Sharing a house at WH -- how to divide the cost???

[jhnsnfamily]

Needing some advice ... We booked a six bedroom/4 bath house in WH for our trip. We are trying to figure out how to divide the cost -- per family, per person, or what? What methods do you use? What do you think is fair?

There are four families going. Your advice is much appreciated. TIA!

 

[Darcy03231]

I would divide it per person, that's the way its most fair. A family of three should pay less than a family of 5.

 

[CarolA]

I would divide it by family.....

But I also would have decided this earlier in the process.

 

[MandM-Mom]

I would like per family if it was me, but what do the others in your group say?

 

[mom_2a_sept_princess]

Maybe you can divide it by bedroom. If 3 people all sleep in the same bedroom, why should you pay the same amount for someone who occupies 2 or 3 bedrooms.

Let us know what you decide!

 

[Gillian]

Probably per family will work out. If some families are smaller and take up less space, they might end up in the nicer rooms. For example, when we were a family of 3 we could all stay in a room with a king bed. DS liked to sleep on the floor, strange child that he is! but now we'd need 2 rooms and would be willing to take 2 smaller ones that maybe didn't have a fancy bathroom and shared a hall bath or something.

What is the breakdown of people and rooms?

If you do some complicated method and it's almost the same as splitting it 4 ways, it will be easier to just split it. Like when you go out to dinner and one person orders a beer, but another orders an appetizer and it all just comes out in the wash.

Another thing I'd do is have everyone contribute to a house fund for stuff like tp and papertowels (or bring from home if you're driving). Think about food too, because 4 families sharing 1 fridge could be a problem.

 

[wandawoman]

I'm staying in WH at end of March in a 6 bedroom. We divided cost per person. There are 10 of us in all. I can't really complain about spending less than $800 for my family of four for the week.

 

[snugglebug]

I'm dividing per person for everyone requiring a park ticket. For my family of 6, we are paying for 5 since my youngest will be 2. My inlaws will only have to pay for 2 people. I think ours came out to about $99/person for the entire week. I figured my family being the largest will take up the most space in the house and we should pay accordingly. Likewise, my inlaws will require little space and shouldn't pay as much as we would.

 

[jhnsnfamily]

6 bedrooms - 4 families

family 1 -- my mom and dad (2 people)
family 2 -- me, dh, 2 kids (4 people)
family 3 -- friends (couple with 1 child = 3 people)
family 4 -- friends (couple with 1 child = 3 people)

I'll do the math ... that's 12 people. But, what you need to know is it started out an all family trip. However, MIL and FIL bailed due to financial issues and my sister and her family bailed (4 people) due to the possibility of her losing her job (mortgage industry). So, I had to backfill, since I'd already sent the deposit, and we I feel we got a great deal on the house (6 nights/7th free cuz DH is firefighter), house on double lot, lots of room, etc., etc., etc.

So, I didn't want to cancel this ressie and try to find another house. Now, my family was supposed to use two bedrooms and my sister's family two bedrooms. Each set of grandparents would use one each. We had initially decided on $450 per family of 4 (2 bedrooms) and $325 per couple (1 bedroom). Oh yeah, there's only 4 bathrooms.

So, now the scenario is there's still four families, but the one family's son is bunking with my boys because there's a twin over full bedroom and they are buddies. The other family will use two bedrooms cuz hubby snores so loudly, he'll knock the paint off the walls, so she'll share a room with her son and he'll take whatever's left over. Whew.

I technically could invite another couple to join us, but right now, there's four families and four bathrooms. If we were all related, it would be one thing, but we are not. So ... I think cost per person may be the way to go, even though I'm gonna get stuck paying the most. That's what I get for trying to plan a great "family" vacation, huh?

BTW, when we went to Myrtle Beach 2 years ago, we took two bedrooms and had to pay almost $800 and other couples/same room families only paid $400. I guess I shouldn't complain over $69 more dollars versus what I was initially going to pay, right? Need your good thoughts here ... cuz I got into an argument with my mom about all this. Somehow, she's now paying $66 less and I'm paying $69 more. I know it doesn't sound like anything to argue about, but it seems like this trip is getting more and more expensive! (Just a little stressed at work, can you tell???)

Ok, done venting now. Thanks for listening .. and for your advice.

P.S. CarolA -- I/we DID have this decided when I booked the house -- until the plans fell through the floor when 3 bedrooms were suddenly vacated (MIL and FIL didn't even TELL me--I overheard them telling someone else they weren't going).

 

[Brian Noble]

If it were me, I'd ask each of the "backfilling" families to pay somewhat less than 1/4 of the cost, because really they are doing me a favor by helping defray the costs that I took on because my family backed out. I'd also be paying for my parents. So, I'd probably kick in 60%, and ask each of the other families to pay 20%. If your parents insist on paying, I'd probably have them pay 20% too.

But, that's just me. Of course, after doing all of this, I'd have no qualms about taking the "nice" master suite.

 

[ibela]

What a situation!!

Sounds complicated b/c you have people sharing bedrooms and taking excess bedrooms, etc. I think I'd suggest that your parents pay a little less since they're just 2 adults and you and the other 2 families split the rest. Ex. if the total cost is $1800 (for the sake of easy math) then $350 for your parents and $485 per family for everyone else.

Let us know what you end up deciding, good luck!

 

[iwannbindisnee]

I plan our summer vacation every year for the past 22 years & this is how we have always done it & it seems to kep everyone happy. I divide it by the number of bedrooms each person uses. Therefore a family of 4 that uses 2 bedrooms woudl get charge 2/6 of the house charge. If two famlies have each of their children share a room with another child from another family, they each get charged 1/2 of that. So making the assumption that Family 1 uses 1 room, family 2 uses 2 rooms, family 3 uses 2 (DH in one & DW & DS in another) & family 4 uses 1 room for adults & child shares w/ Fam 2, I'd charge:
Fam 1: 1/6
Fam 2: 2/6 or 1.5/6
Fam 3: 2/6
Fam 4: 1/6 or 1.5/6

This would depend on if you want to charge the 4th family something for their son sharing the room w/ your kids, or not. (their financial status, how much are they doing you a favor by taking over at least one of the bedrooms, etc.
We always split food per person, but we always split the house by how many roms we need b/c of the size of the family or how they want to room.

Hope I didnt' complicate things even more, but I always find I tend to pay more than anyone else when i am planning everything b/c I try to bend over backwards to make sure everything is "super fair". I had to find a way to be fair even to myself!! Deb

 

[PrincessFan0809]

I think the easiest way is just to divide it per person. That's how we are going to do it for our trip in August.

 

[Gillian]

What if you parents still pay $325 and you still pay $450 then the other 2 families split what's left ($400 each?). That way you're still paying a little more than the other families who are helping you out, but not any more than originally budgeted.

Did you talk to them about how much it would cost? $400 for 7 nights seems very reasonable.

I feel like "per person" pricing benefits some families more than others. A couple paying for just two people might get the best bedroom. A family paying for 4 in 2 rooms could get the smallest bedrooms and a small shared bath for double what the couple in the master suite pays. It's like paying twice as much for 2 rooms at Pop Century as someone else is paying for 1 room at the Grand Floridian (whereas in real life 2 rooms at POP would cost less than one room in a deluxe).

Not knowing the layout, I'd give your parents the most private bedroom because they don't have any kids. I'd give the snoring family 2 bedrooms near each other and a hall bath. For you & your family I'd take a bedroom with its own bathroom, plus the bunk room.

Do you have the floorplan?

 

[dougsmom98]

There are three families sharing the house we are in now. It is a 6 bedroom home. We decided to split it evenly among the three families. I was in charge of booking the home and I asked the other two families (two couples MIL + FIL, SIL + BIL) to pay $400 each and we paid $500 without them knowing. We have 6 people and took up three bedrooms so we paid a little more. They would not have wanted us to pay more though, so I didn't tell them. I would not have had everyone pay the same amount if there were not three master suites. I think if all couples get a master suite than they should pay as much as everyone else.

 

[jhnsnfamily]

We have collectively decided to charge a cost per person. I just wanted to solicit input just in case there was a scenario I hadn't thought of yet. So, my Mom and Dad will pay less, the families of 3 will pay a little more, and my family of 4 will pay double what my parents pay. Done. Finito. The drama is over! Now back to planning the FUN!

Thanks for your input. Appreciate it!

BTW, to BRIAN NOBLE, my parents usually go on cruises ... they can certainly afford to pay their own way. When the time comes when they can't, I'll certainly step in and help out. Also, we do intend on taking one of the King Master Suites!

 

[Disneygirl26]

Needing some advice ... We booked a six bedroom/4 bath house in WH for our trip. We are trying to figure out how to divide the cost -- per family, per person, or what? What methods do you use? What do you think is fair?

There are four families going. Your advice is much appreciated. TIA!

My family of 13 rented a 6bedroom house Oct 07 we split the cost between all the adults there where 5 childeren in the group I have two and my sister has 3 so we decided it wasn't fair to the people that didn't have children so we paid split the cost of the non refundable deposit and for the pool heat for the week. So the cost was somthing like Everyone paid 200.00 for week and me and my sister paid 350 because we had kids. I hope this helps.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

We divided ours by family. We were three families, a total of 11 people but each family used two rooms. It worked out well for us. I think its difficult to charge per person. Usually when staying in a hotel, the kids dont pay.

 

[collcass]

Sounds like it worked out well. Glad to hear it.

For ours, we are splitting the cost equeally between the three familes. I think it probably would have been different if there were friends involved rather than family. Since I have the most kids, we would have probably paid extra.

The only thing we aren't splitting equally is the pool heat for the hot tub. My DH and my cousin's DH decided they wanted it so we split it in 1/2

 

[englishteacha]

We're planning a trip for 2010 and this had crossed my mind, too. 5 friends, most likely. DH and I are the only couple, so we'd probably pay double what our friends all pay towards the home we rent. If you take in financial considerations, we're all over the board. DH and I and another friend are all in tight financial situations. The other 2 friends are much more well-off, financially. When we've briefly discussed this vacation, we all agreed that cheaper is better! It makes me feel better that those of us who have to be frugal won't be pushed into spending more than we're comfortable doing. It probably helps that I'll do most of the planning, and I'm getting really good at finding bargains! OP, glad you came to a solution that works for your group!