Re:house parties - "What to do to prepare the house ?"
# 1, make sure the house (particularly the bathrooms) are clean. If you don't, there's a good chance your guests won't return. If playing on real mattresses, get plastic waterproof mattress covers and put them under mattress pads so you don't get that crinkly plastic experience.
Beds should have just the fitted sheet and a pillow and there should be readily available extra clean fitted sheets and towels/face cloths, lube, and if you decide to provide them, condoms.
Do you own and have a place for inflatable mattresses to expand your play areas? Do you have central air? If not, how do you plan to keep the play rooms cool during really hot weather?
"What to do to protect the property ?"
We ONLY invite people we know and trust. If you don't have enough LS friends like that, you'll just have to do your best to screen them and perhaps rely on the friends you do know to recommend people. We have couch covers, even though play is not allowed on them. Have barrels for trash in plain site, and put away any delicate breakables and small easily grabbed things of value (i.e. jewelry, cash, etc). Also define in your party rules the do's/don'ts. For example, if you have a septic system, do not flush condoms.
"What kind of refreshments/snacks work well ?"
We provide soda and water and will make coffee/tea for anyone that wants it. We usually make a crock pot of meatballs and treat this as an optional pot luck kind of thing. This also depends on if you plan to charge for your party. We do not, and figure we're already offering our house, along with the organization, set-up and clean up, so we don't feel obligated to feed people too.
If you use an online invitation site, this can also be used to coordinate the food so that you don't wind up with multiple duplicate food items. It can also be used if somethiing comes up last minute (i.e. you get Covid and have to cancel).
"How many people should be invited ?"
Some of that depends on how playful your parties are. If you have a bunch of people just coming to watch, then bed space isn't a big concern. If it is, then it really can come down to parking, square footage of space inside and outside (weather and privacy dependant), and how much play space you have. Where you're just starting out, I'd suggest smaller parties so that you can keep an eye and ear open for new guests.
"What are some of the do's and don'ts ?"
There are usually standard party rules, such as "No means No", and "Ask before touching". Also, is condom use an expected norm. Since you'll have people you don't know well, you'll likely want to come up with a list of party rules that you can send out with or just after your invitations.
"What haven't I considered ?"
Level of play is a big thing, especially for a small house party. Do you have space to allow for a private room? If so, how do you schedule it so people don't monopolize it.
The single biggest expense (time-wise) will be laundry. Washing, folding, and putting away all of the sheets and towels that get used can literally take days if doing it at home, and a few $$ and time if doing it at a laundry mat.
What makes a party great is the people, and not the food or the venue. The better you can do at making sure people are social and at the same experience level, the more awesome a party will be. Do not overlook the "social" part. Nobody enjoys attending a cliquey party, other than maybe the people in the clique.
There are probably a lot of other things I'm missing, but this will give you some of the basics.
BTW - Something to keep in mind is if you DO charge for your party and you don't treat it like a business and you get caught, that can be looked at as Federal Tax evasion and get VERY nasty. It's one of the reasons we don't charge for ours. That, and we don't want people to feel like we owe them more than we are already providing.
