MONEY MANNERS
DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: What is the fair way to split the cost of a hotel room with two queen beds between a couple and a single person? — E.B.S. DEAR E.B.S.: Will the couple be showering separately or together?
We’re only half-kidding. Because while the beds are evenly divided between the single person and the couple, the rest of the accommodation is not. In particular, the couple gets two-thirds of the benefit of the bathroom, and therefore should pay more.
How much more? Well, suppose the three of you agree that the bathroom represents 40 percent of the value of the room. Then if the hotel bill came, for example, to $200, the bathroom would represent $80 of the bill and the beds $120. This means the couple should pay two-thirds of the $80, plus one-half of the $120. Too complicated, you say? Only if the single person thinks so.
DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: Friends who live in the Napa Valley were supposed to meet my wife and me for a week in Hawaii, and, with their concurrence, I rented a condo for the four of us. But three days before we were to leave, the devastating fires there destroyed their home and everything in it, leaving them in no position to travel. Since we’d prepaid for the condo, my wife and I tried to find another couple to take their place. But no one was available on such short notice, so we went by ourselves. Since then, our friends in Napa have said nothing about reimbursing us for their share of the condo rental. While we’re sympathetic to their situation, we know they’re not penniless — far from it. So shouldn’t they be offering to pay for half of the cost of the condo, as they agreed to do when we rented it? And what should we do if they don’t? — T.D., Los Gatos, California DEAR T.D.: Even were they actually penniless, your friends would have an obligation to at least acknowledge their responsibility for a portion of the rental costs. And even if they’re rich as Croesus, you need to cut them some slack while they attend to issues far more pressing than settling with you.
That said, if your apparently well-heeled friends fail to offer to pay you once they’ve achieved some stability in their lives, by all means mention that they “must have understandably forgotten” the bill that you paid and that they had agreed to share. But when you do, consider asking for an amount something short of half. Why? Because you and your wife had the luxury of having the condo to yourselves. This means that, in addition to gaining more privacy, you got the best bedroom, multiple bathrooms and the TV on and off as you saw fit. True, you didn’t ask for this. But you got it. And, whatever their resources, you shouldn’t be asking your fire-victim friends to pay for your upgrade.