The saying goes that "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days".
It's one of the many issues explored in Lionel Shriver's latest novel, Big Brother, in which the narrator's brother well and truly outstays his welcome. For "two whole months" Edison kept "unsociable hours", failed to use coasters under cups on the rosewood coffee table and routinely drenched the bathmat.
His sister suspected he smoked inside her smoke-free home. He ruined a mattress, damaged kitchen implements, broke a wineglass and melted a pot handle.
(Interestingly, opinion is divided as to whether a good houseguest should cook a meal. Some people see it as contributing positively to the household while others view it as messing up a pristine kitchen.)
As with most things in life, context is everything - and there's no one-size-fits-all rule for how long a houseguest should stay. Factors that can impact on the likely acceptable duration of a visit include: how well the guest knows the host, how disruptive the guest is to the host's routine, how well behaved the guest is, how tolerant the host is, what other pressures the host might be experiencing and how spacious the residence is.
