DH and I are hoping to go away with friends/relatives this Christmas, and rent a cottage somewhere nice. The cottage will need five bedrooms, and we’ve found quite a few places that have potential. But we’ve hit a stumbling block with costs ……..
Let’s say the total cost is £1000 for five nights, and there are five couples, each couple occupying one bedroom. These aren’t the actual figures, but they do illustrate my point. I’d assumed we’d split £1000 equally between us, so £200 per couple. Simple? No …….
One couple said they may only stay four nights, so could they pro-rata their £200 payment to reflect less nights. Then another couple asked if they could do the same, and then my brother announced he may not be bringing his girlfriend, so could he only pay £100 rather than £200 as there’s now one person in his room and not two!!!
My question to all of them, was: “if you pay a reduced contribution, are you expecting everyone else to pay extra to cover this”? Silence all round.
When I eventually got hold of my brother, he seemed to think that as DH and I would be making the booking, that we would somehow be acting as hoteliers and stumping up the whole cost, and then sort of selling each room to the wider group on an “only pay for what you use” basis. Which isn’t how I’d envisaged it at all. I thought it was an “we’re all in this together” arrangement, where all the costs were split equally five ways, and if you only want to use your room for 4 nights, then that’s your prerogative but don’t expect the rest of the group to subsidise you.
DH and I quickly realised this has got disaster written all over it, and are now seriously considering making other plans, but as the initial invitation had been “shall we rent a cottage and split the costs between us” – AIBU to think everyone else is being unreasonable ??????