While travelling is a very pleasurable endeavor by itself, factoring in wonderful people – friends and family – can make it a truly unforgettable one. With the use of technologies holidaying or having a reunion with people living in the different parts of the world is doable, but not without challenges. While the prospect can thrill you no end, the days of preparation (not to mention the holiday) can be extremely stressful, particularly when you are the organizer.
To make sure you and the others will get to enjoy the holiday or reunion, it is imperative to be savvy and insightful when you start with the planning and execution of your plans. You can avoid conflict by anticipating the potential sources of conflicts and working on those possible “bottlenecks.”
The Right Mix
There are occasions when you can choose your travel party; there are times when you can’t. How can you have a family reunion and not invite a sister, brother, etc. who are some sort of “different”? If you can choose, by all means choose; but when you can’t, be creative. Try putting like-minded people together or find a member who can relate with the one you think is harder-to-deal with.
That goes same way with regards picking the activities. Be ingenious; think of everyone or in general terms and be considerate to those with limitations. When everyone is having a great time, minor animosities are easier to forgive. Get everyone into thinking that this is not something like you have to tolerate in a lifetime.
Finding a Way to Communicate
Most of the conflicts will arise from miscommunication. This is, therefore, key to preventing animosities and easing tensions between and among members of the party. Introducing an effective way of communicating between each other with openness and fairness can let everyone into the loop.
Use the social media. You can create a Facebook Page, for instance, dedicated for this activity alone. You can also try using the free app ComboTrip, which will allow everyone to help in the planning, booking, deciding on activities, and even in making individual payments after the cost has been split. Quite savvy indeed! In fact, it can help you in more ways than one.
Money Issues
Aside from differing or deviant personalities, one common source of clashes or conflicts is the money aspect. People have different perspective as to what is expensive and cheap. Travel can be costly; finding deals is a good way to reduce the costs. This means scouting for the cheapest airlines, hotels, tour operators, car rentals, etc. You need to be able to make comparisons so everyone gets the satisfaction that they are getting a good price.
ComboTrip can also allow you to make those comparisons, so you’ll feel good about paying for what you know is a good deal. It also has a feature that allows you to split the cost and let each of you to see how much will be the individual costs, who owes what amount, etc. This app that lets everyone in the loop can also help those who have more offer help to the other members who are having a difficulty pay up the entire cost.
The holiday may not end without really running into a few misunderstandings or conflicts, and even troubles. Being different from each other can be nerve-wracking, but knowing you’ll just be together for a few days may help stretch each other’s patience. Look at the positive aspect of life – you’ll get to be with this wacky group again in three… five… ten years maybe?
So, work on enjoying each moment and build memories together. Meanwhile, if you are responsible for organizing this group travel, do each of you a favor, choose the right mix (if you can), find an efficient way to plan and communicate during the preparatory stage, and be sensitive about the money issues. An app like ComboTrip is a proof you can make things easy for everyone; check it out… it’s free.
