How to split the accommodation cost?

[MangosteenSoda]

We went for a cottage break a while ago and there was a bit of tension over how to split the cost. Can you offer me your thoughts?

The cottage had 5 double bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms, so all accommodations were equally nice. Trip cost 3K.

The holiday makers were:
Pair A (one adult and one child sharing a room)
Pair B (two adults sharing a room)
Person C (one adult, own room)
Person D (one adult, own room)
Person E (one adult, own room)

Cost splitting option 1:
Divide cost by each adult = 500 per adult (meaning 500 per room apart from Pair B who pay 1000).

Cost splitting option 2:
Pay per room with slight adjustment for the rooms with 2 people = 650 each for Pair A & B’s trip and 566 each for C,D & E.

Cost splitting option 3:
Pay per number of total people including child = 856 for Pairs A & B and 428 each for C,D & E.

In this situation, I think it should be split equally per room. So persons a, b, c, d and e pay a fifth each. If you were sharing a food bill, I think that would be different.

I think it depends on who the adults were. Can you give more info?

I’D divide by room.

£500 each between adults.

I think you should pay per room so total cost divided by 5. The couple sharing get a slightly better deal so they could get some extra beers in.

Accommodation by room
Food by adult if young child, or by person if older child.

How old is the child?

I think it depends if you set it as sliding the cost of sleeping accommodation whereby you split per room or living space whereby you split by adults / people. Inc the child would prob depend n a bit of knowledge of their financial situ and the child's agr

Child A is 5.

Everyone in the party is related. A combo of parents, cousins and an older relative.

Per room. The couple are still paying less per head than the single people and I presume want to share a room.

If the 5 year old is a family 5 year old then I wouldn't charge for her. If cater for the adult menu and expect the parent to grab anything specifically for the child.

Per room

I'd divide per room

Per room as per pps

Per room.

If the single guests were that bothered, they should have bunked in a twin and hired a smaller property.

By room seems the best way to go

How much communal living space was there and were you in the cottage a lot or just to sleep? If you were there a lot and were cooking and socialising there you should factor in the number of people, if you were just using the cottage as a place to sleep and were out for meals etc it would be fairer to split by room.

If the rooms were genuinely equally nice then accommodation cost split equally per room, so £600 per room.

Food costs per person (but I wouldn’t charge for small children unless they needed something specialist, which I’d expect the child’s parent(s) to cover)

I would only cut it differently if the rooms were massively different in spec e.g. bunk beds with no en-suite versus a king with an en suite

Hmm. Tricky.

I'd say either
£465 adults and £230 (half price) kids or

£500 per single occupancy room, £750 per double occupancy room

I’d do pay equally per room

Per room, no cost adjustment. Surely if the other adults wanted to save money they could have shared rooms and you all stayed in a smaller place. The only reason I would choose to stay in the same room as one or more of my children is to save money.
Food bills should be split per person including children though.

Hmm.. a few questions from me:
Are Pair B sharing because they want to ( eg they are a couple?) or are they doing so because it's convenient because of the layout etc ( eg 2 singletons who would prefer to have their own separate bedrooms but are compromising because of the number of rooms)?
Does everyone have a relatively decent income or are some clearly better/worse off?
I guess I wouldn't expect a couple sharing a room to be paying the same as a single person in their own room, but also I wouldn't expect a pensioner to be subbing a working couple. Personally I would consider who was the worse off, and tilt the calculation in their favour. Whichever way you do it someone could argue that it is unfair, so I'd make the better off bear the burden. So if the single parent is the one who is most hard up, I'd charge per adult, with the effect that their child would be subbed by the rest. If the couple sharing are pensioners and everyone else is working I'd charge per room.

Pay per room. Everyone can put in as many people they like in Thier own room.

Thanks for the responses. I wanted to split per room (I am A) and was happy to make the adjustment to account for the extra people in the two rooms.

D and E were really upset and wanted option 1 (split per adult). Pair B were a bit but are too polite to say anything and would have sucked it up. My next suggestion was option 3, but D and E were horrified at the thought of charging for the child.

Extra context: the living area was huge, as was the kitchen. I had suggested some smaller, cheaper places but D didn’t want that. Also understandable tbf.

It’s awkward because it would be nice to go away for a family thing again, but I felt really bad for Pair B and wouldn’t want to put them in that situation again.

B are a couple.

Yeah, there is a disparity of disposable income, but the single pensioner is actually the one with the most spare cash