5 Money Tips for Vacationing With Friends

— -- intro: You love hanging out with some compatible friends or families and you both love to vacation. Why not go on a joint vacation? It can be tricky to navigate trip-planning and financing with others, but you also have the potential to enhance your experience and even save some money. Communication is obviously key to a successful joint vacation, but here are some more concrete tips that will ensure you have a fun, financially comfortable trip together.

quicklist:title: Make a Budgettext:

It’s important to create an open forum early on in the planning process where each vacationer can disclose how much they are able to spend, which aspects they are willing to splurge on and where they prefer to scale back. Each person or family may have a different budget.

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While this may make it a bit more difficult, you can still vacation together. You can set times to do activities separately or if you plan to rent a home, you can have families pay for what they’re using (like paying more for using more bedrooms or for an ensuite bathroom). If you want an easy way to know the full budget, you can look into all-inclusive vacation options. You can also appoint a money person to keep track of spending so everyone on the group stays on track.

quicklist:title: Plan Aheadtext:

Find out what everyone wants out of the vacation and discuss logistics once you have a target budget in mind. Pick the dates and location carefully because this will dictate the activities you're able to do. You may not be able to do everything that everyone wants, but reaching a consensus on as many details as possible will save discussions and disappointment down the road. You can even make it fun by having a pre-vacation planning party to lighten the mood and get excited.

quicklist:title: Look Into Dealstext:

One great part about traveling in groups is the ability to save on your vacation. Most destinations offer a variety of lodgings. You can rent a home instead of staying in hotels or talk to travel agents or sales managers about discount group rates. The same works for nearby museums, parks, zoos and fun activities. You can also pool your resources and see if anyone’s job or connections can offer up some discounts.

quicklist:title: Talk About Discrepanciestext:

If you were comfortable enough to plan this trip together, you should be able to discuss any issues that come up. It may be tricky, but if someone isn’t pulling their weight on financial, cleaning or preparation duties, bring it up. The worst you can do is let it boil up inside you. For example, if you offer to use your airline rewards credit card to book everyone's flights, contingent on being paid back by each individual, explain when you need to be paid back and how much everyone owes before booking. This can lead to hard feelings (and a damaged credit score) down the road if someone doesn't pay you back and you have to carry a high balance on your credit card.

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It’s a good idea to avoid being accusatory and instead discuss what you think isn’t quite going right so you can come to a solution together.

quicklist:title: Be Flexible text:

Flexibility is an important factor for any travel, but especially when it comes to joint vacations. It’s important to be willing to try new activities, foods, schedule or methods of travel and lodging. Try to focus on the fun and embrace however the vacation is going. You also might want to build in some time apart.

If you are careful about how you go about a vacation with friends or fellow families, you can make memories that will last a lifetime. Just take the necessary precautions to avoid any awkward or uncomfortable feelings around finances.

Any opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author.