Receiving Guests

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I'm sure that most people have experienced this, but it's funny how we require our homes to be better kept when company is coming.  I know that my mother would go into (and still does) a flurry of cleaning when she was expecting guests.  I suppose that it is vanity that makes us want to trick others into thinking that we live more tidily than we do.  Perhaps it is respect for our friends, who deserve better than the squalor we wallow in daily (fine, fine, I'll just speak for myself), kind of like putting on your best clothes for Church.  I know a friend's mother likes to have her guests' favorite breakfast items on hand (assuming they are staying over).  To make others comfortable, many of us will go well beyond what we would do for ourselves.
    However clean we make the house for a guest's arrival, the relationship between guest and host varies somewhat from culture to culture.  It generally seems that the poorer or more inhospitable the climate, the more generous the host.  Many is the story of the wanderer lost in the wilderness who chances upon a lonely hunter/hermit/nomad who will give the shirt off their back to aid the unlucky one.  They understand how hard it is out there.  Often it seems true of cultures as well.  If a country is doing well, it expects the poor and downtrodden to "pull themselves up by their boot-straps," while the residents of the poorer nations tend to pool their resources and pitch in to help their neighbors.  I have certainly experienced this in my time spent living abroad.
    Applying all of this to a Fantasy world seems like a relatively simple idea, especially since we've seen it pop up quite prominently in A Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones, for you HBO viewers).  Guest right is a very serious issue in a more primitive culture.  What are the responsibilities of the guest and the host in this relationship?  Today, we often say, "Make yourself at home," but what does that mean?  I would never treat someone's house like my own.  That would be rude.  Likewise, what is an appropriate response for the host once that line has been crossed?  Are they more tolerant of outsiders because of cultural differences, or less?  By exploring this relationship and its implications you can continue to build your world, instead of exploiting a trope.  


I know I have readers from a variety of regions, countries, and backgrounds.  Let me know a bit about how guests are received where you come from, or in your experience.  I'd love to know.