A Rolls-Royce is not bought, built or booked with luggage in mind, and yet the question comes up constantly, usually a fortnight before a wedding when somebody realises the bride's overnight case has to travel somewhere. The answer is more generous than people fear and less generous than the size of the motor car suggests.
The Ghost has a properly usable boot for a car of its type, and for the occasions it is normally chosen for it is entirely sufficient. Where it needs planning is when a Rolls-Royce is doing double duty as both a ceremonial car and a luggage car, which is a job it was never designed for and does not need to do.
What actually fits
Two large checked cases and two cabin bags is the figure we quote, and the boot handles it without strain. The floor is broad, flat and generously carpeted, and cases lie flat rather than standing. Softer bags then sit on top or fill the corners, which is where a couple of holdalls disappear very neatly.
For the great majority of Ghost bookings this is comfortably more than required. A wedding party carries a case or two, an evening bag and a change of shoes. A VIP transfer carries hand luggage. The boot only becomes a topic when somebody tries to route a two-week holiday load through a ceremonial car.
The wedding day question
On a wedding day the luggage problem is rarely about volume and almost always about timing. The car is with you from home to ceremony, then to photographs, then to the reception, and the overnight cases need to be somewhere else by the time you finish. Putting them in the Rolls-Royce for the whole day means they are in the photographs and in the way.
The tidy solution is to send the cases separately, either with family or in a following vehicle, so the Rolls-Royce carries the people it is meant to carry. We will always suggest this rather than loading a ceremonial car with holdalls, and it makes the day calmer for everybody involved.
Things that travel well in this car
The Ghost handles the sort of items that accompany an occasion much better than it handles a holiday. These load easily and cause no difficulty, and most of them are what clients are actually carrying.
- A dress carrier or suit carrier, laid flat across the boot floor
- Hat boxes and millinery cases, which stand upright without wedging
- Overnight bags and weekend holdalls for one or two people
- Flowers and bouquets, best carried flat and collected on arrival
- Camera equipment cases for a photographer travelling with the party
- Gift boxes and presentation items for a celebration or a launch
Care of the boot itself
Rolls-Royce boots are lined and finished to the same standard as the cabin, which means they are more vulnerable than an ordinary car's. Wheeled cases with grit in the castors, muddy boots and anything sharp all need care, and your chauffeur will normally lay a protective cover before loading anything of that description.
It is worth mentioning if you are carrying something unusual, whether that is a wet item, a piece of equipment with exposed metal or an object that needs to travel upright. It takes one sentence in advance and lets the chauffeur arrive prepared rather than improvising in a hotel forecourt.
When to add a second vehicle
There is no shame in a following car, and for many bookings it is the arrangement we recommend first. It carries the luggage, the extra guests, the spare shoes and the wet-weather coats, leaving the Rolls-Royce to do the one job it does better than anything else on the road.
For airport work in particular this is the sensible pattern. A Ghost collecting a principal passenger, with an MPV taking the party and the bags, works far better than trying to squeeze four people and four cases into a car designed around two passengers and an occasion.
Availability and how we confirm
Rolls-Royce motor cars are arranged individually, from our own vehicles and from a vetted network of professional chauffeur operators. Every car is specified differently, so boot linings, wheelbase and interior finish vary between examples, all subject to availability and confirmed at the point of booking.
Tell us the luggage plan when you enquire, not on the day. If the answer is that a second vehicle would serve you better, we will say so in writing along with the reasoning, and you can decide with the whole picture in front of you rather than at the kerb.
