How would you divide this?

[DawnM]

I will tell you how I am doing it and there haven't been any complaints about it, but I was curious how you all would either divide it or how you would want it divided.

Let's say group of 12 people.   You rent an AirBnB together.   You rent 10 bedrooms because there are two couples going.   The others don't want to share a room if they can help it

Do you divide the cost 12 ways or 10 ways?   Do you pay per person or per room?

Would it matter if there were 12 rooms but two people chose not to stay in them because they wanted to stay with their spouse?   

Let's also give some real numbers.  So, the cost of the AirBnB is $1,200.   Would you charge $100 per person or would you figure it out as $120 per room?

Let's assume food is factored in differently for the purposes of this question.   This is ONLY for lodging.

And "just ask the group" isn't quite an easy question.   The consensus I have gotten from everyone is, "Just plan it and tell me how much I owe, I don't care."   but I was curious what you would do if you were in charge.

 

[ScoutTN]

Per room. Not fair to penalize couples. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Those lodgings are not just for sleeping quarters.

There are also common areas—living room, kitchen, dining area, bathrooms.

So my answer would be in between the options.  I’d figure on a per person charge for the common areas, and a per bedroom charge for the bedrooms.  The rent would be a hybrid between the options you mention, with a savings for sharing a bedroom but not a free right for the ‘extra’ person in the bedroom.

[Pawz4me]

My first thought was per person because it's not fair to penalize singles. The use of the AirBnB includes more than beds, and two people are using twice as many of the resources (other than beds) than one person is. But hotel rooms are usually priced per room and assume double occupancy, so . . I don't know. If I were part of the group (a couple or a single) I'd be fine with either way.

[Ali in OR]

I was thinking per person because in the family situations I imagine for me, the couples are older and have more money and would frankly love to pay a bit more for the singles to have a nice vacation with them.

[TheReader]

I'd think per couple/per room, personally. Especially if the reason for the overly large home was b/c all of the various single people don't want to share rooms at all, thus necessitating a higher cost for all. 

[Toocrazy!!]

We divide by room. 

[Miss Tick]

Following along since I have 2 similar situations coming up in the next few months. I've paid for it up front and people, correctly, want to know what their share is. Tricky

[Katy]

Per person because when DH & I rent a place alone, we choose to stay in the same room. 

[JustEm]

Per room. People not sharing is the reason that you need a house with so many rooms. Not saying that it is a bad thing they don't  want to share. 

[Brittany1116]

I would calculate it per room. The couples are not getting any added value that necessitates a double rate for their sleeping quarters. 

[DawnM]

Ok, I figured answers would vary.   That's fine.

So, the complication is that we are staying in 7 different places and they all have varying bedroom configurations.   Two of the places have 10 bedrooms, two have 9, and one has 12.

I could do it per bedroom but if there are bedrooms left over, I am certainly NOT covering them.   But the costs are the same....so the 12 bedroom is in a more rural area, so it cost the same as the 12 bedroom, etc....we may only use 10 of them, and that is ok.

I am doing it per person for the AirBnBs and per room for hotel stays (we have 2 hotel stays and 5 Airbnb stays.)

When I go to the beach, we always get an AirBnB and just do it per person, some share, some don't.   And sometimes so many share that there are left over rooms!   So who would pay for the left over room?   Sometimes the 10 bedroom place is cheaper than the 8 bedroom place, for example.   So, how would you divide all of that?   Who pays for the empty rooms?

And we have an odd number of singles, so then the one odd man out has to pay double when they really were willing to share, etc....and no, asking someone else to share is not really an option.   several sets are brothers or mom and daughter.  I have one single female cousin who will be the "odd man out" for every single stay.   I just don't feel it is fair for her.

 

 

Edited April 4 by DawnM

[Hannah]

3 minutes ago, DawnM said:

I am doing it per person for the AirBnBs and per room for hotel stays (we have 2 hotel stays and 5 Airbnb stays.)

 

 

I think that's reasonable.

[DawnM]

1 minute ago, Hannah said:

I think that's reasonable.

No one has questioned it or said anything to me in complaint, I was just really curious what some of you would do.

I guess it would be easier if we were staying in ONE location the entire trip and only needed to book one place, I would have dug a bit and found the exact configuration that would suit us, etc.....but due to various configurations of locations, it is difficult.

[Miss Tick]

How nice that everyone is willing to defer to you to decide, then. It makes it easier - no second guessing on their part or justification needed on your part, but then deciding what is fair falls all on you.

[CTVKath]

I think per person for the AirBNBs and per room for the hotels sounds like an excellent plan.

[ScoutTN]

42 minutes ago, TheReader said:

I'd think per couple/per room, personally. Especially if the reason for the overly large home was b/c all of the various single people don't want to share rooms at all, thus necessitating a higher cost for all. 

Yes, couples are already efficient. Singles not sharing rooms is understandable, but costly and not efficient.

[TheReader]

With the new info, the plan seems to make sense; we've done odd configurations like that before; certainly the split of different accommodations plays a large role in how you split the costs as well. 

[AngieC]

Your method makes sense.  In the AirBnBs I'm guessing the couples will get the larger beds (with most likely the larger bedrooms and possibly private bathrooms) so it makes sense for them to pay a bit more.  For the hotels, paying per room is the fairest.

[ScoutTN]

That is complicated! Your plan makes sense. 
 

You should get a discount for doing all the administrative work! 

Edited April 4 by ScoutTN

[Faith-manor]

I think how you are doing it is fine. 

I consider the use of the common areas to be just as important as the bedrooms, so since everyone uses them, I would have charged $120 per bedroom knowing that the singles are paying as much as the couples, but more time is spent on the common areas than in bedrooms usually so everyone needs to pitch in an equal amount to cover the whole house.

[DawnM]

20 minutes ago, AngieC said:

Your method makes sense.  In the AirBnBs I'm guessing the couples will get the larger beds (with most likely the larger bedrooms and possibly private bathrooms) so it makes sense for them to pay a bit more.  For the hotels, paying per room is the fairest.

Yes!   I didn't even factor that part in.   They will get the master bedrooms and en suites if there is one.   It isn't like a dorm where all the rooms are the same.

I guess I think there is always going to be a little bit of uneven if we rent together rather than separate hotel rooms. But the cost difference is huge.   Hotel rooms run about $150/night vs. the shared condos at between $25-$50/night depending on the location.   So, the couples are still saving $$ by doing it this way.

I had booked a conference center first.   It was recommended to me.   Think Christian conference center with very sparse/rustic rooms, no TV, no carpet, just a bed, table, dresser, and basic bathroom.   It was going to be $50/night and they charged per person anyway.   

I changed it and am now staying in two 5 bedroom condos with two kitchens, two living spaces to hang out, a gym, free full buffet breakfast, TVs, carpeted areas for noise reduction, a washer and dryer, etc.....and it is CHEAPER!   It is $25/night per person.  Half.    It just made more sense to me.   This is for the first several days while we are all trickling in.   

[TechWife]

Per person. Everyone is using the same common areas and has the same amenities available to them. There’s no reason a person shouldn’t pay their share just because they are married. 

[SKL]

While it's not exactly perfectly "fair," I think per room is closer to "fair" than per person, and any other option is arguably too complicated.

Though, maybe this would make more sense:  of the $1200, say $900 is for bedrooms and $300 is for common areas.  Then you could split the $900 as $90 per room and split the $300 as $25 per person.  So couples would pay $140 and singles would pay $115.

But the difference of $20 per person (or less) isn't worth much fuss IMO.

ETA I saw that your situation is complicated by more than one setup, plus the possibility that some people may not show up.  I think your solution is best, and if anyone disagrees, they can volunteer to take over the responsibility of calculating and explaining the breakdown.  🙂

Edited April 4 by SKL

[KungFuPanda]

When I travel with a large group we divide the cost per bed. If someone wants to share a bed, their portion is half. Usually we end up with some rooms that have two beds so it could hold 2-4 people. We never put anyone on the sofa bed because large groups need a common area that’s not someone’s bed. The organizer gets the master bedroom and if it has a bathroom that door is left open at night so anyone can use it. 
 

If I was organizing multiple people for multiple stops I would divide the total price by the number of people. There is no lodging discount for bringing your spouse. They’re going to be claiming the bigger beds, which means the nicer rooms, each time so the cost is justified.

in your situation I’d divide the cost by person for the houses and add the price of individual hotel rooms to that. That’s where couples will save a bit. 

[catz]

I think in the case of a friendly group renting a large house for a vacation desired by all, I think per person is perfectly fair with everyone using a common space and everyone having someplace to sleep.  If some singles were having to double up, or someone was on a couch, etc maybe that would change the dynamic.  Maybe give couples larger bedrooms/beds.  In the case of hotels, if you want your own hotel room, you pay for that room.  That also makes sense.  Maybe the family matriarch or patriarch quietly covers a young adult or something like that.  I could see that happening in our family.

My oldest kid lived on a campus that had a lot of private housing options.  And there were lots of crazy arrangemetns.  An example is where there would be like a 2 bedroom with 2 students in one room and one in the other.  How I saw a lot of families handle it was something like

$1000 rent a month - 3 students in a 2 bed/1 bath

$500 toward common space = $500/3 = $167 per student

$500 for bedrooms.  2 bedrooms = $250 per bedroom

      So lone student with private bedroom would pay $250 + $167 = $417

      Each student in the shared bedroom will pay $250/2 + $167 = $292

For a long term arrangement, this seemed pretty fair to me. My college age daughter was looking at a weird arrangement for this next year and if she would have been sharing a room,I would have pushed for an arrangement like this.  Mercifully, this weird set up she was looking at fell apart lol.  (and to be clear, I wish it were really $1000 for a 2 bed, that is just an example of the breakdown).  I could see the breakdown using something like this if budgets were tighter.  

Edited April 4 by catz

[Arcadia]

Per room is for my side of the family. That is because each family typically squeeze into one room. Kids can take the living room and use the sofa and/or sleeping bags. When there are spare bedrooms, we have done a few kids on a queen size bed and the rest sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor. Food would be per person. This is what we did for vacations and for wakes (because ours is 24hrs for almost 5 days typically).

For hotels, we tend to book ourselves as we have different preferences for rooms. Some prefer a king size bed, some wants two queens, some like me prefer a suite that can sleep six and has a kitchenette. Some wants a room with a balcony, some prefer not to.

[footballmom]

I would divide it by whatever number drove the booking of that AirBnB. Meaning, if I had to book it with a certain number of bedrooms for people the have the sleeping arrangements they wanted, I would divide it per room. If the place had more than the bedrooms needed, I guess I would divide the cost per person. That’s an off the cuff answer and haven’t been in this situation yet.

[Paige]

I would do per person unless every room and bathroom to use is objectively equal. Usually couples would get the bigger rooms with fancier bathrooms. I don't think it's fair for the singles to pay the same for a lesser experience. 

[Pam in CT]

6 hours ago, Miss Tick said:

How nice that everyone is willing to defer to you to decide, then. It makes it easier - no second guessing on their part or justification needed on your part, but then deciding what is fair falls all on you.

This. It's such an undertaking to do all the research and try to vet everyone's preferences and who needs a pet permission and who can't do stairs and who can share a bathroom with whom and and balance all the yada yada. This is SOOOOOO much more relevant than per person / per room.

Also, in the mondo extended family / large group houses we've ever rented, Not All "Bedrooms" are Equal. One or sometimes two of them are ginormous with vast McSpas with jacuzzis and whatnot, and someone is in one with bunk beds or a double bed with barely a corridor around it to get to the nighttable or whatever.

And the whole not "fair" to "penalize" _____ to my mind sort of ellides over the reality that the alternative to the mondo extended family / group house, with all the shared social space and convenience of kitchen / barbecue / deck / laundry / other amenities would be... a hotel... where the charge would be by ROOM, without all those conveniences and shared spaces that make a group gathering fun to begin with.  ETA: and in which case, some of those singles who naturally prefer a room to themselves would likely agree to share a room given the cost.

I haven't had personal experience with this because we generally just pick up the whole thing since within our extended family we're best able to do so and we're just happy to get folks together. But if I WERE doing a distribution, and were fully empowered to divide costs as I best saw fit, I would do it more or less on a per room basis, but tweak up substantially for the McMaster suite with the glorious view and tweak down for the back room on the third floor with wonky HVAC and bunk beds, if you KWIM. 

Edited April 4 by Pam in CT

[QueenCat]

Per Room. I wouldn't expect a couple to pay twice as much as a single when they both have just one room. If there are not bathrooms in the hallways that singles can share, those sharing a room would need to share for showers. However, if you charge a couple double, I wouldn't expect them to share an ensuite bathroom, especially during the night/still sleeping.