My husband and I live in a rural area of Colorado, and several months ago we started offering our little cottage next door to us as an AirB&B. We live in the mountains surrounded by several state and national parks, so the cottage is always booked with families, couples or single people who come to explore the outdoors. Our next door neighbor on the opposite side of us has come over to the cottage three different times while our guests were relaxing on the outdoor patio in the back yard. It's out in the country and fencing the AirB&B back yard is not an option. Our neighbor doesn't talk with us first to find out if we care that she introduces herself, and we don't find out about her visits until after the fact, when our guests tell us. I've apologized to each guest that this has happened to, for the neighbor's visit but each time they assured me that they were fine with it and didn't feel as though it was an intrusion on their privacy or relaxation time.
It bothers me that she does this, for a couple different reasons. First, I'm very private and would resent an uninvited stranger coming to the back yard where I was staying and introducing herself. I assume some, if not most people, would feel the same. Second, I feel it is disrespectful to us that she chooses to ignore the fact that we are running a business, and that unsolicited social visits are overstepping her boundaries as a neighbor. I realize that some of our guests may be much more social than I am, and that they may welcome having someone stop by and chat. But to assume that all of our guests may be comfortable with her visits, to me would be inviting problems. I'm not sure how to handle this with finesse; I don't want to be a bad neighbor and offend my neighbor by over-reacting, but on the other hand, I feel that I need to protect the privacy of our guests, even if they say (so far) that they don't mind. Thoughts?
