You have a house guest coming to town for a week. You like this person and don’t want to burn any bridges. If you had to choose between these two personalities, which would you find easier to handle?
The person who always has lots of wants for where to go and what to do, or
The person who says “Whatever you want to do is fine with me” who is content watching TV the whole visit.
Definitely number one. Whenever I have the “oh, I’m up for whatever” type of guest, I feel reminded of Father Stone. Clip doesn’t do it justice, but it’s a “Father Ted” episode revolving around a house guest who gives yes or no answers to all questions, sits on the couch staring blankly at the wall, and seems slightly disappointed at all times. Far too much pressure on the host.
As long as #1 is happy to go out and about on their own at least some of the time, then that’s the kind of guest I prefer. Our best friends are like this, and that’s part of why it’s no nice to have them visit and to travel together. We almost always have dinner together, but during the day, those who want to do activities do them, and those who want to just hang out do that. No one minds either way. I wouldn’t mind at all having someone come visit who just wanted to hang around the house, as long as they were truly happy with that and not resentful of others coming and going as they pleased.
Sometimes the first type of houseguest suggests some cool place to go that I’ve never heard of despite living here. And having out-of-town guests provides you with the excuse to do all of that “touristy” stuff that you think you’re too cool to do. (I’ve found that when you live someplace, you tend not to do this stuff, even though other people are spending their vacation there just to do this stuff.)
Bein’ a lazy cuss, I’m fine with the second bloke. Give him the TV remote control, and then do what I wanted to do anyway. Like having a cat.
did I invite this person over because I wanted to do things or did he come into town and ask if he could stay with me because he needed somewhere to crash
I guess I’d still say 2 either way
I’m the type of guy who’d be content to watch TV all week
#2. My sister-in-law and her family are #1s, and it drives me batty. We’ve just moved to the Seattle area and they’re visiting in the spring. I’m scared stiff.
I’m a number 2 all the way, so I’d definitely prefer a number 2 as well.
Whichever, so long as they’re not Requesting and Requiring me to take part in anything I’m not interested in.
First one wants to go places? Any places I want to go to as well, I’ll join. Any I don’t, I won’t.
Second wants to sit on the sofa and watch TV? Great by me, but we are NOT watching sports. You want to watch sports, go find a bar. There’s half a dozen within a few hundred meters and they all have TVs.
Actually, a little clarification for number two…
Do you mean number two as in “A person who will want the host to do whatever they want (as in continue doing what they do, go where they want, when they want) and leave the guest alone” or do you mean “A person who will leave it up to the host to decide where to go/visit/do along with the guest, but not to feel obligated, because otherwise they’ll just be happy watching TV the whole trip”?
Because I’m more of a 2B kind of person and would prefer a 2B kind of person. I’m not a 2A kind of person. I’d definitely want to do things if I’m visiting someone in their local area, but I’d leave it more up to the person who actually lives there as they’d know best what would be most fun, where would be the best to go, what times would be the best to do it, etc…
…and just letting them know that if they didn’t ever feel like going out anywhere or doing anything, well, then TV is fine.
If I were visiting and they all went out somewhere without me (like to a museum or hiking or something), then I’d be a little bit like “Okay, why didn’t you ask if I wanted to come? I did say ‘whatever you wanted, I’d be fine with doing’”
Of course, I’d probably make it pretty clear I was a 2B person and not a “Feel free to do things without me, I’ll find my own things” 2A person.
It depends. Someone’s in town for a reason other than just to visit me and is mostly just crashing at my place? Type 2 is fine – I can throw some ideas out, and if nothing takes, we can always cue up Netflix or whatever.
If someone’s coming to visit me, and there’s nothing else to occupy their time in town, I really prefer they have at least some idea of what they want to do. I’m more than willing to make suggestions and help refine an itinerary, but I’m not your travel agent.
That comes as no surprise.
As a frequent house guest in my sister-in-law’s house, it’s #2. My relation with her? Clue: I miss my mother-in-law.
It comes as no surprise that I’m happy to let my kind hosts take me to where they want whenever the time is best for them?
Well, thank you. I typically try to be thoughtful, even when traveling. 
When I was younger - a #1.
Now that I’m older - a #2.
The tv watcher would force me to figure out the tv situation, which would be a pain in the ass.
I bought a nice new flatscreen tv so we could watch the 2012 presidential debates. That’s the last time we watched tv here. I watch tv in bars, streaming on my iPad. When we tried watching last year’s Super Bowl, the dish was f’ed up. My gf pays the dish and she has tried a few times to remedy the situation; we apparently need updated equipment, but the tv is still unusable and it will remain so until she deals with it.
So, I’d take the other dude.
In reality when we have house guests we just do stuff and they tag along or don’t.
I’m leaning towards the first one. I sit around and do nothing too much as it is.
Type 2. Doing stuff exhausts me.
Yikes. I just realized they are coming for a week. No. House guests are welcome for a weekend. People coming to town for a freaking week stay in a hotel and come over for a day or two during the weekend.
i’ll be a guest at my brother’s home in about 10 hours, and we have a pretty set plan: Thursdays is food and digesting food, so not much happening. Friday is sitting around the house, reading and computing. Saturday I usually go ‘walkabout’ around the city for 6-7 hours on my own, as they are pretty much stay-home and watch the TV folks.
Sunday I drive back.
So far it’s worked out pretty well.