf apartment in a multi-unit I owned, although the attic there was used as a bedroom for teens - extremely rustic but teens don't care! And sometimes we used 2 of the 3 apts for ourselves.

When I sold that I may have over-reacted to the "we need more space!" I don't really regret it, but wished they were better organized and then better used. The weekly housekeeper takes care of the cleaning aspect so that isn't an issue.

So - we could easily do without the 3 extra rooms (2 bed and the parlor - and I suppose the piano. I think I want to go back to it though!). But - I am in the middle of a major life/house reorg, so will see what I think when I have everything like I want it. if it is too many rooms or what. 

[wvugurl26]

We have a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath townhouse. I like having the half bath near the main floor. It's nice that guests don't have to go upstairs. Currently both extra bedrooms are set up as guest rooms. The closets in both of those rooms hold our seasonal linens, my shoes and our work clothes.

We get overnight guests a few times a year. My dad and grandma visited in October. They live 5 hours away.

I wouldn't want less space. Since we got a new HVAC system this summer our heating and cooling is running $100/ month. We have around 1400 sq ft.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

adding on - no idea of the cost, but I am sure it is quite a bit. I have one of very few houses on a double lot. (its its actually a large lot, and then 1/2 another lot). There are no smaller homes on larger lots in the neighborhood so it is difficult to determine what cost goes to what level of excess.

The extra land is also not being well used of late! But having a side driveway is used daily, so there is that.

[pooks]

We have a 4 bedroom house.  1 bedroom for us, 1 bedroom for DD, and 2 guest rooms.  We were only looking for a 3 bedroom house when we bought this house, but there wasn't any price difference between the 3 and 4 bedroom houses that we looked at.  This worked out well, because people visit us in groups, which I didn't foresee.  When we bought the house, we didn't consider the stepsons getting married and having kids so quickly, but here we are.  

[ken a.k.a OMK]

We down sized to a 3 BR cape cod. 1852 sf. Master BR, guest BR and my ham radio/den. Family room has a sofa bed. My ham room has a trundle. A few times a year my wife has her 6 girlfriends stay for a weekend event. Plenty of room. I am an   living with 7 women. Actually I've know most of them for like ever. One is my sister.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Jan 6, 2019 12:27:23 GMT -5 pooks said:

We have a 4 bedroom house.  1 bedroom for us, 1 bedroom for DD, and 2 guest rooms.  We were only looking for a 3 bedroom house when we bought this house, but there wasn't any price difference between the 3 and 4 bedroom houses that we looked at.  This worked out well, because people visit us in groups, which I didn't foresee.  When we bought the house, we didn't consider the stepsons getting married and having kids so quickly, but here we are.  

I did actually envision this large house as a homestead for generations of rukhs. But both rukh jrs are totally non-interest in continuing the line, at least at this time, so seems perhaps a wasted effort. 

I am not sure which direction I will go - keeping it as a family legacy as originally intended, or downsizing later.

[alabamagal]

I am not an advocate of having extra rooms for guests. I think it is one of those HGTV “must haves” that are just excessive.

When my kids were at home, we had a 4br home with a kid in each room. When we had guests, DD would get kicked out her room - she had the old MBR suite. Of course, our most frequent guests were my parents and they would drive up in their own guest room, aka a motor home.

Now we have a 3br house, with queen size beds in the 2 extra rooms. I normally sleep in one extra room (our marriage is much better with sleeping separately 😁). The other bedrooom is DH hobby room with computer (plus extra bed).

So I rant against guest rooms but I have them. It was nice over holidays when 2 sons and SOs visited. Also at one point DD and DSIL lived with us for 4 months. So our rooms do get use.

[oped]

1 - mostly finished. 

Yes it must be necessary because it wasn't intended and yet its one of the things getting finished before other things that were intended, as is the half bath next to it which was originally a long way down the list. 

My sister spends a few weeks here the last two falls. We call it her room. But also the kids frequently have other people in the house who crash there.... and on every couch and extra surface available... 

One consideration for ever fostering is if we use the 'extra' room what would we do with the extra people on those occasions? 

In the old house when our kids were very young and shared a room we used to host interns and foreign exchange students on a regular basis, but during the years they had their own and we had no spare it was something i missed not having the space to do that. It's nice to have the option again. 

[Deleted]

I have 3 bedrooms. I'm not even sure I could call them guest bedrooms at this point, since my "guests" tend to not leave. Which is why I went a few years purposefully not having beds in the other 2 bedrooms. Anyway, that's a subject for another time.

I like having the extra rooms when they are empty. My house isn't that big and doesn't have a lot of storage space, so it's nice to have a couple extra closets. The closet in my bedroom is small, so I use one of the closets in another bedroom to store my off season clothes and clothes and shoes I don't wear regularly, like cocktail dresses and such. When my kids were growing up, I stored off season clothes in the attic. I'd rather not go up there now if I don't absolutely have to. I also use one of the rooms as a kind of "holding" space for things that temporarily have no place to go.

After mentioning the attic, I guess I do have storage space, kinda. I have a shed in the backyard, an attic, and a garage. The extra bedrooms are just more convenient for some things.

I wouldn't save any money buying a house with fewer bedrooms. That would be hard to find around here anyway. There's nowhere I would be comfortable living in my area that I could pay less, regardless of the number of bedrooms. Even a 1 or 2 bedroom condo or apartment would cost more than my current mortgage payment. 

[Anne_in_VA]

We have a 3 bedroom house and one bedroom is a guest room.  We use it when the grandkids have a sleepover with us or if we have out of town visitors.  The smallest bedroom is DH’s “man cave”, but it will soon become my office “woman cave” when I retire.  DH will then take over thefamily room as his office and play space.  He’ll have his dart board, tv, Wii and office set up in there with a couch and chair.  

[jeffreymo]

We don’t have a guest bedroom. We have 3 bedrooms for our family of 5. King, Queen, and bunk bed w/trundle. We have in-laws/my parents overnight 7-10 times per year. We kick our oldest out of his room and he sleeps on the trundle in the bunk bed room. 2 times per year we’ll have a full house - our 5 plus 6 or 7 others. We have a pull out sofa and an aerobed in our partially finished basement where we usually put the teenagers, and our guests will usually bring an aerobed or 2 of their own.

We’d like to upgrade to a 4/5br 3.5ba to make it more comfortable for our growing extended family.

[Lizard Queen]

We could have one, but we don't right now. We have a 3/1.5, but the boys are currently sharing a bedroom since I bought them a cool bunk bed. The bedrooms are pretty small, the currently unoccupied one being the smallest. Well, I guess we have a guestroom for a toddler, since the toddler bed is still set up in there! We recently remodeled our den, and it now has a barn door to close it off, so it works fine for guests with the sofa sleeper in there. Despite only living < 10 miles away, my MIL availed herself of it for 5 days starting on Christmas. I swear--the guests we would gladly welcome aren't interested, and then we end up with an unnecessary guest, overstaying her welcome. Best not to make things too comfortable for guests (ahem...her), I guess.

[Deleted]

We have 3 bedrooms, but DH and I each have our own.  The dog shares with me.    The third one is used as an office.

My sister stays with us every summer for about 10-14 days.  Originally, DH gave up his bedroom because it was the original guest bedroom.  But he didn't want to a few years ago.  So we bought a sleeper sofa for the sunroom.

She is the only person who stays with us.