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It would be quite unusual for a co-op to allow guests to stay in your apartment when you aren't there. This is often spelled out explicitly in the Proprietary Lease, and you should check yours to see what it says. In ours, which uses the same template as many other NYC co-ops, it's under Paragraph 14 (Use of Premises):
"... the apartment may be occupied from time to time by guests of the Lessee [shareholder] for a period of time not exceeding one month, unless a longer period is approved prior thereto in writing by the Lessor [co-op], but no guests may occupy the apartment unless one or more of the permitted adult residents are then in occupancy or unless consented to in writing prior thereto by the Lessor."
If your Lease explicitly allows you to have guests in your absence, which is possible but unlikely, then it's not clear the board would be able to override that provision with a House Rule. The permission to have guests at arbitrary times could be considered a material term of the lease. You'd need to ask a lawyer about that.
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As a followup to the good responses you've received, you might try to work out a compromise with your board. If you can limit your stay-alone guests to one family (for example), you might find that the board is willing to make an exception. "My sister Mayella and her husband would like to stay in the apartment for two weeks every summer" is much more appetizing than "Random friends of my choice will be living here in my absence whenever I feel like it."
Also, don't try to argue that you shouldn't be bound by a new House Rule you didn't expect. That argument is going to lose. See Horwitz v. 1025 Fifth Avenue, in which a new House Rule required a shareholder to remove an awning that had been in place for *decades*. But again, if your Proprietary Lease contains the unusual provision that guests may stay in your absence, then there's a good chance a House Rule wouldn't be able to override it. A lawyer would need to address that question.
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