we hosted for over 10 yrs.... it was an amalgamation of all the above
we have a very very large living room... it looks very much like a lodge, with post and beam construction, a catherdral ceiling and a floor to ceiling rock face fireplace "wall" ..... there were 3 sofas in there at one time and plenty of "portable seating" available
our particular group has a BOATLOAD of kids, variant only by who the conductor was ( we had 5)... so at maxium attendance during the highest body count there were 36 people, 20 of which were minor children.... true, some were teens and some toddlers, but the point is.... there were scads of them ( 4 were mine)..... and the toilet never stopped flushing!!
we had the occasional damage and sticky fingers... we tried treat nights several times, but that was such a pain....people would stay til 10....
the best argument for having it at the house was having babies that got to sleep in their own cribs instead of being dragged out in to the night.... esp in winter !
otherwise..... there wasnt a whole lot about the "privilege of book study" that was endearing