# Guests and towels **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 29, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395 "2009-11-29T23:15:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395/41 "2009-12-01T02:47:54Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > People really honestly bring their own towels to people’s houses? What kind of luggage are you hauling around with you? What _else_ do you have in there? Depends on the expected length of stay, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395/42 "2009-12-01T03:06:30Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > As a host your first duty is to always make guest feel comfortable in your home… > [@RTFirefly](#): > > … > The problem is with party or dinner guests. We’ve got a bunch of fluffy but attractive guest towels, and when we’ve got company coming, we remove the towels we’ve been using from the hall bathroom and toss them in the wash, and put six or seven of the guest towels on the towel racks. At the end of the evening, maybe one of them looks like it’s been used, and I know the bathroom’s been used much more often than that. > … I remember this very issue being addressed as a point of etiquette by one columnist or another (Miss Manners, maybe?) years ago… What this particular etiquette maven suggested was that guests feel more comfortable if they don’t feel like they are imposing or causing more work for their hosts (using the special towels that will have to be re-laundered and ironed, etc.) so a good host(ess) should be sensitive to this and rather than putting out pristine, cutesy or fussy guest towels in perfect symmetry and looking nice, s/he should instead put out the requisite number of towels and then crumple them up a little giving them a (very) slightly used appearance. That way the guests won’t feel guilty about using them and the host(ess) won’t worry that the guests are using the shower curtain, the cat, or what have you to dry their hands. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395/43 "2009-12-01T15:33:45Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > People really honestly bring their own towels to people’s houses? What kind of luggage are you hauling around with you? What _else_ do you have in there? Anecdote - when I was about a year out of college, I stayed overnight with a friend who I had graduated with. In the morning, I innocently asked if he had a towel. He and his girlfriend went into their bedroom and shut the door. Some conversation went on, getting louder and more frantic. I could hear drawers being opened and closed. Finally, after 10 minutes or so, they came out and handed me an old, threadbare, but clean towel. Several months later, I spent another night with the same friends. I brought a towel with me, but as soon as I arrived they happily presented me with a brand new towel to use in the morning. Not wanting to hurt their feelings, I used the towel, only to find they hadn’t washed it after buying it, so I was now covered head to toe with new towel lint. I wound up wiping off the lint with the towel I had brought. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395/44 "2009-12-01T15:58:28Z")
So… how do you think they dried themselves? My aunt had these miserable tiny not-all-cotton threadbare towels, and when we stayed with her it was _awful_, so we bought her towels for Christmas. I guess they’re too nice for just family, because we went back after and she’d left the same horrible towels for us - we snooped and found the good ones in the linen closet with the tags still on. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395/45 "2009-12-01T16:01:18Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > So… how do you think they dried themselves? > > My aunt had these miserable tiny not-all-cotton threadbare towels, and when we stayed with her it was _awful_, so we bought her towels for Christmas. I guess they’re too nice for just family, because we went back after and she’d left the same horrible towels for us - we snooped and found the good ones in the linen closet with the tags still on. Either they only had a single towel each, or I caught them right before laundry day and all their towels were dirty. Trust me, if they had handed me a wrinkled, slightly damp towel, I would have skipped showering. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395/46 "2009-12-01T21:07:39Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Either they only had a single towel each, or I caught them right before laundry day and all their towels were dirty. Trust me, if they had handed me a wrinkled, slightly damp towel, I would have skipped showering. Maybe they just sat around naked for a awhile after showering. 🙂 Seriously, people bring their own bath towels when they travel? :dubious: I thought only germophobes did that (though Nava’s exampla makes some sense). I’ve brought my own _beach towel_ on trips if thought I’d be swimming or using a hotube. Oh, and of course on camping trips, but to a hotel or somebody’s house? Do people also travel with their own toilet paper? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395/47 "2009-12-02T08:25:30Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > I keed, I keed. I’d never be able to catch the cat, I’m certain. Chicken offerings (deboned, of course) do wonders for a cat’s disposition. Those look like fine towels to me, **FCM**. I don’t have hand towels except in the kitchen. Never bought a towel set in my life; it’s either the ones that are a good size to use as a headwrap or the full-body ones. I’m curious about the people who said they wouldn’t use what looks like “fussy” towels (because, you know, they’re for decorating and not for using) but who wouldn’t use the “regular” towels either. Would you use the “regular” towels if your host took them out of the linen closet and put them out in front of you? What degree of fussiness would be appropriate to let you know that the towels are both usable and pristine? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guests-and-towels/519395.md?page=2)