Best advice for families sharing vacation beach house

[Anonymous]

We do this with 25+ people every few years (4 generations of family). There is a meal list with each family responsible for food for the day for everybody. We also organize games and Olympic style activities for every day. We tie dye shirts together and swim. Ages 1 to 86. Its so much fun! Happy hour starts at 5 every day too haha!

[Anonymous]

There is a meal list with each family responsible for food for the day for everybody. We also organize games and Olympic style activities for every day

I would hate this
But PP, I'm glad it works for your family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There is a meal list with each family responsible for food for the day for everybody. We also organize games and Olympic style activities for every day

I would hate this
But PP, I'm glad it works for your family

Me, too.

I bet the in-laws and significant others also hate it.

[Anonymous]

We do this with extended family and love it. I think the things we do that work the best:

1) Planning out meals - mainly who is in charge (we usually do a couple of big breakfasts that specific people are in charge of and plan out each dinner - some in and some out). We buy a bunch of lunch stuff for sandwiches and everyone is on their own for lunch and a bunch of casual breakfast stuff for non-big breakfast days. Our kids/ their cousins are about the same age so a tradition is that the kids do a meal each year and they are very elaborate ones that are a lot of fun so the divvying up doesn't necessarily have to be by nuclear family.

2) Room selection is prioritized by both who pays and young kid comfort (eg those with babies get a room that is conducive - like with a walk in closet big enough for a crib or a particularly dark/ quiet room)

3) If there are outside outings, we get those on the calendar (eg hike to XX on this morning or afternoon, golf on this day, boating on other day, etc.).

4) We also divide up a few other things. Like my FIL always rents a couple of golf carts for us to get around the property. My BIL and SIL have a shorter drive so they normally bring a big BBQ meal in from a good BBQ place on the way for the first night.

5) We are also a very low-drama family and try to be fair on expenses. So there is no shirking of duty when we eat out - typically everyone offers to pay but someone will say, 'hey, FIL paid for golf today so let XX and me get this.'

Have fun!

[Anonymous]

The clean up at the end is key, having done a multi-family house share last summer for the first time. I am certain it was unintentional, but as we were on the loosest departure schedule, we were the last ones in the house. While we all thought we had done a pretty good job of keeping the place clean and tidy throughout the week...to really be "to the letter" of the contract cleaning wise...fridge empty, dishwasher and sink empty...all waste baskets empty...floors broom clean...what seemed like just a bit (30min?) of work to do after everyone else departed turned into a mad dash of about an hour and half of cleaning as well as loading out our own travel gear. We were still essentially loading our car and doing last minute bathroom visits (with kids) as the maintenance crew/house manager arrived to take over the rental. It was a stressful way to end things.

We were also tasked with figuring out what to do with a good amount of left over perishable food...and we couldn't leave overflowing outdoor garbage bins behind.

My advice is, that everyone should be prepared to leave the house at the same time. If one family wants to stay a little later, they should essentially otherwise load out their car at the same time as everyone else so it's very clear what is left to do for the last people in the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There is a meal list with each family responsible for food for the day for everybody. We also organize games and Olympic style activities for every day

I would hate this
But PP, I'm glad it works for your family

Me, too.

I bet the in-laws and significant others also hate it.

PP here ... no complaints so far! Big Italian family that gets together all the time anyway so this is just a nice way to spend extended time together. The wives/moms usually get together a few months ahead of time to plan out all the meals and which family will be responsible for which day. People with young kids will bring whatever is needed for them if they don't eat what the adults eat.

We usually get a very large house (8 plus bedrooms) so there is room to spread out. Its always a ton of fun!