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How to host family for the holidays: beds, arrivals and airport runs

How to plan holiday houseguests: count your beds, write down every arrival, check who is staying each night, give everyone a bed, time the airport runs and get the house ready, counting back from the first arrival.

Family coming to stay is the best part of the holidays, right up until you realize nine people need somewhere to sleep on Christmas Eve and you have beds for eight.

The fix is not a bigger house. It is knowing, night by night, who is under your roof, and finding the short night now instead of at eleven o'clock on the night itself.

Step 1: Count your beds, honestly

List every place someone can sleep and how many it sleeps: guest beds, sofa beds, air mattresses, bunks, cribs and travel cots. Count only what you would happily sleep on yourself.

Step 2: Write down every party's travel

• Who is in the party: adults, kids and anyone who needs a crib.
• Arriving: the date, the time and how (driving, flying, train or bus).
• Leaving: the date and time.
• Whether they need a pickup or a drop-off, and from where.

Ask for flight and train numbers when people book. A text with the times saves a lot of guessing later.

Step 3: Count heads night by night

A guest sleeps over every night from the day they arrive to the night before they leave. Someone leaving on the 27th is not in a bed on the night of the 27th. Count each night against your beds.

These made-up numbers show why the night-by-night count matters: the house is fine on four nights and one short on Christmas Eve. Now there is time to fix it, by borrowing a camp bed, asking one party to arrive a day later or booking a room nearby for one night.

Step 4: Give every guest a bed for every night

• Real beds first for anyone older, unwell or with a bad back.
• Kids together where they can, in sleeping bags if they are happy to.
• The light sleeper away from the early riser and the room by the kitchen.
• Cribs and travel cots near the parents.
• One bed, one party per night, so nobody is moved halfway through the visit.

Step 5: Plan the airport and station runs

List every pickup and drop-off in date order. For each one, work out when to leave home: the arrival time, plus time for bags, minus the drive. Then give each run a driver.

Step 6: Get the house ready, counting back from the first arrival

• Two weeks before: test the air mattresses and cots, count pillows, blankets and towels.
• One week before: wash the spare bedding, clear a drawer or a few hooks for each party.
• Two days before: make up the beds, stock easy breakfasts and extra toilet paper.
• The day of: a towel on every bed, a night light in the hall, the Wi-Fi password by the kettle.

A small welcome goes a long way

Nothing fancy: a towel, a glass and a bottle of water, a spare phone charger and a note with the Wi-Fi password and roughly when breakfast happens. Guests relax faster when they know how the house runs.

The pocket version (save or screenshot)

What if there are more guests than beds?

Look at the busiest night first, because it is usually only one or two. Stagger an arrival by a day, borrow a camp bed or air mattress, let the cousins have a sleeping-bag night in the living room, or book one room nearby for that night only.

How do I tell guests how long to stay?

Put the dates in the invitation: "We would love to have you from the 23rd to the 26th." Clear dates up front are kinder than hints later, and they let you plan the beds and the meals.

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What is in the Holiday Houseguest Planner?

The Holiday Houseguest Planner is a spreadsheet for Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers or LibreOffice. You list your beds and how many each one sleeps, add each party's travel once, then each guest with their party and bed. Their dates and nights fill in from their party, and anyone arriving on another day can have their own.

A night-by-night grid shows who is staying, with spots left and a warning on nights you are short of beds. The Bed Plan shows each bed, night by night, with clashes in red. Rides lists every pickup and drop-off in date order with the time to leave home and the driver, and flags rides you could combine. A prep list of 20 jobs is dated back from the first arrival.

Planners that do this for you

Holiday Houseguest Planner

$6.00Arrivals · rooms and beds · airport pickups · who's staying when

Holiday Travel & Family Visit Planner

$7.00Route · bookings · gifts · packing · shared costs

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Updated 2026-11-06.