“Big house” birthday rental.......

Just had a weekend 3 nights with 25 children and grandchildren to celebrate DH 70th - had indoor swimming pool, huge games room with pool , table tennis, etc ( we had a tournament)plus jacuzzi, sauna - huge cinema room - plus enough room for us to all sit down together for meal - bbq facilites and safe garden plus all bedrooms were onsuite - contact Sleeps 12 not cheap but absolutely fantistic! there was nothing that they did not provide kitchen wise , toiletries etc - we will return.

We are going in October to the Lake District There will be 24 of us in a 12 bedroom house. Age range 84 to 7 monthWe are all very excited as we have had many family parties but this is the first time we have all been away together. We will be there for 3 nights

Go for it, we have done this many times, a tip from me , as many bathrooms as you can, just last month we went to a beautiful place and each bedroom had its own small on suite, which was a bonus. If there is a games room or something for younger members of your party , i.e. Garden with swing or trampoline then all the better. When my children were growing up , we did this every year , we have a large family (mum now over 90) has 5 children and 13 grandchildren, (plus 11 great grandchildren) we once had a house that slept 24, so big we had a huge treasure hunt in the house. We all paid our share by dividing it fairly i.e. so much per adult and so much per child. ( hardly saw the children all weekend as it had a games room) Planned menus in advance and all brought our share. Chaos but great fun.

My daughter had her hen weekend here:
shakespeareholidays.co.uk/arden-hill-farm-house/
There were 16 of us and it was perfect: the large dining room accommodated us all and there was plenty of comfy seating in the lounge. Pleasant outdoor space and the hot tub was a great success too!

My nephew planned a similar surprise for my sister - went really well.
My daughter is participating in a similar hen do soon.
I love Airbnb and have never had a bad deal through them, in UK and on several continents.
Sounds lovely - good luck.

Sallyanne, I think it's a wonderful idea. What better way to get the entire family together in a beautiful setting. It sounds more affordable too. My best wishes that you find the most splendid location!

Pippa....

So sorry about your DH. It was his gift and a blessing however, to be able to celebrate his life so fittingly.

xoxo

We are doing it this summer to celebrate our Golden wedding and 75th birthdays. We have booked a house that sleeps 14 in the centre of Bath, everything within walking distance and we are encouraging everyone to travel by train if practical.

Waitrose is 100 yards away and we will, generally eat together in the evening but leave everyone to their own devices during the day. With an age range from 7 - 82 and some being culture vultures and others not, planned activities for all of us smacks a bit of a holiday camp. We are having one grand celebration meal, in house using caterers. Between allergies, some vegetarians and others with medical problems, booking a restaurant was proving to be a nightmare.

I would advise visiting the house before booking. We looked at lots of houses online, selected the one we thought best and then visited it to look at the facilities and see if the planned sleeping arrangements would work and what the kitchen was like and any access problems. Once we were happy we signed and paid a deposit.

We did this for our 50th wedding anniversary. Beautiful property in Scotland. Sixteen of us, my middle daughter lived in the locality and needed to be in her own home due to children with autism. We took it in turns to cook meals. Big garden and wooded area, available for us to wander around. Worth the cost.

Trying to arrange this for immediate family of 12 to celebrate my 70th and DH 75th next year. Not having much luck yet finding a property. An indoor pool would be great as we're all water babies. Location has to be between Staffordhsire and Yorkshire. We're probably going to have an afternoon tea at our church for friends. We'll invite them to our 145th birthday party. Will try Sally's Cottages-any other companies please you've obviously used successfully?

Please book one that is isolated. There is one is our village and it is a nightmare for local residents. None of us has a problem with people enjoying themselves, but think of the neighbours

Well, ours is in the middle of Bath, surrounded by other houses and flats[shame]

However we are not planning any noisy parties, nor is it likely that a group, half of whom are over 65, 5 between 45-65 and 2 under 11s, will have any unplanned rave-ups! Apart from anything else our knees are no longer up to it. And as for drinking - well, we will reminisce about our days of wine, women/men and song, but for most of us it now takes too long to recover from the inevitable hangover to want to drink too deeply!