Friction Hotel Takeovers!

We have attended three Friction hotel takeover events in 2022! This is our review of the events and our insights and tips to make your next Friction event as fun and sexy as possible.

Naughty Fun at Friction Takeover Events!

Our first Friction takeover event was the Risqué Resolutions 2021 New Year’s Eve party in Durham, NC. In addition to this being our first Friction event, it was also our very first hotel take-over experience. We were extremely excited about the opportunity to attend our first event, but also a bit nervous due to the unknowns.

At the time our first Friction event, we were experienced with Temptation Resort. This made it very comfortable for us to dress up in sexy outfits and immerse ourselves in a sexually charged party atmosphere. However, we were still nervous about what to expect and what type of outfits people would be wearing. Luckily, some friends of ours had attended a previous Friction event and they shared some of their insights with us. We ended up taking the plunge and we are now Friction veterans with three events under our belts!

A General Overview: We have attended three different Friction hotel takeover events thus far and we thought it would be helpful to provide a general overview of how the Friction events are structured and how things flow from check-in all the way to the after-party. We hope this helps answer many common questions and provides insights into how the parties unfold.

Friction events are complete hotel take-over events, meaning only guests that have purchased Friction event tickets are allowed to book rooms or access the hotel throughout the duration of the event. A good number of events are “one night only” and typically take place on a Saturday evening. The one-night events are often associated with holidays like Halloween, New Year’s, St. Patrick’s Day, and Valentine’s Day. Sometimes Friction will host two-day weekend events, which usually take place in the summer months and involve pool parties during the day. For the three Friction events we’ve attended thus far, we were not required to book a room and guests had the option of only purchasing tickets to the event itself. If you do book a room (most guests do book rooms), you must use the Friction group code since the events are complete hotel takeovers. For the two-day events, we had the option of purchasing tickets for day one, day two, or both days. One important thing to note is that a single day ticket for a two-day event does not get you access to the afternoon pool parties or afternoon activities, and you are only allowed to check-in for the event at a designated time in the early evening.

For the sake of describing how things work, we are going to walk through the typical schedule and flow of a one-day event. The two-day events are very similar, and essentially follow the same schedule but offer two days of events and two nights of parties.

As we mentioned earlier, the one-day events are typically held on Saturdays. Some guests will arrive on Friday and stay through Sunday, while others will arrive on Saturday and just stay one night. Although there are no official activities scheduled for Friday evening before the event, the bar area of the hotel is typically packed with people and the energy and atmosphere is great! Sometimes there will be an informal meet and greet coordinated, but that will be the extent of any Friday night activities. Since the hotel takeover doesn’t officially start until Saturday, you will occasionally see some non-event guests mixed in with the party guests at the bar on Friday night. However, most people there will be party attendees.

The bar crowd on Friday will start to wind down around midnight. Some people will be tired from traveling that day and will call it a night, while others will transition the party to their rooms.

Check in time for one-day events typically start at 2:00 PM. From that point forward, only party guests that have purchased tickets are allowed into the hotel. Even food delivery drivers must wait outside and are not allowed inside the hotel. If available at the hotel, an open swim meet-up party will take place poolside during the early afternoon. The pool events are clothing optional and usually start at the time of check-in and last 2 to 3 hours. Additional events like speed dating, meet and greets, or vendor sponsored sessions, will be scheduled in the early evening hours between 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM. All the planned activities are optional, and guests pick and choose if they want to attend and participate or not.

The big event party officially starts at 9:00 PM and goes until 1:30 AM. Each event will have a different sexy theme and almost everyone dresses up for the occasion. Outfits will range from very risqué to sexy conservative. If you like dressing super sexy and showing off your body, you can do so and feel right at home! The party itself is held inside a ballroom or large conference room area. A DJ plays music throughout the night and fun props like cages and poles will be positioned in the room for everyone to enjoy. Guests will often dance and party for a bit and then take breather and hang out in the lobby or bar area. People will move back and forth between these two locations throughout the evening.

Beer, wine, and mixed drinks are sold by the hotel and they have a strict policy about bringing drinks down from your room and into the main lobby area or party area. Event staff are typically stationed at the elevators and stairs to make sure people comply with this rule. You are allowed to have alcohol in your room, and you can visit your room at any time to have a drink, but you are not allowed to bring anything down to the main floor.

When the dance party ends, the floor crawl party begins! The floor crawl party takes place on a designated floor of the hotel and begins around 1:30 AM. For all the events we attended, the party floor was always on the fourth floor. Guests on this floor will open their rooms and host visitors with cocktails, dancing, themed mini-parties, and even sexy shenanigans. Many guests will change out of their themed party costumes and put on sexy lingerie or naughty outfits specifically for the party crawl. It’s hard to describe the hall crawl parties, but they are a lot of fun, and the parties can carry on for hours. Some guests want to be on the party floor and specifically ask for those rooms. Other guests prefer to have a room on a different floor, so they have a quieter place to sleep when they call it a night. Some guests will buy two rooms and have one on the party floor and the second on another floor. That way they can party and have fun for as long as they want and then go back to their quiet room form sleep or sensual fun. It really depends on personal preference.

The morning after is typically quiet and guests will begin checking out of the hotel throughout the morning hours. The checkout time for the hotel is typically noon, which allows guests to sleep in late if desired.

Risqué Resolutions (Our First Event): This event was a one-night event, with check-in starting on Friday at 2 PM. The party was based around New Year’s Eve, so the sexy theme for the evening was “Anything that makes you feel erotic and sexy, but elegant and classy.” Since this was our first event, we weren’t sure what type of outfits people would be wearing. We assumed the costumes and clothing would be similar to the theme parties at Temptation, but we ended up bringing multiple outfit options just to be safe.

We have the good fortune to live in the same area as the event venue, so we decided to go by the hotel around noon to check-in and drop off our bags and cooler. We also wanted to check-in early to make sure we had a room on one of the quiet floors.

A few lifestyle friends of ours in the area attended the event with us and we made plans to go out to dinner before the party. The dinner was fun, and everyone enjoyed getting dressed up for the occasion, but leaving the hotel for dinner did have a downside. We learned after attending additional Friction events that hanging out in the lobby, attending the activities, and socializing with everyone before the party is a blast! It also gives you the opportunity to meet people and create new connections. While going out to dinner can be nice, you really miss a lot of fun at the hotel and we feel the social time is more fun and more valuable than having a nice dinner away from the hotel. After learning our lesson with the first event, from that point forward we have always stayed at the hotel and either ordered food from the hotel bar or had food delivered to the hotel.

We arrived back at the hotel around 9:00 PM and everyone went straight up to their rooms to change into their party outfits. We had a quick drink in the room while getting changed and then headed downstairs for the party. We got downstairs around 9:30 and by then the party was in full force. We estimated that about half of the guests were in the lobby area socializing and the other half were in the party room dancing. The typical pattern for most people was to dance for 15-20 mins, retreat to the lobby area for a break and/or a drink, and then repeat.

The party area for this event was in a large ball room. The room was nicely decorated and included a dance pole, a dance cage, and several bar-height tables for drinks. A dance floor was located on one side of the room and a live DJ booth was located next to the dance floor. The room was also equipped with party lights and black lights. We had a great time dancing and watching others have sexy fun on the dance floor!

We split our time between the lobby and dance floor until 1:00 AM and then headed upstairs to change into our party crawl outfits. This was our first party crawl experience, so we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. We were told that people often change into lingerie or sexy nightwear outfits, so that’s what we planned for. Our outfits consisted of a sexy lingerie body suit for her and black shorts and black necktie for him (no shirt). As we walked onto the fourth floor, we were relieved to see everyone dressed super sexy and just like us! Friends of ours had a host room on the party floor, so we used that room as home base. We all met in that room and had some cocktails. Our friends had a legit sound system setup with tower speakers, dance music, and disco lights. They also had a signature drink for guests to enjoy and naughty movies playing on the TV. We hung out in their room for awhile and then went out to explore the other rooms.

We are sure you want to know more about the party floor and how the host rooms work, so we will try to describe things in more detail. First, the party crawl for all three of our events took place on the fourth floor. People with rooms on the designated party floor are encouraged to open their rooms up to guests and serve as party hosts. Not all guests on the party floor open their rooms up and these guests will keep their doors closed. However, a good portion of the rooms are open to everyone and people are welcome to visit these rooms as they please. The standard rule is that any room on the party floor with the door propped open is considered a host room and available to everyone. Each host room is typically decorated, or setup based on a sexy theme that is determine by the room owners. Guests essentially walk up and down the hall and pop into different rooms to say hello, dance, be a voyeur, or participate in naughty fun. For example, some rooms will be simple meet and greet rooms where people stop by to say hello and have a drink. Other rooms will be setup like sexy night clubs and offer loud music and dirty dancing. You will also see more extreme rooms where people are having sex and others are watching. It can vary from room to room and it’s up to your preference or curiosity as to which rooms you visit.

We stayed up really late that night and had a great time on the party crawl floor. We finally got in bed around 4 AM and slept in the next morning until it was time to check-out. The lobby was almost empty when we walked out of the hotel around noon and the people we did see looked exhausted like us. We said bye to some friends and then left to head back home.

Overall, it was a really great first experience and we had an amazing time. It was honestly more fun than we expected, and it made us excited and very interested in attending additional events in the future.

Tips and Tricks

Tip 1: Be aware of which floor the party crawl will be held so you can request or choose your desired room location. Some people prefer to be on the party floor, but that floor can be loud and crazy. If you prefer a room on a quiet floor, make sure to request one when you check-in. Also, your odds of getting a room on the floor of your choice increase the earlier you check-in.

Tip 2: Despite not being allowed to bring your own drinks down to the lobby during the party event, you can bring your own alcohol to your room and visit your room at any time to have a drink. Although this isn’t super convenient, you can save some money this way.

Tip 3: As we mentioned in our review, some people go out to dinner and leave the hotel. Based on our experience, we recommend eating at the hotel or having food delivered. You can also bring your own food with you. Staying at the hotel allows you to meet and connect with others and the social energy in the lobby and at the activities is a blast.

Tip 4: Bring a white noise machine or fan for when you finally decide to call it a night. You never know how active your neighbors will be and you could get put on the party floor.

Tip 5: Bring decorations for the outside of your door. A lot of people will make clever signs, hang lights, and even put their pictures on the outside of their doors. Sometimes it’s just to be friendly and other times it helps their friends find their room.

Tip 6: Bring a few different outfits. You never know what mood or vibe you will be in and sometimes a costume change can create a different mood or generate new energy. Sometimes people will start out more reserved and then change into more revealing clothing as the night progresses. At least bringing multiple outfits give you options!