How to Plan a Big Family Reunion Everyone Will Enjoy

Family reunions have a habit of starting as a lovely idea in a WhatsApp group and ending up as a logistical headache: four different opinions on dates, a spreadsheet nobody updates, and a worry about what everyone is going to eat and drink and how to find enough bedrooms and communal space that’ll work for everyone in the group. 

It doesn’t have to be that way. The families who get it right tend to do a handful of things differently, they pick a lead organiser early (or rather, the lead organiser makes themselves known and simply takes the lead), they settle the venue before the guest list grows arms and legs, and they choose one house big enough to hold everyone rather than trying to coordinate several bookings at once. 

Here’s our practical guide to planning a family reunion that people will look forward to, not just survive. 

Family reunions used to mean a Sunday lunch. Increasingly, they mean a whole weekend — and a growing number of families are choosing to do it together, under one roof, rather than in scattered accommodation. 

The numbers back this up. UK search interest in multigenerational holidays more than doubled, up 142%, between 2021–22 and 2024–25, according to tailor-made holiday specialist Journeyscape’s analysis of long-term Google search data, and Skyscanner has named multi-generational travel one of its headline trends for 2026.

A lot of that is about reconnection, but it’s also about logistics: as one local news feature on London grandparents pointed out, London is the youngest region in the UK, so a large proportion of grandparents live well outside the capital, which makes “let’s all just meet at Nan’s for Sunday lunch” a lot harder than it used to be. A weekend reunion, all together, does the job that a string of smaller visits can’t. 

We’ve written before about why families are increasingly choosing one big house over hotels or scattered cottages for these trips. The short version is that everyone under one roof, sharing meals and evenings, is what actually makes a reunion feel like a reunion rather than a series of separate visits that happen to overlap. 

The families who pull off a good reunion tend to do three things early, before the guest list and the opinions multiply: 

• Pick an anchor date first, not last. Whether it’s built around a milestone birthday, an anniversary, or simply “it’s been too long,” agree the weekend before you start looking at houses. A shared poll (Doodle or similar) sent to one representative per family branch is faster than a group chat that never quite reaches consensus. 

• Book the venue before the guest list finishes growing. Numbers creep upward the longer you wait,  someone’s partner is coming now, someone else’s teenager wants to bring a friend. Get a rough headcount, book a house with a little headroom, and let the final numbers settle in afterwards. 

• Set up one shared place for information. A single WhatsApp group or shared document for dates, costs and dietary requirements saves an enormous amount of back-and-forth compared with each family branch being updated separately. 

Every reunion needs one person, or one couple, steering it, not because anyone else is less capable, but because a decision made by committee across four family branches rarely gets made at all. 

That doesn’t mean everyone else is passive. The organiser’s job is to gather a rough headcount and budget expectation from each branch early, agree the big decisions (dates, venue, roughly how costs will be split) with everyone’s input, and then handle the day-to-day admin without needing sign-off on every detail. Being upfront about cost expectations at this stage, before anyone’s emotionally committed to the weekend, avoids most of the awkward money conversations later. 

This is the conversation most families put off, and the one that causes the most friction if it’s left too late. It’s worth noting here that we do get plenty of bookings where one person covers the cost and invites the rest of the family to join them. 

There’s no single “right” way to split costs, but a few approaches tend to work well for reunions specifically: 

• Per head, not per family — a couple with three children pays more than a single grandparent, which usually feels fairer than splitting the total four ways regardless of numbers. 

• Grandparents contributing, but not necessarily equally — research by insurer AllClear found that UK parents typically expect grandparents to cover around 35% of the overall cost of a multi-generational trip, though every family’s arrangement is different. 

• One person collects, everyone pays upfront — an app like Splitwise makes this painless for a group that size, and avoids the organiser being out of pocket while everyone else “pays them back eventually.” 

One advantage of booking a single exclusive-use house rather than a mix of cottages or hotel rooms: there’s one total cost to divide, not five different room rates and a separate restaurant bill each evening. It makes the maths, and the awkward conversation, considerably simpler. 

This depends entirely on how many generations and families are coming, and it’s worth getting right. A house that “sleeps 20” on paper doesn’t always mean 20 people will actually be comfortable in it. We’ve covered this in detail in our guide to how many bedrooms you need for a group of 20, 25 or 30, including bedroom-to-bathroom ratios and what multi-generational groups specifically need from a layout. Houses like Tone Dale House and Somerset Manor are both regularly booked for exactly this kind of gathering. 

The best reunions balance proper togetherness, a shared meal every evening, everyone around one table, with enough space for people to peel off when they need to. Grandparents might want somewhere to sit quietly; teenagers want their own corner; younger children want a pool, a hot tub or a garden to run around in. 

We’ve put together a full list of 101 things to do in a big house if you want inspiration beyond the obvious, and our guide to what multi-generational groups need from a house goes into more detail on balancing everyone’s expectations under one roof. If any of the family are bringing a dog, it’s worth checking which of our houses are dog-friendly before you book. 

Booking windows for UK group breaks are shrinking generally, which matters even more for a reunion, you’re trying to line up a date that works across 20 or more people’s diaries, and the right-sized house for that date gets booked quickly. Once you’vegot a rough headcount and a date that most of the family can make, book the venue and let people arrange leave and travel around it, rather than waiting for total consensus before you commit. 

Every family reunion looks a little different, but the best ones are built around a handful of moments that bring everyone back together.

The arrival. People drift in through Friday afternoon, so keep the first evening easy. Welcome drinks once everyone’s arrived and a delivered supper mean nobody spends night one cooking for a crowd. Put name labels on the bedroom doors and a box of old family photos on the kitchen table. Nothing gets a conversation going quicker.

The first morning. Start Saturday with a proper family breakfast around one big table, then let people go their own way: a countryside walk for some, the pool or hot tub for others. Reunions work best when nobody feels herded.

Bringing the crowd together. Saturday afternoon is the time for something a little more organised. Set up a family tree on a wall or a “who’s who” board so the youngest cousins can work out how they’re related to everyone else. A family quiz with questions only your family could answer, a rounders match on the lawn, or a go at recreating an old family photo with the same people in the same poses all work well.

The big dinner. Saturday night is the heart of the weekend: everyone round one table for a proper sit-down dinner and a toast. It’s also the moment for your family’s story to be told, who came before and who has arrived since you were last all together. Ask the oldest members of the family to share a memory, and record it on a phone. Those recordings become treasured very quickly.

The goodbye. Keep Sunday slow, with a late breakfast and a last walk or swim. Before anyone leaves, take the big group photo on the stairs or the front lawn. You could also fill a time capsule with notes and predictions, to open at the next reunion.

We’re a small, family-run business, and reunions are one of the occasions we know best. We’ve spent 30 years helping families work out exactly how much space they need, and matching them to a house that can genuinely hold everyone comfortably. 

Call us and we can talk through your logistics (every family’s needs are different). Victoria and Beverley are ready to help you work it all through: 

Telephone: +44 (0)1823 662673 · Email: party@TheBigHouseCo.com