Hen party invitations: splitting the cottage cost

Someone finds the cottage on a Tuesday, drops the link in the group chat, and by Thursday there are fourteen thumbs up. Then the owner asks for a deposit and the questions start. Does the friend who only stays Saturday pay for both nights? Who's buying breakfast? Who's actually collecting the money? That's the moment a hen party stops being a plan and turns into an argument about €40.

None of it is complicated. A country house has one price per night. Your group has a headcount. Get those two numbers to meet before anyone transfers a cent, and the weekend runs on one line in a link — which is where hen party invitations earn their place.

A country house is billed per night, the pot is split per head

€480 a night for two nights is €960 for the house. Across 12 confirmed guests that's €80 each. At 14 it drops to €68.57. If two people pull out and you're down to 10, it climbs to €96. The house hasn't changed. Only the number of confirmed guests decides what everyone pays, which is why the split gets settled when the guest list closes, not when you book.

• Decide up front whether someone who only stays Saturday night pays a full night or half of one. Without a written rule, Sunday morning turns into an argument over €40 in the group chat.
• Add everything that isn't the house: breakfast shopping, charcoal, ice, taxis home. A round rental figure means nothing while the extras are still floating.
• Ask for €30 a head as a deposit, transferred before a set date. A 'yes, I'm in' becomes a commitment the moment the money moves.
• Write down what the pot covers — accommodation only, or accommodation plus Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast. If it isn't spelled out, someone will add it twice.

Three ways to split it, all of them fair

Equal shares is the fastest route. Fourteen people and a €960 house is €68.57 each and nobody has to discuss anything. The trade-off is that the friend on the bunk bed pays the same as the one in the double room.

By nights: whoever stays Friday and Saturday pays two thirds, whoever arrives Saturday pays one. That fits when the house only fills up on the second night. By bed: with three doubles and four bunk beds, pricing the doubles €10 higher per night balances things without drawing lots or leaving beds empty.

The house sets the rent. Your confirmed guests set the price per head. Sort the list first, then do the maths.

Hen party invitations that keep the numbers in one link

The invitation is where the split lands. Put the amount per person in a scene of its own, with how to send it — a transfer with the reference 'Marta's cottage' — and two dates that aren't the same: the deposit deadline and the RSVP deadline. Set the RSVP questions so you know how many nights each person is staying. Confirmations arrive inside the invitation in one ordered list, so nobody counts replies by hand. The address and the map sit in the same link as the time and the dress code.

What the invitation won't do for you

It doesn't collect the money. Transfers still go person to person; the link only makes clear how much and by when. It doesn't send reminders to whoever hasn't answered either — that nudge is still yours to make. And there's no app to install. Fourteen friends open the link in a browser, confirm and see the updated list without creating an account.

Change the time, the address or the split note afterwards and the link stays the same. Nobody re-sends anything, and nobody rebuilds the pot in the group chat.

Once the split is written down, the invitation has one job left: get all fourteen to confirm before the deposit date, and stop anyone asking the price again. Build it for €29.99, one-off payment, and edit it until the last night.