Data reveals why your next holiday will likely include 16 other people and a Monday morning Zoom call
At GroupAccommodation.com, we track our booking data closely, and a clear pattern has emerged: groups are getting bigger, and they’re staying longer.
In April 2025, the average group booking on GroupAccommodation.com was 15.1 people for 2.51 nights. Fast forward to April 2026, and those numbers have shifted to 17.23 people for 3.17 nights.
On their own, those figures might not set the world alight. But if you know anything about large-group accommodation, it tells a pretty interesting story.
17 Guests Can Change the Type of Holiday
There’s a tipping point in group accommodation that sits somewhere around 16 guests. Below that number, you’re often looking at a single big holiday cottage — a large house with enough bedrooms, a big kitchen, maybe a games room.
Once you cross that threshold, the options start to evolve. You’re into country estate bookings, exclusive-use venues, and properties with multiple buildings. These are places specifically designed for major gatherings — weddings, milestone birthdays, family reunions — rather than a standard weekend away in a large house.
The Extra Night Matters Too
The move from 2.5 nights to 3.17 nights is also telling. Anyone who’s done a two-night group trip knows the drill. You arrive Friday evening, spend most of it unpacking and working out who’s sleeping where, have one proper day together on Saturday, and then you’re loading the car again on Sunday morning. It’s fun, but it can feel frantic, particularly with kids involved.
Add that third night, and the feel of the trip changes. Two full days of actual holiday time. Enough breathing room to do something beyond the property — a walk, a pub lunch, a trip to the coast — without feeling like you’re eating into the only day you’ve got. If people need to get back for work on Monday they can still leave on Sunday evening, but having the option to stay longer into the day without a morning check-out time can make a big difference.
Remote Working is Quietly Reshaping Group Travel
A big part of what’s driving longer stays is something that barely gets discussed in the context of holiday accommodation: remote working.
A lot of people can now tack on a Thursday or Monday to a group trip, log on for a few hours in the morning, and get a significantly longer break without burning through extra annual leave. The group books Thursday to Sunday instead of Friday to Sunday, and nobody has to negotiate with their boss about it.
It’s a subtle shift, but the data suggests it’s having a real impact on how groups plan their trips.
The Economics of Booking Big Holiday Homes
The other factor here is straightforward: cost.
When you split a large property across 15 or 20 people, the per-person cost drops dramatically. We regularly see high-quality properties working out at £60 per person or less when the group is big enough. That’s cheaper than most budget hotel rooms, and you’re getting an entire venue to yourselves. Given the current economic climate — plus the ongoing uncertainty around overseas travel, rising flight costs, and the general hassle factor of airports — it’s not hard to see why more people are pooling resources and staying in the UK.
Skyscanner’s recent data backs this up from a different angle: bookings using their “family” filter are up 66% globally, with Gen Z and Millennials increasingly travelling alongside parents and grandparents. The multi-generational mega-trip is becoming a thing, and it makes financial sense for pretty much everyone involved.
What This Means for Property Owners
If you run a large group property, this data points to a few things worth paying attention to.
- Properties that sleep 16+ are increasingly in demand. If your property can comfortably accommodate larger groups — or if you have the space to expand capacity — that’s where the growth is.
- Pricing for longer stays matters. If your minimum stay is two nights and your pricing structure doesn’t incentivise a third, you might be leaving bookings on the table. Groups want to stay longer. Make it easy for them – they might even leave Sunday evening even if they have the Sunday night booked!
- Be ready for remote workers. Good wifi isn’t a nice-to-have for group properties anymore — it’s a booking factor. If a couple of people in a group of 17 need to dial into a Monday morning call, and your broadband can’t handle it, that’s a reason to book somewhere else.
The Bigger Picture
Larger groups, longer stays, and a growing preference for UK-based gatherings aren’t signs of people settling for less. They’re signs of people working out that splitting an incredible property between 17 people or three generations of the same family is actually a better holiday than everyone scattering to different hotels in different countries.
The data says groups are getting bigger and staying longer. The reason is pretty simple: it works.
Data based on analysis of GroupAccommodation.com enquiry data across 1,700+ properties in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
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