What is the best way to track and share group travel expenses?

Question

Here's a perpetual problem I have when traveling abroad with a group:

I have been on several backpacking trips with friends and have never been able to figure out an easy way to track shared expenses. Someone usually ends up paying for shared accommodations, meals, excursions, etc. and tracking those expenses (and everyone's share of those expenses) seems to be a time-consuming, thankless and near impossible task. It doesn't help that someone also usually ends up feeling shafted when it comes time to settle the accounts.

Has anyone found an easy, effective way to track, divide and repay shared group expenses? Any recommendations, web sites, software, or novel approaches to solving this frustrating problem would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Answer 1

We've done group trips in the past, and the best way we found is as follows:

Get the prices for any accomodations up front, and let everyone know about how much that will be.  It's usually better if one person does this.

For meals, we split into 2 person teams, this can be a couple, or just 2 friends.  Each team is completely responsible for x number of meals (one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, etc. depending on how long the trip is).  So that team is responsible for the cost, preparation and cleanup for their meals, which could be anything from cooking pancakes, to just ordering pizza, whatever they decide.

For excursions, everyone pays their own way.

Good luck!!!!