Blog
27 October 2026 · 7 min read
Booking a cottage for fifteen is the easy bit. The hard part is working out who's arriving on Friday night, who's leaving before Saturday dinner, and what everyone actually owes. Here's a simple method so everyone pays their fair share, with no spreadsheets and no awkward chasing.
A good group weekend is often decided by the very first message in the group chat. Before booking anything, share three things: the possible dates, a rough budget per person and a deadline to reply. An honest range (say, “somewhere between £80 and £120 all in”) stops people dropping out when they finally see the bill a week before.
Then pick the place based on the number of people who are definitely coming, not the number who sound keen. Most friendship groups lose a few people between the first message and the actual trip. A full 12-bed house beats a half-empty 20-bed one where the rent still has to be paid.
Finally, be clear about who is fronting the money and who is collecting replies. When three people each book a piece of the trip (the house, the food shop, the activity), the accounts get messy fast. One organiser and one place where everyone signs up is the foundation.
In real life, almost nobody does the full weekend. Some arrive on Friday night, others on Saturday lunchtime after the kids' football, others head off on Sunday morning. If you just divide the total by the number of people, those staying one night end up subsidising those staying two, and that's where resentment starts.
The better approach is to ask everyone, night by night and meal by meal, what they're in for: Friday night, Saturday night, plus breakfast, lunch and dinner on each day. It's more precise than a simple “I'm in”, and it's exactly what you'll need for the food shop or the caterer.
Remember that people sign up for others too. A couple with two kids shouldn't have to fill in four forms. Let one person register their whole household, with the same choices for everyone by default and the option to tweak it for a child who skips dinner or a partner arriving later.
Instead of splitting one big total, set a price for each item. Say you've rented a house for £1,000 for two nights for around a dozen people, plus an estimated food budget: £25 per person per night, £5 for breakfast, £10 for lunch, £12 for dinner. Everyone pays for what they use, and the maths does itself.
With that grid, someone staying from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon pays for two nights (£50), two dinners (£24), two breakfasts (£10) and two lunches (£20): £104 in total. Someone arriving on Saturday lunchtime and leaving Sunday evening pays one night, Saturday lunch and dinner, then Sunday breakfast and lunch: £62. Nobody has to haggle.
Two tweaks avoid nasty surprises. First, base the nightly price on the minimum number of people you expect to sleep there, not the maximum, because the rent is fixed. Second, build in a 5 to 10% buffer for the unexpected (the gas bottle, the forgotten bread). Anything left over pays for Sunday drinks or goes back to people, and everyone's happy.
For children, a reduced meal price (or free for the little ones) is common. The key is to put it in the grid from the start, so there's no debate when it's time to pay.
Your next weekend away, sorted in ten minutes
Create your form from the “Weekend with friends” template: nights, meals, prices per person, automatic totals and payment tracking. Free for up to 50 responses.
Create my weekend formThe most uncomfortable part of organising is chasing people for money. The easiest fix is to ask for payment at sign-up, with the amount already worked out and a clear deadline. A specific figure (“£62”) gets paid far faster than a vague “we'll sort it out after”.
Say which payment methods you accept: bank transfer, PayPal, or cash on arrival for those who prefer it. For transfers, ask everyone to add a reference: without one, matching a mystery payment to the right friend in your banking app becomes a guessing game.
That's exactly what Filomy's Sign-ups & payments feature is built for. You start from the “Weekend with friends” template, set your prices per night and per meal, and each friend signs up from a link shared on WhatsApp, with no app to install. The total is calculated automatically, every registration gets a unique reference (FLM-XXXXXX) for the transfer, and guests click “I've paid” once they've sent it.
On your side, you confirm when the money arrives, see at a glance what's expected, confirmed, declared and still outstanding, and send email reminders to anyone who hasn't paid yet, so the tool does the nudging, not you. You can even import your bank statement (as a CSV or pasted lines) and Filomy matches transfers by reference, amount and name; the statement isn't stored.
If you're ordering food, the host or caterer will always ask the same thing: how many people, and for which meal? With a meal-by-meal headcount, the answer is instant: 14 for Saturday dinner, 9 for Sunday brunch, including 2 vegetarians and 1 gluten-free.
Even if you're cooking yourselves, those numbers make the food shop far easier. Buying for 15 on Sunday lunchtime when half the group has already left is the quickest way to waste food and push up the cost for everyone.
In Filomy, the day-by-day meal and night summary is generated automatically from the sign-ups, and you can export everything as a CSV to send to the caterer or share with whoever is doing the shopping.
The first mistake is paying for everything yourself and hoping to be paid back “later”. The longer it's been since the weekend, the harder it is to get the money back. Collect before, or within a week afterwards at the latest.
The second is changing the rules halfway through: knocking the price down for a latecomer, forgetting to charge someone for a night. If an adjustment is fair, make it visible and easy to explain. The third is keeping everything in a group chat: after 200 messages, nobody remembers who's sleeping where.
Your next weekend away, sorted in ten minutes
Create your form from the “Weekend with friends” template: nights, meals, prices per person, automatic totals and payment tracking. Free for up to 50 responses.
Create my weekend formGo further: The Event Box · Sign-ups & payments
How do you split costs fairly when people stay for different nights?
Set a price per night and per meal rather than one flat rate. Everyone ticks the nights and meals they'll be there for and pays exactly for those. Base the nightly price on the minimum number of people you expect, so the rent is always covered.
Should friends pay before or after the trip?
Before, ideally when they sign up. A specific amount with a deadline gets paid faster, and you don't have to front the money or chase anyone once you're home. If there's money left over, you can refund it or spend it on the group.
What's the easiest way to collect money from friends for a trip?
A bank transfer with a unique reference is the most reliable way to know who has paid. PayPal or cash also work for those who prefer them. What matters is stating clearly which methods you accept and exactly how much each person owes.
Is Filomy free for organising a weekend away?
Yes, for up to 50 responses per form. Beyond that, responses are unlimited with the Event Box (€49.90, one-off payment) or by unlocking the mini-site (€39.90). Filomy takes no commission on offline payments and never holds the money.