Anonymous wrote:I would say it's not fair to ask for a refund. The vacation isn't "still" two weeks away, it's only two weeks away from the point of view of the other two families.

Also, why can't the kid go to the beach with a broken arm? Still plenty of fun to be had and it would be a good lesson for the kids to see that circumstances don't have to be ideal to follow through on something or to have fun.

I think it will be the torture for the kid to be on the beach and not be able to go in the water. The house has a pool too.

So it's not fair for them to pay a refund, but it's OK for them to use our room if we don't go?

If it's two weeks way can't you try and ask another family or families to come for a short time? We've certainly been asked before to come to a beach house for Sat - Tues or Thurs - Sat. You could recoup some of the costs still refund $ to the 3rd family. I'd at least try to do that. Most might not cancel due to a broken arm, but maybe they have other reasons; seems like the nice thing to do would be to refund if you can afford it or try to replace in the two weeks you have.

Anonymous wrote:Did you agree on the house before they changed their mind or did you get a bigger or more expensive house based on their inclusion?

We agreed on the house before they changed their mind and did not change the size afterwards.

No refund. It's okay to lower the cost for the other families, but not to ask to raise it.

Also, I don't know how a broken arm that happened two weeks ago makes a beach vacation off the table, but that's their choice.

How does a broken arm cancel a vacation. When you break a nail are all bets off. What if you get fat.

I deal with this stuff a lot since we do a lot of activities with other friends/families that involve shared costs. We always discuss it up front and lay it out so everybody agrees what happens in each scenario. Since that wasn't done here you'll have to kind of wing it. IMO, no refund is necessary in this case. It's unfortunate they had an incident and can't go, but what if all three families had an incident and couldn't go? I assume you'd each still owe 1/3 of the rental fees? I'd treat it like that.

Broken arm family: "So sorry we can't come, but of course we will still cover our share of the house."
Other families: "No we wouldn't dream of it, we're just sorry you can't be here with us."


Then any of the following is acceptable:

-Broken arm family insists on paying a portion of the cost.
-If you'll be vacationing together again, broken arm family doesn't pay this year but offers to pay a higher percentage next time.
-Broken arm family doesn't pay, but sends some great gifts or a generous gift cert to a local restaurant.

I would say it's not fair to ask for a refund. The vacation isn't "still" two weeks away, it's only two weeks away from the point of view of the other two families.

Also, why can't the kid go to the beach with a broken arm? Still plenty of fun to be had and it would be a good lesson for the kids to see that circumstances don't have to be ideal to follow through on something or to have fun.

No refund is due/owed/expected under the circumstances described.

Also, your story is confusing. Is it your DC or theirs? The subject and tense changed.

That family should still pay. Why can't a broken arm go to the beach? My family still went on a ski trip when my sister broke her arm.

Did you agree on the house before they changed their mind or did you get a bigger or more expensive house based on their inclusion?

No, not fair.

No, it's not fair. Just suck it up.

Say three families rent a house together for a vacation.

This year one family said they couldn't go. So the other two split the cost to pay for the reservation. Then the third family changed their mind and decided to join. So they paid their share to the families that already paid for the house.

The vacation is still two weeks away. Now one of the families had an emergency. Their DC broke an arm and they can't go to the beach.

Is it fair to ask the other families for a refund? Given it's most likely they will be using their room.