communal kitty for friends who come to stay. How do you do it?

[Oscarpop]

We are new to long term cruising and have met some lovely people on our travels.

We talk amongst ourselves and with cruising friends about their protocols and etiquette when friends come to stay. My partner and I are at a slight disagreement over what our guests should pitch in for , so we have decided to hand it over to you to decide.

At present , we tend to suggest a communal whip when guests arrive. This covers food and drink bought from shops to eat on board, as well as meals out etc.

What we do not ask them to pay for is gas, diesel or mooring fees.

However, some cruising couples we met ask heir guests to contribute to mooring fees. Their rationale is that the guests are enjoying the privilege , and so they should pay. They also send an email before guests arrive telling them what they are expected to pay for beforehand. I good idea in principal, but I don't have the affrontary.

While I would not dream of asking guests to pay their share of cooking gas or diesel costs, the mooring fee thing is to be decided.

What do you do?



How do you allocate cost to guests?

Once we have seen the consensus, we will apply it.

Cheers

 

[jordanbasset]

If they are friends would not dream of asking them to share mooring costs etc. Probably easier for us as any mooring cost was negligible or non-existent. Okay to contribute for food, but we found we would buy the food for the boat and often they would reciprocate with a meal out.
Equally if some one came to stay at our house would not expect them to pay for heating and or council tax

 

[Sybarite]

We are new to long term cruising and have met some lovely people on our travels.

We talk amongst ourselves and with cruising friends about their protocols and etiquette when friends come to stay. My partner and I are at a slight disagreement over what our guests should pitch in for , so we have decided to hand it over to you to decide.

At present , we tend to suggest a communal whip when guests arrive. This covers food and drink bought from shops to eat on board, as well as meals out etc.

What we do not ask them to pay for is gas, diesel or mooring fees.

However, some cruising couples we met ask heir guests to contribute to mooring fees. Their rationale is that the guests are enjoying the privilege , and so they should pay. They also send an email before guests arrive telling them what they are expected to pay for beforehand. I good idea in principal, but I don't have the affrontary.

While I would not dream of asking guests to pay their share of cooking gas or diesel costs, the mooring fee thing is to be decided.

What do you do?



How do you allocate cost to guests?

Once we have seen the consensus, we will apply it.

Cheers

We follow a common practice in France "la caisse de bord". Everybody contributes in equal share (including the owner) to all disbursements on the rational that the owner had to provide the capital cost of the boat, its servicing and insurance. However, food, drinks, mooring fees, diesel all come out of the "caisse". As far as diesel is concerned we start with full tanks and fill them at the end of the trip.

One of the guests acts as treasurer and from time to times he "fait un appel au Peuple" to top up the caisse. I have never had anybody who seemed put out by the procedure.

OTOH if I am inviting family or close friends I pay for everything, but in most cases they insist on contributing and so we normally end up with a situation comparable to the "caisse".

 

[sailaboutvic]

Our boat is so packed out now that we very rarely have people on board .

When we did it was very straight forward , kitty of say 100 euros each to cover food and drinks , topped up when it run out .
We never use Marina any way but if they wanted to go somewhere where a Marina was involved we would normally Pay , although most of the time they would insist. In paying .
For friends who are staying a week or two , it' s but tight to asked them to contribute to wards fuel , if they come to stay in your house and you took them out in the car you wouldn't ask them to pay for the petrol ? ( ok maybe some would ) .
Meals out again normally the bill would be split in four ways .
I wouldn't dream in sending them an email tell them what you expect them to pay , after all there are suppose to be you:re friend .
Just one bit of advise , take it or leave it . One weeks fine to have someone to stay , two you may just get through any long your pushing your luck on a boat no matter how good a friend they are .

 

[Sybarite]

Just one bit of advise , take it or leave it . One weeks fine to have so,wound to stay two you may just get through any long your pushing your luck on a boat no matter how good a friend they are .

This is one of the great advantages of a catamaran. You have room to spread out.

On my boat we have an unsaid and unwritten rule that if you want a bit of own time, it's in front of the mast, weather permitting.

 

[sailaboutvic]

This is one of the great advantages of a catamaran. You have room to spread out.

On my boat we have an unsaid and unwritten rule that if you want a bit of own time, it's in front of the mast, weather permitting.

Great. Can we book six week next summer we could do with seeing what it like to live on a cat

 

[Oscarpop]

we just had a family member stay for a month.

it was mostly ok, but i got a bit jumpy towards the end of the stay.

 

[sailaboutvic]

If they are friends would not dream of asking them to share mooring costs etc. Probably easier for us as any mooring cost was negligible or non-existent. Okay to contribute for food, but we found we would buy the food for the boat and often they would reciprocate with a meal out.
Equally if some one came to stay at our house would not expect them to pay for heating and or council tax

Jordan , the last bit of my posting , don't apply to cathy , you we not bothered about , Eddie will take care of that

 

[Cardo]

We had to deal with this exact same issue before we set off, as, at least for the first half of our trip, we were on a pretty tight budget. This is how we do it:

All food/shopping bills are split evenly amongst everyone. We usually just keep a tally of what's been spent and who paid and then work it all out at the end.
We also include mooring fees but only if we weren't already planning to go there. Reasoning for this is fairly often we would be quite happy at anchor and maybe dinghy in, whilst some/many guests prefer marinas due to the convenience. Seeing as in some parts of the world this can be €50+ per night, we don't see why we should have to foot the bill for this when we're already accommodating the visitors. Even if it's only €20/night this can add up.

We don't ask for anything for gas or diesel.


People are forewarned, usually with the email that explains what kind of clothing and other bits they should bring.

Though if you do decide to start asking for shares of costs, I suggest you remind your visitors _every time_ they're visiting. We had two separate visitors a couple of years ago who we told about the costs thing and everything went fine. They both also visited us this last season and we didn't say anything thinking they knew the score and they never contributed. Seeing as money wasn't so tight this year we let it go, but it did leave a bit of a bad taste in our mouths. Better to just mention it in an early email, forewarned is forearmed!

 

[sailaboutvic]

We had to deal with this exact same issue before we set off, as, at least for the first half of our trip, we were on a pretty tight budget. This is how we do it:

All food/shopping bills are split evenly amongst everyone. We usually just keep a tally of what's been spent and who paid and then work it all out at the end.
We also include mooring fees but only if we weren't already planning to go there. Reasoning for this is fairly often we would be quite happy at anchor and maybe dinghy in, whilst some/many guests prefer marinas due to the convenience. Seeing as in some parts of the world this can be €50+ per night, we don't see why we should have to foot the bill for this when we're already accommodating the visitors. Even if it's only €20/night this can add up.

We don't ask for anything for gas or diesel.


People are forewarned, usually with the email that explains what kind of clothing and other bits they should bring.

Though if you do decide to start asking for shares of costs, I suggest you remind your visitors _every time_ they're visiting. We had two separate visitors a couple of years ago who we told about the costs thing and everything went fine. They both also visited us this last season and we didn't say anything thinking they knew the score and they never contributed. Seeing as money wasn't so tight this year we let it go, but it did leave a bit of a bad taste in our mouths. Better to just mention it in an early email, forewarned is forearmed!

I take it you will be inviting them again next year

 

[Cardo]

I take it you will be inviting them again next year

We'll be back in the UK, so not quite the same! But we would, we generally only have good friends over, so it's no big deal in the end.

 

[Carmel2]

Hotels were built for a reason.

 

[ribrage]

Hotels were built for a reason.

YES - the few joys of owning a larger than life boxer dog that craves attention from anyone and everyone - he drives them to a hotel within days !