Group Trip Planner
The organiser's file: who is in, who has paid, who owes whom, what the group voted for, and which deadline is next.
- Who-paid-what tracking so the settle-up takes five minutes
- A voting column that ends the endless group chat
- Deadline list with names attached to each one
Free · No email required · Edit in Excel, Google Sheets or any text editor
At a glance
- Best for
- Friends' trips, reunions, stag & hen weekends
- Trip length
- 1–3 days
- Time to fill in
- About 35 minutes
- Format
- 3 tabs · people, money, plan
- Detail level
- Intermediate
- Price
- Free — no signup
What's in the template
- Traveller name, contact, dietary needs
- Deposit paid / balance owing
- Shared expense, who paid, split between
- Activity + votes + opt-in list
- Room / car assignments
- Deadline and who owns it
Column by column
A preview of exactly what you're downloading — what each column is for, and why it's there. Nothing in this template is decoration.
| Column | Example entry | Why it's there |
|---|---|---|
| Traveller | Sam · veg · 07… | Contact and dietary needs in one place saves ten messages. |
| Paid / owes | £150 / £80 | The column that prevents the awkward conversation. |
| Shared expense | Villa £1,200 — paid by Alex | Log it once, settle once, at the end. |
| Split between | 6 people | Not everything splits evenly. Say so up front. |
| Activity + votes | Boat day — 5 yes / 1 no | A vote in a spreadsheet beats forty messages. |
| Deadline / owner | Book villa · 1 Mar · Alex | Group plans fail on unowned deadlines. |
Book the trip
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Stays
Find a place to stay
Compare hotels, guesthouses and apartments for the dates in your itinerary.
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Transfers
Private airport transfers
Pre-book a driver from the airport to your hotel so you skip the taxi queue and know the price upfront.
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Experiences
Guided tours & experiences
Local-led tours, day trips and hands-on experiences that turn a good itinerary into a memorable trip.
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Insurance
Travel insurance
Cover delays, medical costs and lost bags — usually a few dollars per day.
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How to use it
- 1Lock the dates and the headcount before anyone books anything.
- 2Set a per-person budget range early and be blunt about it.
- 3Collect a deposit — it is the only reliable test of who is actually coming.
- 4Log every shared expense with who paid and who it splits between.
- 5Vote on optional activities and let people opt out without drama.
- 6Assign each deadline to a named person, not to the group.
Planning advice that matters
Money first, plans second
Almost every group trip that goes wrong goes wrong about money. Agreeing a per-person range before anyone falls in love with a villa saves the trip. A deposit, even a small one, converts vague interest into a real headcount and stops the group planning for eight when six will come.
One organiser, many owners
Groups need a single coordinator, but that person should not do every task. Assign each deadline — book the house, book the van, buy the tickets — to a named person with a date. Unowned tasks are how group trips end up booking flights three weeks late at double the price.
Make opting out normal
Not everyone wants the boat trip, the hike or the 2am club. An opt-in column makes it explicit and unembarrassing, and it stops the group defaulting to the lowest common denominator. Plan one shared thing per day and let the rest be optional.
Settling up without resentment
Log each shared expense with payer and split as it happens, then settle once at the end with a single round of transfers. Chasing small amounts throughout the trip creates far more friction than one clean settlement, and the sheet does the arithmetic for you.
Three mistakes this template prevents
No deposit
Without money down, headcounts drift and someone ends up covering an empty bed.
Planning everything as a group of ten
Ten people cannot get a table, a taxi or a decision quickly. Plan one shared anchor a day.
Verbal money agreements
If it is not in the sheet, two people remember it differently. Log it as it happens.
Frequently asked
How do you split costs fairly on a group trip?+
Log every shared expense with who paid and how many it covers, then settle once at the end. Costs that don't apply to everyone — a private room, an optional tour — get split only between the people involved, which the template's 'split between' column handles.
Should everyone pay a deposit?+
Yes. A deposit is the only reliable signal of who is genuinely coming, and it protects whoever fronts the accommodation. Collect it before you book anything non-refundable.
How big is too big for a group trip?+
Beyond eight, restaurants, transport and decisions all get materially harder. Larger groups work when the itinerary has one shared anchor per day and everything else is optional.
What to do next
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