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WDYT - Is this unfair?
The jiist:
So I'm planning a beach weekend that will serve as a joint bachelor/bachelorette party for my best friend. The bridal party itself is 24 people and with significant others, the invite list is about 30 deep. (I know!!!!) So the condos we're looking to rent have a 3 day minimum and divided evenly will be about $100/person for the weekend. With hotel rates during that time of year, I think it's a pretty good price for a weekend away. The planning of this has been done only by me and the MOH and we're just now inviting everyone else to try and get a head count on who can make it before reserving the condo(s).
The question:
Is it unfair of me to just tell everyone "listen, I don't care how long you're going to stay, it's going to be $100 pp regardless". Because for that many people, this far in advance, I could see some being like "Well, I'll tell them I can come but if I can just do 1 or 2 nights then I'll just pay my portion of the $100". I just don't think it's fair to tell everyone "It will cost $100", then based on some people staying less than the full weekend it costing others more. It seems like too many people to coordinate per night for some and full cost for others. I don't even know if the bride will even be there the full 3 nights, and I'll probably also only be there for 2. I'm also considering just telling people we have it reserved for 2 nights, but it seems like if a few people could use it all 3 then they might as well. Any better suggestions??? Anyway, here is how I have this part of the e-mail worded:
"You may notice that the dates given are for Thursday-Sunday ? since it is the summer months, condos in Ocean City have a 3 night minimum. You can stay all 3 nights or 2 (or 1), but the plan is to divide the cost evenly among all attending since the 3 nights will be reserved regardless. Since there are about 30 people invited, we hope you understand that it would get too complicated to figure out different rates depending on when individuals wish to stay."
Re: WDYT - Is this unfair?
I don't think its unfair. Even if you stay two nights, its still a good deal and its not fair to the planners or other people staying three nights to have to figure out the difference of covering the cost for those staying less.
Suck it up people. It's a 100 bucks.
Ditto. I don't think that's unfair. $100 is pretty reasonable for even two nights. As long as people know ahead of time, then I think that's completely fine.
Tritto.
I think it is fair as well. And I do like your wording.
Last year I coordinated a beach house with a bunch of people and the only thing I did differently was that I charged per room, not per person. Not sure how your sleeping arrangements are, but I didn't think it was fair to charge a couple double the price when they were taking up the same space as a single person (assuming that they both had 1 room to themselves). So I charged by room and that way the single person could have invited another person to split the cost with. That might be something to think about. Not sure how different that would make the price, or if that would open another can of worms since I felt obligated to let the single people bring a +1 if they wanted to reduce their cost.
Not unfair at all. I would not even include the "apology"/explanation part, instead just be really positive about how fun 2 nights will be and that if they can there's the option for an additional night.
From some of the planning I've done, like this, if you don't bring it up you probaly won't get more than one or two people out of 30 who would even ask for a reduced rate and once you explain that for the time of year there's a min 3 night stay and to be fair...then they're ok with it.
either way its just a tricky situation. they should be glad that you're willing to brave the arrangements for such a big group. that's not an easy thing to do.
and you might want to consider having people chip into a food fund too to stock the fridge. i'd BYOB on the alcohol to make it easy.
Thanks for the feedback! I just want to be upfront w/ people and avoid awkward situations, but I'm checking w/ the bride & other MOH (her sister) w/ the way it's written before it goes out...I'll see if they think it's necessary or if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I'm figuring the food situation is going to be a whole other adventure!
Elissa - I'm not even positive on which condos we're going to rent so I can't really consider the bedroom arrangement The condos we pick will depend on the feedback. There are some 12, 8, and 6 person condos and so I'm figuring we'll pick the combination of condos based on how many people we have. But regardless of size, the rates are all basically $100/pp.
I think that is completely reasonable! It gets way too complicated to try to divide it out any other way. Plus, $100 for three nights at the beach is a deal!
Good luck with planning!
Once you get to the food situation, you may want to assign everyone a meal and then they provide the food for that meal rather than trying to collect the money for grocery shopping. For snacks/drinks, just tell everyone to bring a bag of chips, crackers, cookies, etc.
I had totally forgotten about TP, soap, etc! Thanks a lot, VB.