Three’s the perfect number. As Andy Warhol said: “One’s company, two’s a crowd and three’s a party”. But when you tell your friends that this concert is unmissable, you suddenly find yourself in a group of 15. A few weeks before booking your ticket, you get a phone call: one of your friends is coming with their partner, who’s bringing his brother and a colleague… Before you know it, you’ve lost count. You’ll all have to go for happy hour together so that you can arrange flights and hotels…
Group travel can be fun and also an opportunity to save a significant amount of money if well organised.
FLIGHTS. If you all want to travel together, try not to book your tickets individually. Some airlines provide special passenger services for groups. If there are at least 10 of you, you can get a personal quotation by just filling in a form. You can pay via bank transfer, making it easier to collect money from everyone without bleeding anybody’s credit card dry 😉
With group travel, you’ll also get a dedicated team to manage your trip even from your mobile phone.
ACCOMODATION. Once you establish the number of travellers, it’s time to decide between a hotel or renting a house. In the first case, you can try sharing rooms in groups of three or four: you’ll save a lot of money! Some hotels have group packages, not just the big chains. If you’d prefer to have a more local experience by renting a flat in town, make sure to check the number of beds, bedrooms and bathrooms carefully. In some cases, hosts specify a larger number of beds than there actually are and then improvise “camping areas” within the house.
SETTLING UP. Technology offers various solutions to collect funds in one place. PayPal has recently set up MoneyPool, a virtual pot of money that you can use to pay for group activities, with no loans or paying each other back. Try it and see for yourself!
So… the more the merrier!
