Invite guests of different generations to a gathering and they’re bound to have at least slightly different ideas about what constitutes proper etiquette. However, according to a Joybird survey about guest etiquette, people are united on a common issue: protecting their privacy.
The Rudest Thing You Can Do
From Gen Zers and millennials to Gen Xers and baby boomers, privacy violations are a cross-generational taboo. After asking over 2,800 U.S. respondents to name the three rudest things a guest can do in someone’s home, Joybird found that 61% of respondents of all generations consider snooping in cabinets, closets, drawers, or private rooms to be the rudest guest behavior.
No other behavior was ranked so highly. The second-closest, showing up sick, trailed 20 percentage points behind at 41%. Millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers all ranked this second, although Gen Z respondents were less likely to name showing up sick as rude behavior. Only 31% placed it in their top three offenses.
Gen Z tended to focus on damaged property, with 42% ranking breaking an item without offering to replace it among their top three rudest behaviors. It’s understandable when considering a March 2026 Rent Cafe report, which found that only 17% of U.S. Gen Zers own homes.
The Top Five
After snooping (61%) and showing up sick (41%), rounding out the top five rudest behaviors are:
- Criticizing the host’s decor, food, or home (37%)
- Bringing a pet without asking (34%)
- Breaking something without offering to replace it (32%)
Older generations were more likely to take offense at guests bringing children to an adults-only gathering. Both Gen Xers and baby boomers ranked this as the fifth-rudest guest behavior overall, although it didn’t make the top five among millennials and Gen Zers.
Protecting Health and Home
In addition to privacy, hosts tend to enforce rules that protect their homes and their health. “No smoking or vaping” was the most popular host rule, with 56% of respondents outlawing it for guests.
Hosts were also likely to tell guests to stay out of bedrooms or other private rooms (51%), take their shoes off (34%), not touch the thermostat (28%), keep children out of certain rooms (27%), and leave their pets at home (25%).
Recent Comments