A hotel takeover is a weekend where an organizer rents an entire hotel, or a sealed-off block of it, and turns the building into a private lifestyle event for registered guests only. This is how they are put together, what the wristband gets you, what they cost, which ones are famous, and how to find the next one near you.
How a takeover is built
The organizer contracts with the hotel for the whole property, or every room in a tower or wing, for two or three nights. The hotel agrees to close the pool, bar and function rooms to the public, brief its staff, and in some cases take its own name off the booking. Guests buy an event pass from the organizer and a room through the organizer's booking link at a group rate, which is how the hotel fills a slow weekend and the organizer guarantees that nobody without a wristband is in the building. Larger events use two or three host hotels and run shuttle buses between them; smaller ones are a single mid-size hotel in a city or near an airport.
The economics explain the rules. The organizer has guaranteed the hotel a sold-out weekend, so passes are non-refundable and rooms sell out months ahead. Couples are the product, so couples' passes are priced to sell, single women are welcome and often free or discounted, and single-male passes, where they exist at all, are capped and priced high. Read the single men guide before you try.
The wristband
Registration happens at a desk inside the hotel, not the hotel's own front desk. You show ID, both partners, and get a wristband that stays on all weekend. It is your ticket to every party, your proof to staff and security that you belong, and the thing the organizer checks at the lifts. Some events use colored bands to show single status or which host hotel you are in. Lose it and you are buying a replacement, with ID, at the desk.
What a weekend looks like
- Friday: check-in, a meet-and-greet with the organizers, a welcome party. Newcomer orientations usually happen here, and they are worth attending.
- Saturday day: pool party, which at the bigger events is the main event of the weekend, with the pool and deck closed to the public and clothing optional where the hotel's rules allow. Seminars, vendors and meetups in the function rooms.
- Saturday night: the themed party. Themes are published months in advance (white night, masquerade, lingerie, decades) and most guests pack for them. A DJ, a dance floor, and the "hospitality suites" or play area open afterwards.
- Sunday: a slow brunch, a farewell pool session, and checkout. Some events add a Thursday or run to Monday.
Play areas vary. Some takeovers open a floor of rooms as a group play space with towels, condoms and a monitor at the door; some run it in a large suite; some leave it entirely to guests' own rooms with an open-door convention. The organizer's event page says which, and the rules from club nights apply: ask, no means no, towels, condoms, no phones.
What it costs
Two charges: the event pass and the room. Event passes have historically run from a few hundred dollars a couple for a weekend takeover to considerably more for a multi-day convention with a full program, and the room is on top at the group rate. A 2008 report on a Fort Lauderdale takeover put weekend passes at $300 a couple plus a few hundred dollars for the hotel room; prices have risen since, and every event is different. Add travel, costumes for the themes, and drinks, which are usually a cash bar run by the hotel. Compared with a resort week it is cheap; compared with a club night it is a real weekend's budget. Check the events calendar listing for the current price before you book, because passes are non-refundable almost everywhere.
The famous ones
Naughty in N'awlins is the biggest. Run by Naughty Events in New Orleans every July since the early 2000s, it takes over host hotels in and around the French Quarter for several days of parties, seminars and vendor halls, draws couples from across the world, and spills into the street for the Sexual Freedom Parade, which marked its 21st year on July 11, 2025 and is free to attendees and to the public who come to watch. The 2024 edition's parade formed up in front of the Astor Crowne Plaza on Canal Street. Naughty Events also runs a Halloween edition in New Orleans, and lifestyle cruises.
Fort Lauderdale has hosted large takeovers for years, including the SwingFest conventions that took over beachfront hotels in the 2000s; whether a given year's edition is running is something only the calendar and the organizer can tell you, so treat any older article as history rather than a schedule. Beyond those, almost every US region has a regional takeover (Las Vegas, Texas, the Midwest, the Carolinas), the UK has hotel weekends in the north and the Midlands, and European organizers run them in Spain and Germany. The pattern is the same everywhere; only the scale changes.
Finding one
Takeovers are listed in two places on the site. The hotel listings show the hotels and organizers that host them, with their history and the rules they run; the events calendar shows the dates, themes and ticket links for upcoming weekends. Filter the calendar by your state or country, then look at who is going: members' profiles list the events they have booked, and a takeover where you already know two couples is a different weekend from one where you know nobody. Most organizers also run a group on the site where guests introduce themselves before the event, which is the single best thing a first-timer can do.
Before you book
Read the single-male policy, the refund policy (there usually is none), the themes, and whether the pool is clothing optional. Book the room through the organizer's link or you will be outside the sealed block. Pack for the themes, bring cash for the bar, and plan the first night as a party, not a mission. Couples who go to one takeover almost always go to another, which is why the good ones sell out in a week.