Some hospitality is simply keeping a chair free of things so a tired person can sit.

Welcome is often imagined as effort: cooking, tidying, preparing something worth arriving for. Much of what people actually need on arrival is plainer than that. Somewhere to put a bag, a surface that is not covered, a seat that does not have to be emptied first. Those things say you were expected without asking anyone to admire the trouble taken.

Before anyone comes over, clear one chair and one flat surface, and stop there if that is all you have in you. Offer water without being asked. A tired guest remembers sitting down far longer than they remember the food.