York ahead of Budapest and Barcelona for hen party bookings

According to Last Night of Freedom, which helps organise stag and hen dos, York is spearheading a Yorkshire surge in bookings with early indications suggesting the city will host twice as many hen and stag dos as Budapest this year.

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The firm says bookings had already doubled in 2022 and this year will likely be even busier, though they are unwilling to reveal the precise number of York bookings due to commercial sensitivity.

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“Krakow, Budapest and Barcelona are always immensely popular with stags and hens – yet in 2023, York looks like it will take around twice as much bookings as all of them,” said Matt Mavir, who founded the firm in 1999.

Last Night of Freedom managing director, Matt Mavir (Image: Supplied)

Since then, the Tyneside company has organised over 45,000 trips across the planet. He said during that time, York has enjoyed an “astronomical” rise in popularity, linked largely to the city’s boutique bars and Instagrammable streets.

However, Matt believes York is only going to become more popular with groups he estimates bring in between £5-10 million each year to the city.

“Our early booking figures for 2023 show York is not only going to remain incredibly popular with stags and hens, but that it will be the busiest summer yet,” he added.

“Stags and hens aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, however the overwhelming majority are well behaved and cause no issues whatsoever.

“The groups we send to York tend to be respectable professionals – teachers, nurses and often parents – who are not treating a weekend away as a chance to embark on a rampage.

“They simply want somewhere scenic to enjoy a few cocktails with their best friends, not tie each other to lampposts.”

York Central MP, Rachael Maskell, has accused the firm of 'wanting to make profit out of the misery' of people living in the city and said that if Mr Mavir lived anywhere near York, he would clearly hear the concerns that residents have across the city with the prevalence of groups drinking in the city, including those here for stag and hen weekends.

Rachael Maskell

Back in August Ms Maskell said: “With the sharp rise in ‘airbnb’ holiday-lets across the city, residents report how city centre drunken behaviour is then taken into their neighbourhoods.

"It is also impacting on businesses as people are no longer going into York, and parents consistently tell me that they will not expose their children to such scenes whereas visitors tell me they will not be back until something is done.

“The night time economy is running out of control, with York being marked out as the UK’s capital of hen parties.

"We need to put it to a stop, place the needs of residents first and return our city to the people of York.”