Holiday house roster
Who has the beach house this summer? Put it on a roster
Three families, one beach house and only so many school holidays. FairTurns hands out the weeks and long weekends by turns, keeps the count from year to year, and shows the whole year on one link.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
The shared shack, and the week everyone wants
Plenty of Australian families share something too good to sell and too dear to own alone: Grandad’s fibro shack at the beach, a caravan on a permanent site, a half-share in a tinnie. It works beautifully until December, when three siblings all want the week after Christmas and nobody can remember who had it last year.
A roster turns that into something everyone can see. Set out the weeks, the long weekends and the Easter break for the year, and FairTurns hands each one to the family with the fewest turns at it. Peak weeks have their own count, so the family that missed the Christmas week is next in line for a peak week, and anyone can open the turns chart to check.
Put the link in the family chat and everyone can plan leave around their turns months ahead. The fair rotation generator is handy for a first draft on paper, and rotating rosters explained covers how turns carry over.
How FairTurns shares the holiday house
Peak and quiet weeks apart
Make Peak weeks and Ordinary weeks separate teams, so Christmas and Easter are shared on their own count.
A year set out
Add the changeover Saturday as an ordinary week repeating every week, add the peak weeks one by one, and cancel the ordinary Saturdays they replace. Dates can be kept 12 months ahead.
Turns by family
Add each family by name, such as “The Tans”, and invite one adult from each by email if they’d like to sign in.
Fewest turns next
Fill gives each week to the family with the fewest of that kind, and the turns chart keeps the count over the years.
Working bees too
Painting the deck or cleaning the boat’s hull can be its own team, shared out the same way as the good weeks.
Weeks a family can’t use
Families mark the weeks they can’t go as away, and Fill passes those to the next family.
Set it up
- 01
Create the shared place
Create an organisation for the house, caravan or boat.
- 02
Add the kinds of turn
Add teams such as Peak weeks, Ordinary weeks and Working bees, each with one place for a family.
- 03
Add the families
Add each family by name, and invite one adult from each by email.
- 04
Set the year
Click the first changeover day, set the time and choose how it repeats, adding peak weeks as single dates.
- 05
Fill and share
Press Fill for 12 months, talk it over, then share the link.
When you want it to run itself
Pro emails a reminder before each stay, and the schedule on a day you choose, to the adults who have accepted an invitation. If a family can’t use their week after all, they reply from the email and the next family in line is put on and asked. A$12 a year, shared between the families.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Agree the house rules first, such as whether a family can lend their week to friends, and who books the gas refill.
- Each date sits on one day, so a week’s stay shows on its changeover day. Name it something like “Week from Saturday” so it reads clearly.
- Families don’t book their own weeks; the roster shares them out, and whoever runs it can move anyone by hand.
- FairTurns shows who has which turn. Costs, keys and outside bookings are kept somewhere else.
Questions
How do we stop one family getting Christmas every year?
Make the peak weeks their own team. Fill gives each one to the family with the fewest peak turns so far, and the turns chart shows the count to everyone.
Can a long weekend be a turn?
Yes. Add it as a single date on the Saturday with the times you like, and put it in its own team if long weekends should be shared separately.
What if a family can’t use their week?
Change the name on that one date by hand. On Pro, they reply from the reminder that they can’t make it, and the next family in line is put on and asked.
Can the whole extended family see it?
Yes. Turn on the public roster link and anyone with it can see the year as a list or a calendar, without an account. It shows names and dates only.
What does it cost?
Free, with no limit on families or dates. Pro adds reminders and replies for A$1 a month, paid a year or more at a time, so A$12 a year between all of you.
Free templates and guides
Fair rotation generator
A rotating schedule from a list of names, with the rule it follows spelled out.
Turn calculator
How many turns does each person get? The sum, worked out, with the roster to match.
Rotating roster explained
What a rotating roster is, the two kinds of rotation, and the weekly, fortnightly and monthly patterns most groups use.
Similar rosters
Family care roster
Visits, shopping and appointments for an ageing parent, shared between brothers, sisters and helpers.
Household chores
The whole family’s chores on one shared roster, with whose turn it is on everyone’s phone.
School run and car-pool
Morning drop-offs and afternoon pick-ups shared between families, with today’s driver on every phone.