Staying with a friend and not giving them a little gift as a thank you is “mean and nasty”, an etiquette expert has said. 

One Lunchtime Live listener emailed the show to say she had recently moved to Wexford and had been inundated with requests to stay. 

While she enjoys having her pals over, she does not like that they often arrive empty handed. 

It is behaviour that etiquette expert Tina Koumarianos has often encountered before and despairs of.

“It’s mean and nasty,” she told the programme. 

“You wouldn’t necessarily [get] invited back too often.” 

For 17 years, Ms Koumarianos lived in Canada and Asia; during that time, her friends asked whether they would be able to stay with her and she admits she found it all “really heavy going”. 

“Those were long-haul destinations, so houseguests where someone stayed [were] usually for a minimum of 10 days, two weeks, three weeks,” she said.  

“I wasn’t working, I was caught up in taking them sightseeing, cooking, entertaining them.” 

“It was a holiday for them but it got to be the same old for me.” 

People queue at Dublin Airport. Picture by: PA Images/Alamy

In the 90s, she returned to Ireland and bought a place in quite a beautiful but remote corner of County Wicklow. 

Even then, people found the idea of staying over with her quite appealing. 

“My friends would never dream of just dropping down for a cup of coffee,” she said. 

“They would come with their suitcase and, in many cases, they stop off in a petrol station to pick up supplies - sweets and minerals - because they thought they were going to the far side of the moon… If you’re living anywhere pretty, you’ve had it. 

“Because they all want to stay.”

Main image: A visitor. Picture by: Alamy.com