This is the packing list for the guest — the person who said ‘yes, count me in’ and then did nothing else for three months. If you are the organiser, your list is longer and lives in our group holiday checklist. Everyone else, you need five things. Butlers in the Buff’s booking records show over 100,000 groups hosted across more than 20 years trading, and the same five items separate the heroes from the borrowers every time.
The five things
1. Swimwear. A hot tub is common enough in group houses that it is worth packing for on spec, and on night one it is usually the first thing the group gathers around. Whether the house you have booked actually has one, and whether it is available for the whole stay, is set by the owner and worth confirming before you travel – but the person who assumed there wouldn’t be one usually spends the weekend on the patio in their coat, or negotiating for spare shorts. Pack it first, just in case.
2. Slippers. Big houses have flagstone floors, and flagstone floors in the UK are cold eleven months of the year. The slipper-wearers pad around like they own the place while everyone else hops between rugs. This is the highest comfort-per-gram item in your bag.
3. Ear plugs. Someone in your group snores like a departing ferry, and this is the weekend you find out who. You may also be sharing a landing with the 2am kitchen raid. Two grams of foam buys you eight hours of sleep — the best trade in travel.
4. Cash for the kitty. The organiser has already paid deposits, bought the welcome supplies and fielded 400 messages. Arriving with your kitty contribution ready — not ‘I’ll transfer you later’ — is the single kindest thing a guest can do. Our group holiday budget planner and our guide to splitting costs fairly both cover how organisers structure the collection, so read whichever one your organiser has already pointed you to.
5. One surprise for the group. A quiz about the birthday girl, a terrible matching accessory, marshmallows for the firepit, a printed photo from 2009 that should never have survived. The weekend’s best moment is usually the thing nobody was asked to bring.
What the house provides, and what it doesn't
This varies by property, so treat nothing here as guaranteed. Bedding and towels are included at many group houses but not all, and some charge for them separately or ask guests to bring their own for a hot tub or pool; check the listing or ask the owner directly rather than assuming. The same goes for kitchen equipment – most houses have the basics, but “basics” for a group of six looks very different from “basics” for a group of eighteen, and serving dishes, a decent sharp knife and enough mugs for a full house are the items that run out first. Our questions to ask before booking a group house has the full list worth confirming before you travel, not after you arrive and find out the hard way.
Packing for the weather, not the forecast
Whatever the forecast says a week out, pack as if it will be wrong, because in most of the UK it will be. A proper waterproof, layers rather than one heavy coat, and something warm for an evening outside by a firepit or hot tub cover almost every scenario a group weekend throws at you. If the trip is built around the outdoors – a walk, a garden, a coastal path – check what the house itself offers for wet kit before you overpack: some properties have a drying room or boot storage, most do not, and it changes what is worth bringing. Our group houses for walkers and hikers covers this in more depth if the weekend is genuinely built around being outdoors.
What the organiser needs from you before you arrive
Beyond your own bag, the organiser needs two things from every guest well before the weekend: your dietary requirements, confirmed in writing rather than mentioned once in passing, and your kitty contribution on time. Our catering ideas for large group stays is worth a look if your group is self-catering and splitting cooking duties, since a plan agreed in advance saves a chaotic supermarket run on the first afternoon, and the group house meals and catering guide goes further into hosted options if the group would rather not cook at all.
Entertainment that needs no setting up
Board games, a portable speaker, a deck of cards and a group playlist prepared in advance all earn their space in the car far more reliably than anything that needs pairing, charging or an instruction manual on arrival. If the house has a cinema room or a smart TV, bring your own streaming login rather than assuming one is provided. Our round-up of games that actually work is aimed at hen weekends specifically but half of it applies to any group house stay.
Packing for a shared house, not a private stay
The single biggest adjustment for anyone used to travelling alone or as a couple is that everything in a group house is shared – the fridge, the bathroom, the sockets. Label anything you genuinely do not want to share, bring your own phone charger rather than borrowing the house's one plug socket for six people, and if you have specific dietary needs, bring backup snacks rather than relying entirely on a shared shop to cover you. None of this is complicated, but it is the difference between a guest who blends into the weekend and one the organiser has to think about.
What to leave at home
Anything genuinely irreplaceable, since a group house full of excitable adults and, often, a hot tub is not the place for it. Oversized luggage that will not fit in a shared hallway, since eight full-size suitcases in one entrance hall becomes its own logistical problem by Friday night. And anything you are not prepared to share – a house with one bathroom rota and one kitchen already asks enough of everyone's patience without private snacks becoming a flashpoint.
One packing rule: throw in a phone charger you are willing to lose. One always stays behind in a big house — make sure the one that does is the cheap spare, not the good one from your bedside table.
Where these numbers come from
The booking figures in this article are our own, not an industry estimate. They come from the booking records of our sister brand Butlers in the Buff, which has been running group celebrations for more than twenty years and has served over 100,000 groups — so they describe what groups actually did, not what a survey says they intended to do. They are counts taken from those records rather than projections, and where we quote a share (for example the split of bookings across the year) it is a share of that whole dataset.
Two honest limits. It is one company’s book, weighted towards hen and stag celebrations, so it describes the celebration market rather than all UK group travel. And it is historical: it tells you how groups have behaved, which is a good guide to how they will behave, not a forecast. Anything from outside our own records is attributed in the sentence it appears in and linked below.
Sources
- Butlers in the Buff booking records — our sister brand’s own bookings, over 100,000 groups across more than 20 years of trading
Figures from our own booking records are counts, not estimates. Third-party figures are quoted as the original report gives them and linked above so you can check them. Last checked 4 September 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most provide basic pots, pans, cutlery and plates, but rarely enough for a large group to cook and eat comfortably at once. Bring extra serving dishes, a sharp knife, a corkscrew and a cafetiere if you drink filter coffee, since these are the items that run out first in a full house.
This varies by property and is set individually by each owner, so always confirm before booking rather than assuming. Some include bedding and towels in the price, others charge separately or ask guests to supply their own, particularly extra towels for a hot tub or pool.
Board games, a portable speaker, a deck of cards and a group playlist prepared in advance all work reliably without needing to be set up on arrival. If the house has a cinema room or smart TV, bring your own streaming login, since one is not usually provided as standard.
A supermarket delivery timed to arrive shortly after check-in saves lugging shopping through the car and gets the group fed on the first night without a chaotic first shop. Agree the catering plan and any dietary requirements with the organiser in advance so the order is right first time.
Swimwear, a robe or large towel, and flip-flops for the walk between the house and the tub. Whether a hot tub is included, how it's accessed and any usage rules are set by the owner, so confirm these details before you travel rather than assuming they match a previous stay.
Assuming the house will have everything a hotel would – enough towels, a fully stocked kitchen, chargers, umbrellas. Group houses vary enormously by property and owner. Check what's provided before you travel, and pack as if you're self-catering even if you plan to eat out most nights.
Yes, as a general rule – group houses are self-catering properties, not hotels, and toiletries are rarely provided beyond perhaps hand soap. Pack your own shampoo, toothpaste and any medication you need, and bring a washbag you can carry between a shared bathroom and your bedroom easily.
A few days ahead is plenty for most people, but confirm your dietary requirements and kitty contribution with the organiser well before that, ideally as soon as the group chat asks. Turning up with your bag sorted but no payment made is the single most common source of last-minute organiser stress.
