Should we split the payment equally?

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I’m going on a getaway with my friends and their family’s. We have booked one big house and so far decided to split it per couple. However, 2 of the families going have 3 children going… therefore will need more rooms… opposed to me and my partner who will only need one room.

aibu to think that the couple with the bigger families should need to pay a little bit more for the extra rooms?

Yes seems obvious to me! Sounds like a nightmare though, on holiday with other people’s kids 😂 good luck!

It would have been wise to discuss it before booking! But yes, a family of 5 should pay more than a couple.

Why do people do this to themselves?

Can you suggest to pay it by bedrooms used?

It should be split by rooms. Why should a couple spend the same amount as a family who maybe have 2/3 bedrooms? That doesn’t seem fair.

What are the rooms like? I'd certainly want a bigger ensuite if you end up paying an equal amount for fewer rooms. Two smaller double/ twin rooms with a shared bathroom might be more equal to a larger ensuite.

Yes definitely split the bill by bedrooms used.

Well yes, it would be fair to divide it according to the size of the group, or can you grab the biggest room with ensuite if that is the configuration?

I would split it by bedrooms. Not only are they using more rooms, if they didn't need those extra rooms you might be able to rent a smaller house, which would be less expensive.

Definitely pay by room. You haven’t said how many families are going, but hypothetically let’s say it’s five. But two need bedrooms for their kids so now you’re looking for a seven bedroom house. Which is more expensive than a five bedroom house. So why should you all pay more to allow for their kids?

When we've gone away with friends with varying numbers of kids (0-2) we've always paid by bed room.

Sometimes this means a 5 bed place with the couple paying for 1 room and the ones with kids paying for 2 rooms each and sometimes it's been a 4 bed with the family with 2 kids having/paying for 2 rooms and the family with 1 kid all crashing in together so paying for 1 room.

You agreed the split, then booked; now you want to change it. Would there be a big difference say a few hundred, if not I wouldnt want to adversely impact the friendship and the holiday.
You are being unreasonable

We go on holiday with our friends. And we pay per room as we have 2 kids. So we pay for 2 rooms and they pay for one room.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Yes definitely.

Pay per room, the only fair way.

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.