Booking Vacations With Friends: How To Split Costs Fairly

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We never talk about one little teeny tiny detail about booking a trip with friends… splitting the bill. Imagine this: you’ve found the perfect Airbnb that’s affordable for four people. There’s a queen bed and a fold-out couch. Now, splitting things straight down the middle might seem cool for the two travelers sharing the fluffy queen bed, but those folks on the couch? They’re not as pleased.

Navigating expenses is easy if everyone is sleeping in a twin bed, but just like when you’re out at a restaurant and someone orders the steak and someone orders an iced tea, you have to think about what’s fair. Here’s what to keep in mind.

1. Read the fine print.

When you’re booking a home-share, like an Airbnb, there’s a very obvious section listing how many people can sleep in a space. However, if a home can sleep four, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are four beds. You have to read the fine print and see what the breakdown is between beds, couches or even cots.

You might even want to ask the Airbnb or hotel what the sleeping situation is so no one is surprised.

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2. Discuss beforehand.

Make sure to talk about the plan with your pals before booking anything. If everyone isn’t clear on who’s sleeping where, you haven’t really gotten squad approval to purchase anything. You gotta talk it out. Chill travelers probably won’t mind — it’s vacation, who cares where you sleep? But higher maintenance types (you know who you are) might need a bed for full vacay happiness.

In the case where everyone is cool with any sleeping situation, you can decide to split costs evenly or you could flip a coin and the people getting a less ideal sleeping set-up could pay a tad less. But the most important thing is to bring it up well in advance.

If you are the need-a-feather-bed type, suck it up, princess. You’re either going to have to pay more or give up your creature comforts.

3. Try to be objective.

Real talk, planning a trip with a group is tricky. People have different priorities and budgets. Ten dollars extra might seem small to you, but for the person on the lumpy pull-out couch, it could make a difference. Rule of thumb: Analyze the situation objectively, but be ready to be subjective. That means thinking about your accommodations like a real estate agent, not a vacationer. But be ready to take other people’s feelings into consideration. Trip planning is a democracy, not a dictatorship.

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