I prefer to meet them in MY home - I don't like going to other folks' homes, in most cases. I prefer to go with what I know!

My parents brought me up to always invite people over after I've been to their homes. Just good manners.

In our group of acquaintances, we are the entertainers :^).
We love having company, so we do gather folks together pretty regularly. Most folks enjoy themselves and are quick to send a thank you!
Most people do not return the invitation, but if they enjoy themselves in my home, that makes me happy! We have a couple of parties a year, (as well as lots of Sunday lunches) which are well attended, so I will keep it up and be thankful that we have such good friends!
Thanks for asking.

I prefer having people over too. Very informal. Outdoors. Fish fry, turkey fry, cooking over the firepit. Sitting around the fire talking.

Generally people should reciprocate... but with life experiences, I notice there are many exceptions so it kind of ends up changing the normal rules for me.

We have one couple that invites us over a lot... but are never free when we invite them... if they have free weekends, they plan to have people over, so it makes it hard for us to reciprocate. Actually, it kind of annoys me... What do the rules say about people too busy to ever accept your invitation?

What about someone who invites you to their big Halloween party every year... do you have to have them over individually if you don't throw big parties? Will those hosts even be able to fit in going back to everyone's house? 50-100 guests = 50 dinner invites a year!

There are just so many exceptions with kids, babies, jobs, illnesses and stuff...it's not always reasonable to expect people can invite you over. Also, some people don't have enough space or money to entertain while others do and really enjoy it. Should you say no to an invite if you know you can't easily reciprocate?

I mean, my husband gets and gives out hundred dollar sporting events tickets to friends, but he doesn't expect people to reciprocate with the same thing or dollar amount.

I don't really look at the return invitation thing... but the friendship as a whole... If one person is always giving and one is always taking, then I may quit inviting... but a lot of my friends provide things other than a return party invite.. One of my friends never has us over but she helps watch my kids sometimes. Some people just really don't entertain or even go out to dinner often. I guess it depends on what your look for in a friend, how many friends you have, and what you feel about your friend. A friend with good emotional support means more to me than one who reciprocates my party invites.

I like having people over but rarely do although we are often invited to other people's houses.

Why? One set of friends drink too much so they prefer to be at their house, another set has a large house with pool table/big screen TV etc. so they like entertaining at their house, my mom and dad like staying home and my SIL always complains how far it is to our house (although we don't complain about the drive to their house). lol Everyone else is just too busy or too many miles away.

We do have at least one birthday party, a bonfire and a fish fry every year so we do entertain. We just need to find different people to invite over at other times. :-)

I love inviting friends over for a meal. About four times a year I gather our friends and cook the main course. Everyone else brings something to go with what I have fixed. I don't feel that anyone needs to reciprocate. One couple does buy me lunches when we go out shopping together. One fellow is a snowbird and doesn't cook but he is great fun. I have known these people for years and they are considered family. I feel good that they want to come to my house and enjoy staying and visiting afterwards.

I have a friend that NEVER invites me to do anything but if I invite her she always goes. One day she told me that she figures if you are the one inviting someone to do something then you should pay for whatever it is. Say...if there's a really good movie playing and I know it's a chick flick that DH wouldn't want to go see then I would call and invite her to a girls night, we would go to dinner and the movie and I would always pay for everything! I noticed that she never invites so she doesn't have to pay. It's not like they don't have the money it's just one of her things she does. So if she goes out she goes with someone else because I got fed up with picking up the tab all the time.