Grey area of group holiday finances

Negotiate, say as you can stay all day on the Sunday, how about £100 each

@Lalalalala555 Sorry - we cross-posted. So you can't cancel 😢 Glad you are still going and hopefully you will enjoy your time

@Lalalalala555

I am so sorry, they weren't even up to any kind of negotiation. Does that mean the third couple won't be able to come either, if they were relying on a lift from couple 2?

Do you have time to find other friends who might like to come instead? Or can you cancel the break and just lose your deposit? Or have you paid the whole thing already?

At least you know for future that you need to get full agreement from everyone involved, when organising anything - even with family - and then get their share of any cash before you book. Not much help now though

You were trying to be helpful and do something nice, as the cottage might have been lost if you had waited and it's backfired on you. Feel for you

Tell them you are all leaving at the same time. See if they are genuinely nice people they will agree to the 3 way split. If they aren't bin them

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They are still benefiting from not having to rush off on the Sunday by 10am and general clearing up so I think they should pay the same amount.

That poster is being obnoxious, OP, ignore them.

I hadn't appreciated that it's your family; that's very difficult to manoeuvre around. Did you sort out who will be paying for food/drinks whilst you're there?

Yanbu

Reply "sorry if I was unclear but the cost is fixed and it's not like someone else can come and stay in that room on the kast night so it's not fair to make the rest of us pay more if you don't want to use the last night. You'll still get the benefit of not having to be up early and cleared out by 10am because we have the last night booked so you're still getting value for money."

Three night breaks are always Fri - Mon, they’re being ridiculous.

Say “ok we won’t stay Sunday night either”, so now we’re all back paying equal shares.

Or you could cancel (if possible) and suggest they find somewhere nice that allows you to pay just Fri- Sun

OMG I can't believe they are prepared to fall out over £40. They sound unhinged.

I was going to say they are being very unreasonable if they had agreed to cottage booking.
But if you did it without checking first- and I can understand why - then it was at your risk.
However having said that are they leaving 10am on Sunday? If they are they staying till mid afternoon early evening then they are still using the facilities for longer than a 2 night stay and I think they should pay the extra night

I've changed my mind

In one of your messages you said there's no minimum stay. So, perhaps you should have booked for 2 nights (assuming that's cheaper) as everyone might have been content with that. And then explored if people wished to pay more to add Sun night as well

In your shoes, I'd probably suck it up with rather bad grace and avoid getting in this situation again

BTW, Splitwise app is great for splitting holiday costs as you can add entries and say that eg lunch is to split between A and B, golf between B and C etc. And at the end, it simplifies the maths so everyone just makes one payment

Holiday cottages - and rooms therein - are not the same as hotels. You book 2 nights j stead of 3 in a hotel? You pay less (probably only 2/3 of the cost) as the hotel can sell your room to someone else for that night. You cannot do that in a cottage scenario, nor can you ask someone else to come as the bedding will be used etc. Tell them to come or you’ll ask someone else - they’re being very unreasonable. (Also the cost of a holiday cottage for 2 nights likely won’t be hugely cheaper anyway, as they tend to be booked for weeks or weekends and a large chunk of the cost is for cleaning and laundry.)

So you booked without discussing with the others how many nights? That's a problem

Bit tricky. If it was essentially a group decision then it's one third each regardless if anyone subsequently decides to leave early. But if you booked the cottage with consulting them then it's ultimately your responsibility. Having said that, if they agreed a while ago, and the stay is now coming up soon then I think they are still basically committed to one third of the cost, as you could have asked someone else if they'd said no at that point.

What are your alternatives at this point. Can you cut the whole stay down to nights for everyone? Could you ask someone else instead who'd like to come for the whole time?

In any case, between you are staying for 7 "couple nights" so you the fair division if you are all still happy to go ahead is probably 2/7, 2/7, 3/7. So you would pay 50% more than them. And if they are going to stay until the last evening (rather than leave a whole 24 hours earlier) then they should pay the full third.

Tricky because I see your point but you booked it anyway before inviting them....and they could have said no , leaving you with the full cost (unless you had someone else lined up)
And if you say no you have to pay for 3 nights they could still turn round and say - OK we'll stay somewhere else for the 2nights we need where its cheaper overall.

Given they benefit on the third day without staying the night I would see if they will split the difference but you may just have to suck it up, or risk losing them from the weekend and potentially as friends.