Nah, sounds about right. Not all the time, but I have had a couple of owners do this.
Don't stress.
They may also not trust their RE agent
Don't stress. Many LL's like to tag along for many different reasons. They may be checking up on their PM. Or they may just want to touch base and check out the state of the IP in case there is maintainence that needs doing and is going unnoticed (because it isn't actually a problem yet). Either DH or myself like to tag along when possible to inspections, just to make sure everyone is happy (ie, the tenant doesn't have any complaints about the pm) or things which need to be looked at aren't being overlooked because the tenant doesn't want to bother us with it.

Edited to add: Sorry just read the rest of the thread. Bugger about the rent increase.