What's the fairest way to split cost of this holiday?

[Theknittinggorilla]

Three families hiring a country cottage for a week:

Family 1: couple, no kids, 2 dogs
Family 2: couple, one baby under 6 months old
Family 3: couple, three kids (4, 2 and baby under 6 months old)

Cottage will need 4 bedrooms, one for each couple and one for the 4 and 2 year old to share. Babies will be in cots in parents rooms.

If cottage is say £3k for the week, how much should each family pay?

Please OP come back and tell us what your DH says when he sees this thread!!

In my experience, it's always people with large families who are keen on splitting things 'per family'. Funny that

I would really, really, really, suggest looking into booking 2, or 3 sep. little cottages on one plot (lots of farms have converted barns into 5 or 6 dwellings like this) MUCH better for a week. 3 couples sharing the one kitchen and living space for a week, when at different stages of their lives is just asking for a fall out.

Sorry, I know you weren't asking for advice on that, just think it is SOOOOO much better an option

My wife and I don't have kids. All of our siblings do. When we go away with any of them, they offer to pay more. We insist on an even split. Part of the reason for going away together is to spend time with our nieces and nephews.

I'd do an equal three way split. Presumably everyone's chosen to go together, knowing how many bedrooms you'd need.

Per bedroom.

Part of the reason for going away together is to spend time with our nieces and nephews.

Again, always happy to spend time with the niece's, but if I were expected to spend £1,000 for one bedroom and a third of a kitchen for my one and only holiday of the year it wouldn't be my first choice.

Even if it is costed per room, the childless adults will probably have to compromise more on what they want from the holiday and where they go to eat and drink to meet the needs of the children.

For example my ideal holiday day would be a lengthy walk to a pub for lunch, a few drinks, a gallery or museum in the afternoon, a nice evening meal out and then spend the evening reading, listening to records or talking, accompanied by some nice cheese and Belgian beer. On a holiday with children, you're not going to get that.

I'm not suggesting the childless couple should be compensated, but other people's children are hard work and can be wearing after a while. They will already be making more comprises in terms of what they'll get out of the holiday than those with children, so if the op's husband starts demanding they pay a third of the total cost,the response might well be 'fuck it, for a thousand pounds we can have a cracking holiday and do exactly what we want' sorry pal, you're on your own.

It kind of depends how the holiday is being pitched. If it was friends I'd say 750/750/1500 with the dog owners responsible for any damage caused by dogs.

Given it's not, if you'd be hiring the cottage anyway 1/3 each is also arguably fair.

Although family with multiple DC should obvs chip in more for food and likewise pet owners should feed their dogs.

A third each, children should not pay the same as adults.

A third each, children should not pay the same as adults

Why not, they're occupying a bedroom that needs to be paid for and all the clothes, toys and other paraphernalia (probably far more than the childless couple will bring) need to be kept somewhere.

And I presume it will be their parents paying, not the actual children themselves. I'm not advocating raiding their piggy banks!

boysofmelody your holiday sounds great, wonder if there is any way we can go without our kids...😁

By the way there is no drama here, we are happy to pay by bedroom (as is Dh!), i was just interested in how others did it, and we do actually want to be fair. I suspect we will offer to pay half and end up with something in between. We are in no way trying to rip off the rest of the family in some way!

PIL very keen on the family holiday (and the grandchildren) so there will be no begrudging there and we have done this type of holiday before (though admittedly with less children).

Thank you all you have been very helpful!

Holiday companies do not charge full price for dc , neither can they earn like two adults can.

Bedroom

I've been on this kind of holiday (3 couples but only us with a child, wanting a separate room for him to make it a nice holiday for us). We have always suggested paying more and the answer has always been no way. Because our friends like us and want to be on holiday with us, and know that we're going to share everything in a generous way, and we all have a similar income, and our son so far doesn't earn any money.

The only way is three ways ( a third each) otherwise why are you all going away together ? and the fact that you are here asking says it might go wrong if you bicker over the money. Get a price for the place and split it three ways. Simple is always equal.

We always split it per room needed but then someone mentioned the whole communal space thing and I agreed.

Friends do it so that an adult counts as 2 shares and a child 1 but in this case not sure what a 6 month old would count as?

4/16 - £750
5/16-£937.50
7/16-£1312.50

But then as others have said if some rooms are better than others, dogs etc

I think in this case 3 ways with doggy couple getting best room and lots of kids family getting worst rooms and chucking in some extra booze!

Get DH to offer to pay per room, or would they prefer a different split? Chances are PIL will offer to split by 1/3, but then you won't look tight....

We do joint holidays a lot and always split per room.

We ask people how many rooms they want/ need- sometimes people even with 3 or 4 children ask for only 2 rooms- they just squish up. That's fine as long as the accommodation allows it (Centreparcs doesn't).
If you have children requiring an extra bedroom you expect to pay for that bedroom. If you didn't expect to pay for your children you wouldn't have them.

I'd split it per bedroom.

You don't hire bedrooms, though, you hire a cottage. The marginal cost of a 4th bedroom over a 3 bed cottage is often significantly less than 1/3 the cost of the 3 bed, and loads less than the cost of hiring a 1 bed cottage for the week. To my mind, splitting per room is harsh on singletons and people with children, and splitting per family is harsh on those without children. Charging children half rate is the obvious compromise. Babies are free everywhere.

To my mind, splitting per room is harsh on singletons...

Indeed. And the people expecting the singleton to pay on a per-bedroom basis will be the same people expecting said singleton to take the crappy single room while they get the master bedroom with en-suite because they're a couple.

I have done this a few times with family. We always split the cost per room.

This worked out much more expensive for us as we would hire a 4 or 5 bed place - our DC got a room each. So we would end up paying 4/5 while Dparents only had to pay 1/5.

Whilst they did get to enjoy their grandchildren I only thought it fair that they pay for their room. Food and drink bills we tried to split fairly but it was tricky as the adults had booze, the kids not so much ;)

Your holiday cottage sounds like it will be full to bursting however. Can't you find a holiday complex with three cottages on the same site? It would be far more relaxing for all. especially for those without kids or dogs

Just split it three ways. I find the overthinking and number of calculations based on ratios suggested by other people ridiculous to be honest. We have recently been in a similar situation, we split it three ways and took turns buying food/covering meals out. If some people had alcohol and others didn't then that was paid separately to food.

I wouldn't want to go on holiday with a group of people that calculated everything down to the last penny.