Group Holiday - Car Hire Versus Shared Bus Dilemma

[dewsbury]

Hi all,

This is a true story and I would appreciate your views.

1. Recently a group of us went skiing - 11 people in all, 5 Petersons, 4 O'Reillys and 2 Thompsons

2. We needed to get all 11 people from the airport to the ski resort which was 2 hours drive away. In previous years we have either hired a chaffeur driven bus OR hired separate cars.

3. For ease of calculation lets say that the price of the hired bus was €1,100.

Here's the Dilemma:

How much should each family contribute to the hiring of the bus?

Option A: Easy! $100 per head, therefore Petersons pay €500, O'Reilly's €400 and Thompsons €200. This logic may seem unfair to the Petersons who could have hired a car far cheaper than €500.

Option B: The alternative to hiring a bus was to hire a separate car for each family where the cost of car hire would have been FIXED. Therefore divide the total bus hire price by three. I.e. €1,100/3=€366 per family. This logic may seem unfair to the Thompsons who end up paying more than twice as much per head for the bus as the Petersons pay.

Option C: Some combination of Options A and B.

Option D: Suggestions welcome.

 

[Becky]

The option that seems the fairest is to split the cost per person... however I see your point about the Petersons. How about you cap their contribution to what car hire would have been, and then split the balance between the others per person? Would that work?

 

[dewsbury]

Thanks for the response, Becky. The "cap" solution would have been a good option.
I should have mentioned that 6 of the 11 were children.

I think the solution is more straightforward than previously believed.
SOLUTION: Children only pay half what an adult pays.

I wish I had thought of that before our recent holiday!!

 

[Becky]

Thanks for the response, Becky. The "cap" solution would have been a good option.
I should have mentioned that 6 of the 11 were children.

I think the solution is more straightforward than previously believed.
SOLUTION: Children only pay half what an adult pays.

I wish I had thought of that before our recent holiday!!

Ah I see, that certainly makes more sense! I hope the issue hasn't caused problems following your holiday...