Four best friends, a couple of rounds on a world-class golf course and a luxurious destination club. Mix liberally with red meat, cold drinks, cigars and perhaps a bawdy joke or two and you’ve got yourself a recipe for the perfect boys getaway weekend. But if you don’t do all your homework, some members of your party may have more to complain about than their crummy performance on the back nine.

While destination clubs promise hassle-free vacations at grand, well-appointed homes, the fact is that both the number of bedrooms and how the club appoints each bedroom can dramatically impact the number of guests a residence can accommodate. After all, while you and your friends may be close, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Larry and Frank will be game to share a room, let alone a bed.

The lesson for potential, and current, destination club members is to look not just at the number of bedrooms in a home or what the club claims is the home’s occupancy, but also at the specific configuration of the bedrooms when planning a trip. And if you see a potential problem, investigate how your club may be able to reconfigure its bedrooms for your specific party.

Destination club homes range from units as small as one-bedroom, to residences with more than six-bedrooms. While clubs often tout the size of their homes as one of their great advantages, Halogen Guides found in a analysis of club’s real estate portfolios that as many as 30 percent of all destination club homes have three or fewer bedrooms. In certain locations, this is to be expected, particularly properties in urban areas. But we also found that there are homes with a smaller number of bedrooms in areas one might typically expect to find larger residences. For instance High Country Club’s one-bedroom Tuscany residence in Merlino, Italy, and Exclusive Resorts’ one-bedroom “casitas” outside Tuscon, Ariz. at the Miraval Resort, a destination that no doubt is ideal for a couple’s retreat but also a girlfriend’s getaway. Clubs may also have multiple homes in a single location with varying numbers of bedrooms. Exclusive Resorts has both three- and four-bedroom homes available for members in Scottsdale, Ariz., a destination which has proven to be a particularly popular destination for buddy trips, due in no small part to the abundance of great golfing in the area.

The couple’s weekend poses another set of accommodation challenges. With many homes configured for families, your couple friends may find themselves sleeping in separate beds in the same room. Most destination clubs try to be as flexible as possible regarding sleeping arrangements, and by default will configure homes for maximum accommodation. The Lusso Collection, for example, usually furnishes each bedroom, besides the master suite, with double twin beds, and in some cases uses bunk beds. Lusso will convert the twin beds to kings when possible. Quintess, whose homes often have four-, five- or six-bedrooms, reports that it does not frequently receive requests for alternate sleeping arrangements. Quintess will not generally switch out furniture, but the club does help arrange for rooms at nearby hotels for additional guests.

Clubs will work with members to accommodate their guests, but as a rule it’s best to plan ahead and let them know exactly what your requirements are. There are always emergency options, of course. But woe unto he who draws the last straw and ends up on the Aerobed, now standard in most clubs’ homes.