Meal planning for a group villa or Airbnb holiday

A big rented villa is the best value way to travel as a group — and the fastest way to discover that ten people share one oven, six hobs and a fridge built for a couple. A little planning turns that into a great week.

Check the kitchen before you plan the menu

Listings are vague and photos flatter. Before you decide on the menus, ask the host what is actually there — it changes what you can realistically cook.

• •Oven size and number of hobs — this caps how many dishes can run at once.
• •Fridge and freezer capacity: the single biggest constraint on a big group shop.
• •How many people the table and the plates/cutlery actually seat.
• •Whether there’s a barbecue, and whether it works — it doubles your cooking surface.

Don’t cook every meal in

The classic mistake is planning fourteen home-cooked meals for a week. Aim to cook in for most dinners, keep breakfasts self-serve, leave lunches loose (leftovers, bread and cheese, whatever is in the fridge), and book two or three nights out. Nobody wants to spend a holiday doing dishes for ten.

Pick dishes that scale in one pot

• •One-pot and tray dishes: curries, chilli, lasagne, paella, big traybakes of chicken and vegetables.
• •Barbecue nights — cooking moves outside and several people naturally pitch in.
• •A build-your-own night (tacos, burgers, pasta bar) that handles every dietary need without separate cooking.

Share the cooking and the shopping

Put a rota on the fridge: a different pair cooks each night, and whoever cooks doesn’t wash up. Do one big supermarket shop on arrival for staples and the planned dinners, then top up fresh things locally. Agree up front whether food is a shared kitty or tracked per person — deciding that on day six never goes well.