Drakes is not the hotel for twenty people, matching pyjamas and a corridor full of room-service trays. It has just 20 bedrooms across two Regency townhouses, which makes it feel much more like a very polished seaside hideout than a standard Brighton group hotel.

Most rooms are firmly made for two, but they compensate with sea views, big baths, wet rooms and the kind of bedrooms that make getting ready feel like part of the weekend rather than something you endure before leaving. The Marvellous and Best rooms are the ones to fight over; some put the bath right by the window, which is frankly showing off.

Downstairs, there’s an all-day cocktail bar looking straight towards the pier and a fine-dining restaurant, so this works particularly well for a smaller hen doing long lunches, very good drinks and Brighton at a more civilised pace. The hen policy is refreshingly straightforward too: the official tourism board explicitly says groups like yours are welcome.