---
name: mohitagw15856/group-trip-negotiator
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/mohitagw15856-group-trip-negotiator@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: a1ca49a60dcf
---

# 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.