Choosing to hold your destination wedding at a private villa is a fantastic alternative to holding it at a commercial hotel. However, the decision to do so and the process of selecting which one are both a bit more complicated. This series of articles gives you all the information you need in order to make the best decision possible for your wedding.
Here in this series of articles published weekly we offer you the inside scoop on the financial and “strategic” aspects of renting a private villa for your destination wedding:
- PART ONE: How and why villa owners price their properties, and when those prices change.
- PART TWO: What all the costs are involved with renting a private villa.
- PART THREE: How those rental costs are normally divided among the group staying there.
- PART FOUR: How to negotiate with your friends and family for their part of the booking price.
- PART FIVE: How to save money and protect yourself financially on your booking.
- PART SIX: The actual price range of our event villas in the Mexican Caribbean.
PART THREE: How Villa Rental Fees Are Normally Divided among the Group Staying There
This is the third article in a six-part series on renting private luxury villas for destination weddings. Here we discuss all the different ways you can divide the villa rental costs among the people staying there, and how you can shape and control that process.
You would think that this part would be pretty self-explanatory, and you would mostly be correct. You would normally divide up the villa’s costs evenly, either by individual or by bedroom. However, there are several small but important distinctions that are worth discussion. These are based on the individual characteristics of the villa and the fees listed in the last post. As well, there may be characteristics of your group that could alter standard logic on who pays how much for what. Even more, you might decide to pay for some things yourselves instead of expecting your family and friends to do so. In this section we analyze each major choice you should be thinking about in advance.
Rental fees vs. event fees
This seems to be the easiest distinction to make, IF you choose to make one. The majority of the fees mentioned in the previous section directly relate to the group staying at the villa for a number of nights: rent, security deposit, groceries/drinks, gratuities, and taxes. The other two, event fee and permit fee, are directly related to the event and not the rental, so can be seen as separate costs. You might decide to pay for the event-related fees yourselves and then divide up the lodging fees. Or you may decide to lump everything together. We don’t offer any advice for making this decision, but you will want to be clear in your decision and your communication of that decision before you choose who will be staying there, and before you actually invite anyone.
Divide fees evenly or proportionally, based on physicality of the villa
If you decide to divide the rental fees in the previous section evenly, then please just skip the rest of this section. If you decide to divide the fees proportionally, you’ll want to consider the entire situation. After visiting the villa yourselves, you may decide that it isn’t fair to divide the cost evenly, because perhaps the master bedroom is proportionally MUCH bigger or grander than the other bedrooms, and the residents of that bedroom should pay more. Or, there could be two bedrooms on the ground level many stairs down from the main living area of the house, and thus you might decide that the residents of those bedrooms should pay proportionally less. Much like splitting a restaurant ticket based on what people actually ate instead of just splitting it evenly, this proportional system may make more sense depending on which villa you choose and its physical layout.
Divide fees by individual vs. by bedroom/couple
Even though you may have decided to split the villa rental fees evenly based on the villa’s characteristics, you still have the option of dividing them based on each individual person vs. each bedroom. Again, there is no really right answer—it will probably depend more on the size and shape of the villa you rent and the characteristics of your group. For instance, there could be some bedrooms that could sleep more than two people in multiple beds, while the rest have king beds and are suitable for couples or singles. The example below explains:
Example: Five-bedroom villa costs $1,000 per night. Three bedrooms hold two people and two bedrooms have extra beds and can hold three people. Total guests = 12.
Scenario A: Each person is charged evenly and each pays $1000/12 or $83.33.
Scenario B: Each bedroom is charged $200, so guests in king bedrooms pay $100 each and guests in multiple-bed rooms pay $66.66 each
When contemplating the onsite food costs, groups typically divide them per person. However, you might decide to charge children 12 or over half as much as adults, and children under 12 no fee.
Most villas request or require a staff gratuity at the end of the stay, usually 12-15% of the rental price. Collecting this money from your guests at the end of the stay can be complicated and perhaps even troublesome, so we suggest lumping it into the sum you request in advance from them.
For each of these small but important distinctions, it’s totally up to you how to make the decisions. The important things to remember are to decide what you’re going to do BEFORE you communicate the plans to anyone, and then of course BE CONSISTENT with everyone about what you tell them.
NEXT: HOW TO NEGOTIATE WITH FAMILY/FRIENDS/GUESTS FOR VILLA PAYMENTS
