Split a holiday cottage per person or per room
Compare holiday cottage costs per person and per room, with worked examples for children, shorter stays, groceries and alcohol before agreeing a split.
Split a holiday cottage by room if bedroom size and privacy matter most. Split by person if the group wants the cost to reflect how many people are staying. You can adjust either method for children or shorter stays, but agree those adjustments before anyone pays.
Holiday cottage: pay per person or per room
This example uses a £2,080 cottage for seven nights. Six adults and three children, aged 14, 10 and 6, stay in four bedrooms. The households are a family of four, a family of three and a couple.
Split by room
Give each bedroom a weight. Here, a standard double is one share, the ensuite is 1.25 and the bunk room is 0.75. These are example weights for the group to agree.
The weights total four, so each share costs £2,080 ÷ 4 = £520.
| Bedroom | Weight | Cost | Occupants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ensuite double | 1.25 | £650 | Two adults from the family of four |
| Double | 1 | £520 | Two adults from the family of three |
| Double | 1 | £520 | The couple |
| Bunk room | 0.75 | £390 | Three children |
| Total | 4 | £2,080 |
Split the bunk room by its occupants: £260 for the family with two children and £130 for the family with one. The household totals are £910, £650 and £520.
Split by person
In this version, adults and children aged 12 or over count as one share. Under-12s count as half. The family of four has the two younger children; the family of three has the 14-year-old.
There are eight shares, so each costs £2,080 ÷ 8 = £260.
| Household | Shares | Calculation | Pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family of four | 3 | Two adults and two half shares | £780 |
| Family of three | 3 | Two adults and one full child share | £780 |
| Couple | 2 | Two adults | £520 |
| Total | 8 | £2,080 |
How to count children in a holiday split
A half share is a choice, not a rule about what children cost. Agree the age cutoff and weight with the group. Reducing one household's share increases what the others pay when the booking total is fixed.
You can use different rules for different expenses. A child might count as half a share for the house, a full share for groceries and no share for wine.
When a household stays fewer nights
Suppose the couple stays five nights and both families stay seven. Using the person weights above, multiply each household's shares by its nights: 21 + 21 + 10 = 52 share-nights.
Each share-night costs £2,080 ÷ 52 = £40.
| Household | Shares | Nights | Share-nights | Pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family of four | 3 | 7 | 21 | £840 |
| Family of three | 3 | 7 | 21 | £840 |
| Couple | 2 | 5 | 10 | £400 |
| Total | 52 | £2,080 |
The couple pays £120 less than in the full-week person split. Each family pays £60 more. Agree that change explicitly: the booking still costs £2,080. If someone cancels entirely, compare the options for a group-trip cancellation.
Divide groceries and alcohol separately
For this example, the group agrees equal food shares and charges wine only to the people drinking it. A different group may choose child weights for food too.
| Purchase | Total | Participants | Each |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries | £405 | 9 | £45 |
| Wine | £96 | 4 | £24 |
Keep the agreed method with the expenses
For a single booking with one payer, a shared note may be enough. If several people pay for different things, Peanut Split can keep the expenses in one room and suggest a short payment plan. Debt simplification can change who receives a payment while preserving each person's net balance.
Save the room link with the method you agreed. Anyone with the link can open the room and add to it; there is no login or password recovery. Check that the house, food and alcohol use the correct participants before requesting payment. These repayment messages include a group-total example.
Pay by the agreed method, then record it in Split. Split does not send money or verify payments with a bank. The room records that someone marked a payment as made.
Split is free to use and has no paid tier.
Record the costs your group agreed to share.
Start a split