Candle lighting for guests

A young couple is spending Shabbos with the parents. They have a separate room to themselves in their parents’ house. Do they have to light Shabbos candles, and if they do, where should they light?  

In the case that you asked about, there several possibilities. Here is a prioritized list.

1. The best option for someone who is a guest at someone else’s house is to participate in his host’s expenses by paying him a small amount, a prutah, and thus acquiring a partial ownership of the candles. Another option is for the host to grant you a partial ownership of the candles by having another guest (a third party) lift up the candles with the intention of acquiring a portion of their ownership for you. Yet another option is for another guest to pay the host a prutah in order to acquire a part of the candles for you.
2. If it’s impossible for you to acquire partial ownership of the candles, you can light in the place where you’re going to eat. (According to the author of the Shulchan Oruch, you don’t recite a blessing in this case. According to the Remo commentary, you do.)
3. If it’s impossible to light the candles in the place where you are going to eat, you should light in the room where you’re going to sleep, but only on the condition that you are the only ones sleeping there, and that there is no electric light in the room (including light coming in from the outside).
4. If it’s impossible to light in the room you are going to sleep in, light in the kitchen or in any other room in that apartment, provided there is no other candle nor electric light in those rooms.

In all the cases where the guests light for themselves, it’s preferable that they light before their hostess lights her candles.

Azamrah Lishmechah newsletter, issues 19-21