Group Trip Negotiator

Group Trip Negotiator Skill

Group trips die in a specific order: someone posts a villa nobody can afford, silence, someone says "or something cheaper?", silence, three months pass, the dates stop working. The killer is never logistics — it's that nobody wants to say their number first, nobody has authority to book, and the money rules get negotiated after the money is spent. This skill runs the fixes in order: budgets aligned anonymously before anything is shortlisted, one empowered booker per category with a veto deadline, the split rules written while everyone still likes each other — and the liberating clause most groups discover too late: you don't have to do everything together.

What This Skill Produces

• The budget-alignment move: an anonymous-numbers script (everyone sends the organizer their real ceiling privately; the trip is planned to the lowest real number, stated kindly as the rule) plus the champagne-taste protocol (upgrades are personal add-ons, never group defaults)
• A decision protocol: one booker per category, a shortlist-of-3 rule, 48-hour veto windows, then it's booked — motion beats consensus
• The money agreement: deposit handling, the unequal-rooms formula, shared-pot scope (what's in: groceries, taxis; what's out: bar rounds, activities), the tracking app choice, and the settle-up date
• The split-up clause and the one-per-day anchor: a single shared dinner/activity per day, freedom otherwise — the structure that prevents both herding and hurt feelings
• Dropout rules decided in advance: cancellation cost ownership before refundable deadlines vs after

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):

• The cast: how many, the friendship topology (couples? one organizer doing everything? the flaky one?), and who's currently blocking what
• Trip shape: destination ideas, nights, rough dates, what's already booked or promised
• The money reality as far as known: suspected budget spread, the champagne friend, the broke friend (both get dignity in the plan)
• Where it's stuck right now

Framework

1. Numbers before listings. The organizer collects each person's all-in ceiling privately ("send me your realistic total — flights, bed, fun — no judgment, I'll only share the range"). The planning number becomes the lowest real ceiling, announced as the group's number without attribution. This single move deletes the whole performative-affordability spiral.
2. Champagne pays for its own bubbles. Upgrades (the nicer room, the boat day) are opt-in add-ons paid by the upgraders: "the group rate is X; anyone who wants the suite tier pays the difference." The broke friend is never priced out of the baseline; the flush friend is never capped out of their fun.
3. Consensus shortlists, one person books. Per category (stay, transport, the big activity): the booker proposes ≤3 options inside the number, 48-hour veto window (a veto must come with an alternative), then the booker books. Groups don't decide; deadlines decide.
4. Write the money rules before the first deposit. Unequal rooms: the formula agreed up front (room-quality weighting or draw-lots-with- discount — offer both, the group picks). Shared pot scope listed explicitly. One tracking app, one settle-up date (within a week of return — debts age into resentment). Deposits: who fronts, and the dropout rule (before refund deadline: dropout eats fees; after: dropout owes their share unless replaced — agreed NOW, while hypothetical).
5. Schedule freedom. One anchor per day everyone attends; everything else is optional and guilt-free, said in exactly those words in the plan. The trips that end friendships are the ones where "together" was compulsory and silent resentment was the only exit.

Output Format

## Unsticking move (send this week)
[The anonymous-ceiling message, ready to send · the announcement of the
group number]

## Decision protocol
| Category | Booker | Shortlist by | Veto closes | Booked by |

## Money agreement (one page)
[Baseline vs add-on rule · rooms formula options · pot scope in/out ·
deposits & the dropout rule · app + settle-up date]

## The shape of the days
[One anchor per day · the split-up clause verbatim]

## The awkward conversations, scripted
[Champagne friend · broke friend (dignity-first) · the flaky one's
deadline]

Quality Checks

• The ceiling collection is private and the announced number is unattributed
• Baseline is set to the lowest real ceiling; every upgrade is opt-in with its payer named
• Every decision category has one named booker and a real deadline
• Dropout rules reference the refund deadline and are set before booking
• The split-up clause appears verbatim and the settle-up has a date

Anti-Patterns

• Do not plan to the average budget — the average prices out the bottom third and calls it consensus
• Do not let vetoes exist without alternatives or deadlines
• Do not put upgrades in the shared pot, ever
• Do not script shaming for either money extreme — the broke friend and the champagne friend are both planned for, not around
• Do not promise the trip will be conflict-free — promise the conflicts will be about sunscreen, not money

Related

[[roommate-agreement]] — the same peace-treaty machinery, domestic edition; [[clone-brief]] for the friend who can't make the planning call; [[franklin-decision-ledger]] when YOU can't decide whether to even go.