Paying for villa rental for friends - but ask them to pay flights?

[azurabozura]

It’s my 30th soon. DP and I would like to have a bit of a celebration with two sets of friends we have known since uni. We holiday together most years.

We had spoken about going away this year to our usual area of the Med. Usually sort out our own travel and split costs of villa.

As it’s a big birthday, we were thinking of renting a nice big villa with private pool etc near the sea in Barbados. We would pay for the villa rental (few grand) then thinking friends would pay their own flights. Has anyone done something similar?

Flights to Barbados are pretty reasonable considering the distance (£450 on sale). This would be roughly the same cost if not less as a regular holiday where we all pay own flights and villa.

Sounds perfectly reasonable and absolutely wonderful to me. I’d be over the moon.

Just keep in mind that food and drink is more expensive in Barbados than in Europe- the costs could add up quicker than you think.

Agreed.

We had friends who very generously.invited us skiing in switzerland for a week!
They rented the chalet and provided food. We paid for flights/trains /ski hire / duty free champagne and were bloody delgihted at having such generous friends!!!!

I think you say "we have rented x villa and youd love if you could join us to celebrate y on z dates"

Really kind of you.

When you extend the invitation I think you also need to consider other costs and who will pay and make that clear. So transfers, food, transport, entertainment. If you expect your friends to pay (and I think that is perfectly fair) give them a rough idea of what you expect it will cost and how the holiday will work. People will want to know if there will be a food kitty with breakfast and lunch mainly at the villa but dinner out each night, if you are just planning to chill by the pool or will be sightseeing every day so they can figure out their budget.

It's a bit extra. I personally wouldn't accept, I'd rather go to Spain than Barbados anyway.

loooool. That wasn't the question...

It’s a point worth considering though. Some people prefer short haul flights and familiarity and European culture. You can’t assume that everyone will want to go to Barbados.

This sounds lovely but I think there are two things to consider. First, if you’ve all known each other since Uni, is everyone turning 30 at a similar time and will the others think they need to do something comparable for their birthdays? Secondly, when were you thinking of going. For med holidays, I presume it would be sometime between June & September. If this Barbados trip is an “instead of” would it be at the same time of year? I wouldn’t want to stay there during wet season and certainly not during hurricane season.

Lots of good points here. Would you be okay to postponing your birthday trip to when it makes sense to travel to the Caribbean? I’m actually in Barbados right now and the island is just coming out of rainy season, so I recommend a trip between December and March perhaps.

Agree it sounds like a fantastic idea! I did Ibiza with friends for my 30th but eyeing up St Lucia or Turks & Caicos for my 40th 👀

I would recommend St Lucia over Barbados. It’s cheaper to eat out and do excursions

It sounds lovely, OP!
And since you usually holiday with these friends, there is a good chance that they will say yes, and that you will have a great holiday together.

I agree with some of the previous poster, though, about some things.

• A holiday is not just the ticket and the accommodation. There are lots of other things to pay for too, like food and drinks (of course), transfer, activities. Who will pay for what? Will those things be more expensive in Barbados than in a Mediterranean country?
• When will you travel? Is it important for you to be away on your actual birthday? When is the best time to travel to Barbados? Are you all around the same age? Are other people in the group turning 30 next year too? Have they talked about their birthdays?

The sort of villa you describe in winter in Barbados in a nice area is gonna cost more like a few grand a night, not for a holiday. How long are you proposing going for?

Transfers will never cost that much, it's a small island. Food and drink is ££.

What time of year?

Agree with others that eating out is very expensive. We’re paying about US$30pp for breakfast/brunch and $100-150pp for dinner. Beachside cocktails are more reasonable though, at around $10-15 each.

So I would just pre-warn your friends. Although if they’re getting free accommodation I’m sure they won’t mind the high eating out costs.

The other issue to consider, hopefully not a problem at your age, is the cost of health insurance, which could be a lot higher. Overall, being clear on the offer upfront is the key thing. We have paid for the hotel bill and meals, with people paying for their flights, but that was for family.