Booking a group holiday can seem like a really good idea, but if your not organised about your travel plans, your dream vacation with friends, family or colleagues can soon turn into a bit of a headache. You might be trying to organise a stag or hen weekend away, a big family holiday for a special occasion or just a fun holiday with friends. What ever your holiday is for, being organised from the outset is going to give you the best chance of success creating an experience that everyone will remember. If you want to avoid the stress of booking a group holiday, here are the tips I’ve put together with Leetchi.com (the money collection website recently launched in the UK):
Talk About The Holiday Plans
From the moment you agree on taking a group holiday, either get together as a group, or set up a group chat on Facebook or WhatsApp, and get a discussion going about what the holiday plans are going to look like. If you can have a face to face meeting with everyone to get things started, this will really help, as there is quite a long checklist to consider. There’s bound to be a few opinions about how to plan the group holiday too, so this will give everyone a chance to share their thoughts.
Here is a holiday planning checklist you might like to work through to make sure all the boxes are ticked:
- Where and when are you going on your group holiday?
- What is everyone’s travel budget?
- Will you fly or use other transport?
- How will you get to the airport and will you need airport parking?
- Will you need overnight accommodation at the airport?
- What kind of accommodation will you stay in when you get there?
- Are travellers prepared to share rooms?
- Are any airport or inter city transfers going to be needed?
- Will you require tours or car hire while your away?
Arranging Money For Group Holidays With Leetchi
Once the group has made some decisions about what the holiday will look like, how to pay for the trip and other questions are going to be asked quite quickly. To get the best deals and availability, booking parts of your group holiday sooner rather than later will help to keep the travel costs under control. It is also important that you have enough money for your vacation. In the worst-case scenario, you could run out of funds mid-vacation. If you have enough credit points, you may be able to get mobile loans immediately; however, it would be a smart idea to plan your finances for the holiday beforehand.
It’s really important to be transparent when it comes to money so that everyone can see where their holiday cash is being spent, here is where Leetchi.com comes in handy. It’s a website that helps you to collect money online easily for group gifts, projects and getaways. It’s really easy to create an online money pot, ask everyone to chip in and monitor all the contributions. You can also set a date for when the money needs to be paid, which is really helpful when setting up travel arrangements and deadlines need to be met to secure the holiday.
Once everyone has agreed what parts of the travel costs they will arrange themselves and which will be pooled together, put someone in charge of setting up a money collection on Leetchi.com Make sure it is clear to everyone what the group collection will cover, and if they need to arrange anything themselves like getting to the airport or airport parking. This way there will be no surprises for anyone when the final arrangements are in place.
It might be helpful to set up a few different money pots to cover the travel costs. Perhaps have one for things like flights and accommodation, and create a separate one to pool money together for holiday expenses I personally find a holiday money pot very helpful for if you are going to be going out or dining together. Have you ever tried to tot up everyone’s contribution after a group meal out and a few glasses of vino. All of a sudden the simplest task can become quite a challenge.
With a holiday money fund, that everyone can contribute an agreed amount to over time, you have these funds to call on in these very situations. My biggest tip for setting up a holiday money pot, is set some ground rules so that it is fair. The biggest bug bear can be alcohol, and it might be worth asking people to pay for that separately if they plan on drinking more than everyone else, and someone in the group is only having soft drinks.
How Does Leetchi.com Work?
You can literally set up a Leech.com account in just a few clicks, and share it with you family and friends so that they can start contributing to that group holiday, gift or project.
You can also support some amazing humanitarian campaigns through Leetchi.com as the site is regularly used to raise funds for charity work and projects. The one that immediately caught my eye was Schools Of Hope in Syria. The International Humanitarian Relief have been supporting children in Lebanon to go to school since 2012. It a country facing so much chaos and uncertainty, I think they deserve some normality in their life.
When we get to travel and experience a life free from fear, it’s even more important to remember, that others in the world aren’t quite so lucky and Leetchi.com provides a quick, easy and secure way to support some amazing projects.
Do You Need A Group Leader?
I think that it is a good idea. It doesn’t mean that they do everything, but just tick off everything as completed so that nothing is missed. It’s important to share the tasks, but someone who co-ordinates the whole trip is going to make sure that everything is done and nothing is left to the last minute. My tip is to pick the person in your group who is the most organised by nature.
Other Important Tips For Arranging Group Holidays
What ever holiday we go on, we want it to be successful, and here’s a few other tips that will help with your group booking:
- Make sure everyone knows what they are getting and manage expectations to avoid any disappointments.
- Don’t make people do things they don’t want to do, as it could ruin the trip for them.
- Make a note of key dates like when payments are due and when online check-in information is required.
- Decide how to manage online check-in, will one person add everyone’s details or will the individuals travelling take responsibility for their own check-in.
- If you are collecting any information like names, DOB, passport numbers etc accuracy is essential as some travel companies will charge to change a persons details, or in the worse case scenario, someone might not be able to travel.
- Make sure everyone knows what luggage they are able to take on the trip, to avoid any surprises at the airport etc.
- Keep everyone up to date of what has been arranged and what needs to be done. Good communication will really help the success of the trip.
Do you have any tips for arranging a successful group holiday?
This post is sponsored by Leetchi.com. Find out more by Liking them on Facebook or following them on Twitter.
Read about how I’m inspiring my children to love travel here.