Occasion guide
A shared plan for a weekend with friends
The place is booked. Now the group needs a shared answer to a few practical questions: when people arrive, where they meet, which plans they are joining and what they have agreed to pay. Start with the moments everyone needs to know. Leave the rest flexible.
Agree the essentials before departure
- Ask each person for an arrival and departure window.
- Choose the first meeting place and time. Tell late arrivals where to go next.
- Confirm who is joining each meal or booked activity before committing to numbers.
- Share check-in details privately with the people staying there.
- Agree which purchases are shared and who will pay upfront.
Make the meeting plan specific
Write one instruction the group can use:
“Meet at [place] at [time]. If that changes, meet at [backup place] at [time], or follow [agreed next step].”
Choose real places that your group has checked. Send a late arrival the current destination and next shared time rather than a trail of changing messages.
A weekend outline to adapt
- Day one: arrivals and check-in, then an optional first meetup and a shared evening meal.
- Day two: optional separate activities, an agreed time to meet again and one shared plan.
- Final day:confirm checkout and each person's departure.
Replace this outline with your actual bookings and dates. A guest can join only the parts that work for them.
Match costs to the people taking part
Eight friends travel together; six choose dinner. If those six agree to divide a fictional €120 dinner equally, each owes €20. The two who skip dinner are not in that dinner split.
Accommodation, transport and other activities can have different groups and different agreements. Confirm the rule together before recording an expense; the example is not a default fairness rule.
Keep one plan the group can check
Cairn's manual friends' weekend demo shows an itinerary, dinner attendance and an illustrative expense split among the six dinner attendees. It is a fictional demonstration, not a created trip.
See a friends' weekend in Cairn