Should we split the payment equally?

If you've already agreed it's too late to change the plan now. But in general, why would you go away with families with kids when you don't have kids yourselves?! Kid holidays are definitely not fun for the child free.

Why on earth did you agree to this booking without uttering the words 'how do people think we should split the cost?'

What's the betting you'll pay the same as the families with three kids but they'll get the biggest rooms with a king size bed and a large en suite , they'll want the nearby rooms for their kids so they can keep an ear out for them, so you'll end up with a twin room or a crap double in the loft with the uneven floor and the spiders, with low ceiling and no bathroom, hangers or mirror!

And then you can do a massive shop where you end up subsidising their kids' snacks!

I'd go away on your own 😂

You’ve already agreed to split by couple. The others will expect you to pay as agreed.

Next time you should think about these things before agreeing!

Yes without a doubt. Each couple pays for the rooms that they need. As a parent I’d never expect a couple with no kids to sub my children’s room payment!!

Split per room.

But if you agreed to split per couple before it was booked then suck it up.

Based on what?

The cost should be split per room taking into account facilities, those with an en-suite for their use only should perhaps pay more than those to who have to share a bathroom with others.

The problem is you have booked and agreed who is paying what already. The families with children may already be at the top of their budget, or agreed to book because the price was cheaper than they expected and now you want them to pay more. You might have to keep your mouth shut now and suck it up to avoid falling out with the others.

Going forward make sure that all holiday costs are fairly shared out so that you are not subsidising food and activities etc for other people’s children.

If you're paying an equal proportion who's deciding on the rooms. It's probably too late to renegotiate the split but you need to speak up on room allocation. If you're given the worst room after paying extra at least you'll know what you're heading into. Make sure it's clear how food and meals out will be divided too.

Broadly I would say split by number of rooms used. Equally is it super cheap and are you rolling it, so can you therefore just afford to split it by couple.

whoever suggested that way of splitting the bill clearly has the children!!!

They’ll deffo run in the door & bag the best rooms, too!

It would be reasonable to split by bedrooms needed but if you have already agreed an equal split I can see why they might not agree. How are food etc costs being split?

Exactly this

Depends how much a 5 bed versus a 3 bed costs though. If not much more then maybe not really fair to split by room, especially if the op ends up with a nicer room than the kids.

wouldyou have gone for this house even if there wasn’t any kids or did you go for it in order to accommodate the kids. If the first just split by couple. Also what was the difference in price to accommodate the kids versus just the adults. If it wasn’t proportionally more then probably not fair to charge an equal amount for child.

in theory splitting by people makes sense but given children don’t have an income if you can afford it, it would be nice to just split by couple.

a compromise could be to include a child as 0.5.

I have been the only couple with children on a trip like this and the kids could have shared our room but everyone else was adamant they wanted a larger house to get the extra bathrooms and other facilities that came with it. The youngest was in with us anyway and the older one had their travel bed set up in spare bedroom. The kids were included a little in food split (but not all as no drinking etc) but not the accomodation split.

Ouch rookie mistake, not only are you subsidising their holiday but has other shared items been discussed yet? Is food being split between couples too? Meal out? let’s split the bill by couples too!

Either pay by room, or pay per person including kids. Either way, the parents still need to pay their kids share. Rude to expect others to pay for your kids.

I'd personally I've done it both ways for various reasons...but whichever way you do it, the #1 rule is that everyone agrees beforehand!

Fair to pay per room, or maybe a compromise like you pay per person but kids count as half a person? You really should have mentioned this earlier though!

Pay per room, the only fair way.

Yes definitely.

Agree with this - did you have to compromise on location, facilities etc fit everyone or have you ended up somewhere gorgeous and massive and easier to share? Also think it’s basically impossible to go back on what you’ve agreed. Have you chosen rooms - can you have first pick?

it really should have been discussed beforehand and if it's going to be a really fun family event might be worth sucking up the small (presumably) extra charge.
how many couples? if those with kids paid extra would it really be that much less for those who don't.
personally if it's a really special event i wouldn't ruin it with such negative thoughts, i'd pay, suck it up, and next time give the cost split a bit more attention.

Depends on the facilities. If there is a huge pool, loads of communal space, things you wouldn’t get for a place with fewer bedrooms, then I wouldn’t mind too much. Also depends on the price difference.

A bit late to have the conversation now. Ideally you work it out ahead of time - either by splitting by room or getting the master en-suite or whatever. But if you’ve already booked and agreed then you can’t really change it now.

If you’ve agreed per couple and already booked then changing the arrangement would be rather tricky. Those conversations should be had before booking. You move the goalposts and maybe the other family wouldn’t have agreed to come. They didn’t just magic up children so they haven’t changed the scenario so I don’t get why you are now wanting to change.