Sharing a vacation home with another family - question about choosing rooms

[Anonymous]

What’s the etiquette about choosing rooms in a vacation home? We’ve shared homes two times and both times, arrived about 20 minutes after the other family. Both times, the rooms were all designated by the time we got there. (And the other family chose the bigger, better master suite.) Is this typical? Does the person who booked the place get first dibs, even though we’re splitting the cost evenly? Or should we hustle to arrive first next time? Personally, I would wait until everyone is present to choose rooms but just wanted to see what conventional wisdom is on this topic.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure how waiting until everyone is there is going to make it any easier to allocate. There's only one bigger, better master suite, after all!

[Anonymous]

Discuss it beforehard. Surely you can see the photos and just pick then.

[Anonymous]

I think the person that booked should get first dibs, but apparently not everyone thinks this way, as I've vacationed with people that tried to beat me there to get the master even when I booked. We don't vacation with those people anymore.

[Anonymous]

I let the other family pick to try to be flexible but in an ideal world it would be a joint decision and those are the people I would choose to continue to travel with most likely.

[Anonymous]

We did this before and it was declared/agreed upon just before we booked that the booker was claiming the best room.

"Hey Larla, we're about to book the beach house, just as a heads up we're claiming the master suite--looking forward to vacation!"

[Anonymous]

yeah, usually the booker gets the master suite. There are exceptions - if there's a small child that might sleep in bed with one family and so a king might be better, or other kids rooming in with them, or some other sort of special need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s the etiquette about choosing rooms in a vacation home? We’ve shared homes two times and both times, arrived about 20 minutes after the other family. Both times, the rooms were all designated by the time we got there. (And the other family chose the bigger, better master suite.) Is this typical? Does the person who booked the place get first dibs, even though we’re splitting the cost evenly? Or should we hustle to arrive first next time? Personally, I would wait until everyone is present to choose rooms but just wanted to see what conventional wisdom is on this topic.

That is obnoxious to allocate them all before everyone gets there. I have a group of friends that solved this problem by putting a higher dollar amount on the better rooms. We then did a name drawing and the person picked first for to pick his/ her room. So if the first person didn’t want to ph more then he picked the room he was willing to pay for. Etc

[Anonymous]

Booker gets best room. Otherwise, agree beforehand based on photos, or else agree beforehand that “in the interest of fairness,” rooms will be chosen after everyone gets there. Then if you need to flip a coin for the best room, do that, and then take turns picking the rest of the rooms.

[Anonymous]

We discussed beforehand but the person who booked generally gets the better room. We never mind that because I don't want to plan anything!

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. This makes me feel better as I do want to vacation again with this family but was so taken aback by the other family already unpacked. They said we could change it if we wanted but that felt like an empty offer since the kids were excited about “their” rooms.

Seriously, we stopped for 20 minutes to pick up some groceries and when we got there, it was a done deal.

We didn’t know the house set up (knew the rooms but they are on three floors so didn’t know location of each room and we both have small kids).

Personally, I would have preferred waiting and allocating, even if the end result was the same. Just feels a little more friendly to do it that way.

[Anonymous]

Person who booked gets the first pick. Then any other special needs (for example when we were traveling with a small child we claimed in advance a room with a bathtub in the bathroom). OP if it bothers you next time you travel with them make it clear you want to pick when everyone gets there. This is reasonable if everyone is traveling at about the same time. Anyone who gets there significantly later than everyone else is stuck with the rooms that are left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. This makes me feel better as I do want to vacation again with this family but was so taken aback by the other family already unpacked. They said we could change it if we wanted but that felt like an empty offer since the kids were excited about “their” rooms.

Seriously, we stopped for 20 minutes to pick up some groceries and when we got there, it was a done deal.

We didn’t know the house set up (knew the rooms but they are on three floors so didn’t know location of each room and we both have small kids).

Personally, I would have preferred waiting and allocating, even if the end result was the same. Just feels a little more friendly to do it that way.

Well, if you vacation with them you have an argument for being able to claim your rooms first, since they did it last time.
Definitely more friendly to wait and do it all together, but now you know with this family you have to speak up beforehand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We discussed beforehand but the person who booked generally gets the better room. We never mind that because I don't want to plan anything!

+1 if someone else is willing to do the planning, I'm happy for them to have first dibs.

[Anonymous]

Dd you book the house? If yes, then next time you vacation together you choose the rooms first. I’d be up front about this before you leave for the house.

This isn’t the type of family I’d want to vacation with again. This type of selfishness permeates everything they do.