When I did the Feasting in the Dark Western Skyrim Quest with a group, when my group members cleaned the souls they weren't counted for me and I became unable to complete quest.
I've run into this before. If any member of the group picks up the side objectives before the group is full then the new members aren't able to complete these. I never pick these up until the whole group is there and ready, but getting others to do the same isn't an easy task.
I've seen this happen when members of the group haven't been in close proximity to the additional objectives. So if they arrive late to the general location of the quest objectives, anything that's been picked up/cleansed/et c. by other group members will become unavailable for the late arrival.