Money Moral Dilemma: Should we pay less for our holiday as our friend got cashback for booking it?

MSE_Kelvin

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

I'm going on holiday with a large group of friends, and one of them volunteered to book it for all of us as he gets cashback on his card. Should we each reimburse him less so we benefit too, or just let it go and see it as a 'booker's benefit' for sorting the admin?

Unfortunately the MSE team can't answer Money Moral Dilemma questions as contributions are emailed in or suggested in person. They are intended to be a point of debate and discussed at face value. Remember that behind each dilemma there is a real person so, as the forum rules say, please keep it kind and keep it clean.

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

Got a Money Moral Dilemma of your own? Suggest an MMD.

TELLIT01

Let the person who did all the work in arranging the holiday have the benefit of the cashback.  Volunteer next time so you get it.

katejo

TELLIT01 said:

Let the person who did all the work in arranging the holiday have the benefit of the cashback.  Volunteer next time so you get it.

Remember also that the friend doing the booking is running a certain degree of risk. There is always the possibility that something will go wrong (eg. a group member pulls out at the last moment and refuses to pay their share)..... !

chutuk

Definitely allow it as a bookers benefit . I've been in this position many times when booking for a large group of friends.  For every person that pays promptly and ontime like yourself, there will always be one of the group who pays late, wants to pay in tiny installments, tries to make last minute changes or just decides they can no longer go and therefore shouldn't pay. 

You don't know what hassle or interest charges the booker may have incrued because of some of these people, so trying to claim a slice of their cashback is masively unfair. 

The job of trip coordinator is a thankless task full of risk, please don't begrudge that person a few extra pennies in cashback,  If its still a bone of contention, suggest you volunteer for booking the next trip.

HCM2007

It's definitely the bookers benefit. It can be a real headache organising this sort of thing and often no-one really appreciates it. If you insist on getting some of that benefit, you risk a bit of bad feeling with your friend and he's very likely to never do it again, leaving someone else to have the hassle of doing it.

powerspowers

Yep bookers benefit! If you want the cash back, offer to organise the next one 😀 

Ed264

All the previous contributors are correct, I would say. Let your friend benefit from whatever that cashback may be. I'm guessing it's not a substantial sum anyway. To be honest, I'm quite surprised anyone is asking this sort of question. Have a good holiday.

Pollycat

This was a MMD posted last year - from the perspective of the person who booked the holiday:

Money Moral Dilemma: Should I share the cashback I got for booking a holiday with my friends? — MoneySavingExpert Forum

My friends and I have been planning to go away together, but no one would bite the bullet and book the holiday. In the end I did, which meant paying for everyone on my credit card. I used a cashback website, which means I'm due about £60 back. Should I keep it because I did the work, including finding the best deal and making sure everyone had paid what they owed me, or should I share it with my friends as their money helped earn the cashback?

4 pages of replies.

SadieO

As always with these "dilemmas" it depends on factors that aren't included in the question. If you all took an equal share in doing the research of finding out where to go, how to book it etc, everyone is sat there with their cash ready, and one friend just says "hey, if we use my card we'll get it for £x less!" then yes it should be shared. But if everyone else sat back and expected that one person to do all the work and take on any risk (eg they pay upfront and then have to chase everyone else to reimburse them) then they should have it as "booker's benefit" to compensate them for their time and risk. If anyone complains then let them do the work next time!

If6was9

Your friend's intentions were clear. They're the one that did the work (including research on the cashback). If you spread the cashback between the large group, you'd all hardly notice the difference. Also, for all you know, that friend might be using the cashback to buy a group gift for the trip or to buy everyone a 1st drink at the pool 

regency_man

If it's plain old cash-back from a credit card then I'd say it's bookers benefit.  We had a slightly different situation a few years back which caused a fall out when one of our friends offered to book tickets to an event.  It turned out they'd found a deal that offered 6 tickets for the price of 5 (or buy 5 get one free, I can't remember the exact wording) and they kept the 'free' ticket for themselves while we all paid full price.  We discovered on the day because they (foolishly perhaps) handed the wrong ticket out and someone spotted that theirs had a '£0' face value.