My experience:

You get the guests you thought you would, but not as often.

They don't overlap like you planned.

You could actually do with one less guest room.

But then your house would have less resale value (maybe).

Oh, forgot to add, we have 2 guest rooms plus the ability to sleep more in the office if necessary (has happened once in 6 years).

We are a retired couple who built our house in FL where people do come to visit. However like JJ said, not as often as you think and not multiples as you think. In the 3 years I've been in the house I only had one extra guest 2x.

If you haven't already, I highly suggest you start by reading The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. It helped me tremendously.

First I built a fairly large house. Mine is 2870 square feet. However, what I did was make every space in my house do double duty and I put the most resources into my public spaces. So my kitchen, dining area (not dining room) and living room are large enough to entertain lots of guests comfortably. And being in FL, I also had both the living room and dining area, open with sliders to the lanai to also increase the usuable entertaining area.

Additionally, we have what could technically be called a 4 br, 2.5 bath house. However that's not how it's used.

Downstairs is our master suite, the living/dining/living room space, a nice sized mudroom/friend's enty and my DH's study which technically could be called bedroom 4. Near his study is the half bath which we designed so it could be enlarged if needed to a full bath.

Upstairs (we have an elevator because we're on a small city infill lot), we have the actual guest bedroom that doubles as our exercise room by having the bed be a Murphy bed.

Then there's a bathroom with shower and my studio which has a pull out sofa. For those two times we had an overflow guest, I gave up my studio for the couple of days our guest visited.

Every room in our house is used almost daily. Also my studio is large only because of the way it worked out with the structure. Because of the way the upstairs is designed, if we went smaller, it actually would have cost more to build the studio becuase it would have needed extra support. We kept the actual house structure fairly simple. It's a U shaped house.

Have you discussed this with your architect? They are usually in the best position to help and advise you on all kinds of questions you have including this one. They know you, they know your budget, they know your site, they know your area, and they know a lot of things that effect your situation. Other people's stories are great, but you're not building their dream, you're building yours.

I have had clients that want several bedrooms each with a bathroom for visiting relatives and guests; and I have had clients that wants a large flat grassy area for relatives and guests to pitch their tents.

We have 2 dedicated guest rooms, with the option of two more (one is a sitting /TV room with full bath, and the other is an office/TV room with access to a full bath), if needed. We have 3,800 finished sq. ft. We do seem to get a lot of guest. One daughter and family live out of town. We also have intown grandchildren that spend the night occasionally.

About the square footage, our previous house was 3 bed 2 bath and a dedicated study, pen floor plan, separate dining by kitchen and another breakfast nook for about 2000 sqft. I would have liked another half bath atleast.

We are currently building our retirement dream home. At 1636 sq ft, 3 BR/2 BA, it's not huge, but it is what we can easily maintain. One of the extra bedrooms will be a dedicated guest room. On the rare, rare occasion we have more guests than that, we will either purchase an inflatable mattress or, if it's just one additional person, s/he can sleep on the sofa. Like others have said, unless you think you really will be hosting more than one family at a time with any regularity, it's not necessarily the best use of space to have multiple guest rooms. It will cost more to build, heat, air condition, and more time to clean/maintain. Best of luck in your plans!

It really depends on who visits and for how long. My in laws built a three bed plus office age in place home with a basement. They, at this point, live on the main floor only which has a large master suite, powder, office and open concept kitchen/dining/living.

In the basement there are two bedrooms a bathroom and a large rec room. When we come to visit we fill the whole basement. All of it! Two kids in one room, one in the other, we sleep on Murphy bed in the recliner room.

We visit, every few months or more, in not covid times. They purposefully built the home with the intention of having guests and they love that we are comfy. Could they have built less and we would still come, of course! Do we appreciate the space and comfort, 100%

You might think about how many days a year you'd enjoy having guests. Are you fine building, heating and cooling, decorating, cleaning, and paying additional taxes on square footage and bathrooms that will stand empty most of the time? Do you want people *in* the house with you for extended periods? Would you prefer a guest house?

We built our 4 bedroom, 4 bath retirement home in a golf community - enough room for a foursome and their spouses. I love having the extra room, especially since our daughter moved in during the pandemic, and is using a corner of a spare guest room as her office.

We don't have children -- that said, we're building our dream retirement home for us, and it's a lovely 2 miles from a lovelier hotel. :)

Some guest we love hosting. Some we prefer to stay in a hotel. 😁

jkm6712 - We are currently in a rental house with two bedrooms. Our daughter, husband, and dog moved in with us for a month so that our daughter could have hip surgery because of an accident. She could not do stairs and their house had no downstairs bedroom or full bath.

For the retiree's, don't forget to have an extra bedroom and full bath for live-in help. You never know when you might need it. We learned that lesson the hard way after we were all injured 18 months ago in the aforementioned accident. Thankfully, at that time, we were in our previous home.

@nhb22 we are definitely putting in a bedroom + full bath for the possibility we may need live-in help someday. Hope we don't, but at least we won't need a remodel if we do.

I have a 2200 sqft 2-story home. Not including the basement, we have five bedrooms and 3 full baths. We also have an open kitchen/dining/family room and a mud room. None of the bedrooms are large, but they accommodate everything we need. We can fit about 18 people comfortably in our great room. When designing a smaller home, efficiency is everything. You do not need huge rooms for guests who are only visiting occasionally. And you want to make sure the house feels inviting and cozy when it's just the two of you. Design first for how you live day-to-day. Most of our grandparents had small homes and we still created some great memories there!

Good point Kristin. My grandparents had the smallest house ever, yet I so fondly remember holidays there with us kids overtaking the spaces. My grandmother's kitchen was maybe 10' square yet she still managed to cook some amazing meals.

Kristin Petro Interiors, Inc. - I would love to see photos of your great-room and seeing how you can accommodate that many people. We are building with the same arrangement, but can only come up with sitting for maybe 10 in our great room, not counting anyone sitting at the island or at a table.

Yes, what Kristin said! When we were first married, my in laws lived for in a rustic A-frame in the woods. It had only two bedrooms, one bathroom, a loft at the peak accessed by a ladder, and a small kitchen. Somehow we packed lots of people in there for holiday celebrations, and two additional couples were able to spend the night (one in the guest room, one in the loft on a mattress on the floor). Three dogs also! If there had been kids involved at that point, they could have slept on cots and sleeping bags in the living room. Sure, it wasn't fancy, but it was all about the family time and love there. I have such great memories.

@nhb22 I included kitchen, dining and family room seating in that estimate. My family room can seat about 8, my peninsula can seat 3-4 and my table (banquette) can seat 8-10.

I feel better now! :) Thank you. When you said "comfortably", I thought you meant cushioned seats like sitting around the fireplace or T.V.

We can seat 10 on cushioned surfaces (not including the banquette), although I don't know if stuffing 3 people on each of our sofas is comfortable for the guest. :( 👨‍👨‍👦 Our banquette could seat 5 on the cushioned side, and 4 in chairs. Another 4 on the island bar stools. We also have an oversized dining room that can seat 12, but it's off of the great room and around the corner. The front, side and back porches will seat many more.