Ten questions every shared vacation home has to answer.

The fairest system is one everyone understood before the first booking. Taking turns in a set order works when people like to plan a year ahead. A draft, where groups take turns picking dates, works when the same weeks are in demand. Matching preferences works when schedules differ. It is hard to do fairly by hand, so SplitHaus Match does it for you. Booking as you go, with limits, works when there is usually room. Whatever you choose, move the order each year so no group always has the best weeks.

Yes. Answer the questions on this page and the playbook writes the agreement for you in plain sentences: how you share the calendar, split the costs, look after the house, make decisions, and handle the stays themselves. Print it with a line for each group to sign, or email yourself a link to open it before your meeting. It covers how you share the house, not who owns it. Ownership terms belong in papers a lawyer drafts.

Add up a year of costs: the mortgage if there is one, property tax, insurance, utilities, upkeep, and an amount saved for big repairs. Divide it equally, or by ownership share if some groups own more. Collect it monthly so nobody faces a large bill at once. Some groups also add a small nightly fee for whoever stays, which lowers the monthly amount for everyone.

A common starting point is 1 to 2 percent of the home's value each year. Older houses and houses near salt water often need more, so ask someone who knows yours. Keep it in a separate fund that everyone can see, and agree in advance what it can be used for, so a new roof is a plan instead of a surprise.

Start by agreeing which holidays matter most at your house, because every house has its own. Then decide them separately from the rest of the calendar. The most common rule is that each major holiday goes to one group and passes to the next group every year. Other houses count holidays for more of a group's share, or keep them open for everyone to come together. Without a rule, the same group can end up with the same holiday every year without anyone choosing it.

Start by writing down what already happens, including the traditions everyone assumes. Then look at what has changed: more households, grandchildren with their own schedules, and owners who live far away. Keep the traditions people care about, and write down the rules that everyone has been working out on their own. Agree the new plan at a meeting where every branch is represented.

Yes, in a few ways. Families often share for decades, so the hard questions are about the next generation: who inherits a share, and when grown children get their own time. Friends usually buy in at one point in their lives, so the hard questions are about change: someone moves away, marries, has children, or needs their money back. Friends are also more likely to have put in different amounts, so costs are often split by share. Either way, it helps to write the plan down together.

No. This plan covers how you share time, money, and care. Ownership questions belong with a lawyer who knows your state: whose name is on the title, whether to hold the house in an LLC or a trust, what happens if someone wants to sell, and what happens when a share passes to the next generation. If you already have a trust or LLC, this plan sits alongside it, and where the two differ, the legal papers decide.

Often, yes. Many trusts and LLCs say who owns the house, how shares pass on, and which decisions need everyone. Then they leave the everyday rules to the owners: how the calendar is shared, how costs are split each year, and who looks after the house. Those rules often live in people's heads. Writing them down next to the legal papers means every branch, and every new generation, reads the same plan.

Yes, it is free, with no account. Your answers stay in this browser as you go. Email yourself a private link to open the same plan later, on any device. You can also print the plan.