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Split holiday costs by nights stayed
A house booked for a week, friends who arrive on Wednesday and leave on Sunday. Enter how many nights each person stayed and what they paid up front: the shares and the repayments appear at once.
The principle: every shared cost is split in proportion to the nights spent there, not per person. Someone who sleeps three nights of a seven-night stay carries three shares out of the group’s total. That share is then compared with what the person already paid: the difference is their balance, and the repayments cancel each other out.
The calculator
Free, no account, nothing to install. Nothing is sent anywhere: it all runs in your browser.
The method, in four steps
- Count each person’s nights, not days: arriving Friday evening and leaving Sunday morning is two nights. The night is the unit that matches what is being paid for — the house, the bed, the heating.
- Add up the group’s nights. That is the total number of shares.
- Split every cost in proportion to those shares.
- Compare with what each person paid. The difference is the balance: positive, they are owed; negative, they owe.
The usual check: all the balances always add up to zero. If they don’t, a cost is missing.
A worked example
A house and groceries totalling $1,140. Nina stays 7 nights, Mark stays 7 nights, Lou stays 3 nights, Theo stays 2 nights — 19 nights in all. Split equally, each would pay $285; by nights, they don’t.
| Person | Nights | Paid | Their share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nina | 7 | $840 | $420 | +$420 |
| Mark | 7 | $120 | $420 | −$300 |
| Lou | 3 | $0 | $180 | −$180 |
| Theo | 2 | $180 | $120 | +$60 |
The repayments:
- Mark owes $300 to Nina
- Lou owes $120 to Nina
- Lou owes $60 to Theo
Look at Theo: 2 nights out of 19, so a share of $120 instead of $285 under an equal split. That is the whole point of splitting by nights — it makes the weekend affordable for the people who can’t take the full week, without the others losing out.
What splits by nights, and what doesn’t
Splitting by nights applies to everything consumed per day of presence. The rest follows other rules, and mixing them up is the main cause of arguments on the way home.
| Cost | Split |
|---|---|
| The house, cleaning, heating | by nights |
| Groceries, shared meals | by nights (or by meals eaten) |
| Car hire, fuel | between those who use it, by days |
| An activity, museum, theme park | between those who go, not by nights |
| Travel to get there | each person their own |
| Alcohol | between those who drink it |
Two cases are worth settling before the trip. The bedroom. A couple in a double room occupies one room, not two: some groups count nights per room rather than per person. The first night. If the house is paid for from Friday but half the group arrives on Saturday, the empty night is shared by everyone — that is the price of the booking, not of sleeping.
The trap of the person who paid for everything
In the example, Nina put $840 on her own card and is owed $420 back. That is the most common and most unpleasant scenario: one person financing the group’s holiday for three weeks.
The fix isn’t in the arithmetic, it’s in the order of payments: spread who pays for what. One takes the house, another the car, a third the groceries. The balances then largely cancel out on their own, and the number of transfers at the end often drops to one or two.
Is the arithmetic reliable?
Yes, and it can be checked. This page runs the same code as the WeSplit app, injected as-is: the share split, the leftover cent, and the reduction in the number of transfers.
That code is compared automatically against the app’s logic on 400 randomly generated scenarios, and the smallest divergence fails the build.
Frequently asked questions
How do you split holiday costs when people stay different lengths of time?
Count each person’s nights, add up the group’s nights, and split every shared cost in proportion. Someone staying 3 nights out of 19 person-nights pays 3/19 of the house and the groceries.
Nights or days?
Nights. It is the unit of what is being paid for: arriving Friday evening and leaving Sunday morning is a two-night weekend, even though it covers three days.
What about someone who just comes for dinner one evening?
They don’t enter the night split at all: they pay their share of the meals they join, and nothing of the accommodation. In the app, that is an expense shared between part of the group only.
How do you count a couple sharing a room?
Two defensible ways: two people, so twice the nights — the most common, and what this calculator does; or one room, so one share, when the booking is priced per room. Decide before the trip, not on the way back.
What happens when I tap “keep this in WeSplit”?
The link carries the result — the names, the nights, the amounts and the split — to the group creation screen, which shows what it is about to create before creating it, and asks which of those names is yours. Nothing is sent before that tap: the link is built in your browser. If you don’t have an account yet, the calculation waits until you’ve signed up.
Are the amounts I type stored?
No. Nothing is sent, nothing is saved. Close the tab and it is all gone.
For a whole trip, not a single bill
In WeSplit, each expense is split between the people it concerns, with each person’s nights as shares. The balances follow along as the trip goes. Free, no ads.
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