Holiday house for the weekend, dividing costs

[scottishlovely]

A good friend is turning 30 next year, and wants a bunch of us (uni friends + families) to go away for the weekend.
She's found a nice house for us the rent. It's got a mega posh master suite, a couple of standard doubles, and a couple of sofa beds in the lounge.
She wants to split the cost equally, so £350 per couple. It's bloody expensive!
My AIBU; to think that the poor sods who end up on the sofa beds in the communal space, should not be paying as much as those that have a room to call their own. Bday girl gets master suite, but I suppose that's only right and proper...

She is a CF. You could rent an entire cottage/luxury flat for £350 per night. I just do not get these elaborate expensive celebrations for adult birthdays. Wayhay I'm turning 30 so if you could all just shell out several hundred pounds to celebrate me that'd be great. WTF!

‘Can you all cough up fuck loads of cash so I can stay in a mega posh suite for my birthday? You scumbags will have to sleep in the lounge on a sofa bed-he he!’

She really isn’t a very good friend!

When we went away for DH's 30th, we paid the cost of the house rental and invited friends to join us. They only had to pay for their own transport (petrol).

A good friend is turning 30 next year

Based on your OP, she's not.

As PPs have said, that house isn't suitable. For 5 couples/ families, you need 5 rooms. I would be making my excuses now. £350 is ridiculous, but it'll end up being more when one (or more) couple pull out due to the crappy sleeping situation.

Yikes. £350?! No way.

I’ve organised lots of weekends away for hen parties etc and it’s never been anything close to £175pp and everyone has had a bedroom! I think it’s entirely fair to tell your friend that the property clearly isn’t suitable and maybe send a link to a few examples of better places (just to illustrate that hers is a really poor choice!)

Absolutely ridiculous.

It's VERY expensive anyway, but I would only contemplate this kind of expense if I was getting a proper bedroom. No real issue with birthday girl having the nicest room but definitely not if it meant everyone else is in much poorer space or even shared accommodation! And to be honest if the master room is much nicer then I would expect her to pay a bit more.

But I wouldn't even go if I didn't have my own room - at 30 years old people don't want to be bunking down in the living room on a sofa bed, let alone paying through the nose for it.

As others have said, the house sounds totally unsuitable. Also, every time I have stayed in a cottage/house, it's been much cheaper on a per night basis than a hotel. I wouldn't be expecting to pay £350 solely on accommodation for a weekend in a shared house! Especially if I might have to stay on a sofa bed in a communal space. Hell no.

Sounds like she's being very selfish and chosen a house that suits her (so she can recline in the luxurious master bedroom) and doesn't give a crap about her 'friends' as she's asking them to subsidise it.

350 per couple for a weekend is too much even if you have a bed, let alone sofa beds.
I have been on lots of hen dos in lovely accom with large groups and never paid that much.
Also if a couple drops out I assume everyone else would need to cover that extra cost too?
It’s just too much. If she wants to go away she needs to find something more reasonable. I hope she is paying her share too and this isn’t a free stay for her bday gift??

Why would you want to book somewhere that quite obviously doesn’t have enough bedrooms?

And £350? She’s taking the fucking piss!

there's plenty houses available with enough bedrooms for evetyone, that house isn't suitable, no way wpuld I be prepared to sleep on a sofa bed in the livingroom for the same price as the people with en suite bedrooms

As an adult there is no way I would want to sleep on a sofa. Been there done that, moved past it. I don’t want to have to wait for everyone else to go to bed before I can or entertain early rising children (other than my own) in the morning while everyone else gets a lie in. No thank you.

Neither would I pay £350 to do it either. There are plenty of places that are cheaper, still lovely and can accommodate you all.

Is she expecting you to pay her share of accommodation too as your birthday present to her by any chance? or is she just fixated on the one amazing room she would have and to hell with the rest of you...

Would definitely say that for that price she needs to have a bedroom for every couple. What would happen if one person on a sofa bed wants to go to sleep when everyone else is still partying - or wants to stay asleep when everyone else wants to be up and awake in the morning? Or if they're feeling ill and just want to curl up somewhere quiet? Not going to work.

Also - you mention families - does this mean there will be kids involved too? or even babies? Will they be sleeping in their parents rooms? In which case does this mean that the people without kids are going to end up on sofas as the kids can't be on sofa beds?

Definitely need a house with the right number of bedrooms for each couple to have one each. Can you do some googling to see if you can find any in the area she wants to go to that would be cheaper and nicer and send them out to everyone, to show that it would be possible to find somewhere suitable - if she has been telling others that it's this or nothing, she cant' find anything else so they're agreeing reluctantly, then at least it would stop that. (No idea if that's the case - but I've seen manipulation of a situation along these lines when everybody agrees because they think that's the only option - and it is - because the person doing the organising wasn't providing others that would be better overall but not quite so good for them, so it can easily happen!).

Are you ever coming back, OP?

Everyone has said this is unreasonable; what do you plan on doing?

If I was one of the people on the sofa beds I wouldn't go. The lack of privacy and sleep (as you've got to wait until everyone else is in bed before you can sleep, then you get woken by whoever is first up) would be a deal breaker.

But if I did I wouldn't pay more than £50 for that scenario.

So that means that everyone else would have to pay even more than 350 which i don't think is gonna happen.

As this is the bday girl's idea think that she should pay £500 to subsidise those on sofa beds and because she's got the lovely ensuite.

But first she needs to check there are even people willing to go on the sofa beds to start with.

Have you factored in booze and food costs, OP? The final figure is likely to end up quite significantly north of £350. Is the CF birthday girl expecting you all to wine and dine her as well as sub her sumptuous boudoir?

Do you all think this is a reverse????

Get 1 or 2 houses with enough proper bedrooms for everyone

£350 is daylight robbery! Regardless of sofa bed or master bedroom that’s extortionate and I wouldn’t be going.

Oh OP please return and tell us you all aren’t indulging this madness....

Am sorry, but I would want my own room. No way would I pay the same as everyone else for a sofa bed. In fact, I wouldn’t even pay less, I would still want my own room.

Also, I don’t think it’s a given that the birthday girl gets the best bedroom at all. If I invited friends away to celebrate my birthday then I’d be insisting I slept on the sofa!

No way would I pay the same for a sofa bed in the living room as someone with a master suite. £350 for a sofa bed is outrageous.