About
We got tired of the poll nobody answered.
Trip Out The Chat started as a spreadsheet between six friends trying to book one weekend away. It took four months and the trip never happened.
The problem was never the destinations. It was that nobody wanted to say their real budget out loud, and the loudest person in the chat always won.
So we made voting private and the result public. You answer honestly, we do the comparing, and the group sees where they overlap instead of where they clash.
Trip #1
Never booked
9
Questions in the quiz
All private
42
Destinations ranked
And growing
90s
Average time to vote
One bus ride
0
Group chat polls needed
Blissfully none
How we got here
A short history of one unbooked weekend.
- 01The spreadsheet era
Six friends, one weekend, four months
Columns for dates, columns for budgets, a tab nobody opened. The trip never happened. The spreadsheet still exists.
- 02The realisation
Nobody was lying — they were just being polite
People say “anywhere works” because saying “I can spend $600, not $1,600” in front of eleven friends is genuinely hard.
- 03The fix
Private answers, public overlap
Everyone answers alone. The group only ever sees where they agree. No budgets attached to names, ever.
- 04Now
A whole decision toolkit
Templates, 42 destinations, a printable planner, and a blog written by people who've actually organised the group trip.
What we won't do
Four rules we build by.
Private by default
Your individual answers are never shown to the group — not your budget, not your ick, not your real feelings about the 6am hike.
No phone numbers
Voting takes one link and a first name. We're not building a contact list to sell you back to yourself.
Free where it counts
Deciding where to go is free forever. Plus and the planner are for people who organise trips constantly.
Opinions, not SEO sludge
If a place is overrated we say so. Partner links never change a ranking — that's the whole point of the disclosure.
What groups say once they've actually booked.
Over 12,000 votes cast. The average group finishes in under two minutes.
We'd been going back and forth for weeks. Everyone filled this out on their lunch break and by that night we'd booked Lisbon.
The budget part is what made it work for me. I didn't have to be the one saying I couldn't afford it in front of everyone.
We've said 'we should do a trip' every year since college. This time we actually picked somewhere in an afternoon.
I was the maid of honor, so this was going to be my problem either way. One link, nine answers, done — I didn't have to chase anyone.
I bought the planner mostly out of curiosity and ended up using the money section the whole trip. Everyone actually paid me back.
My friends can never make a decision. Seeing that we all quietly wanted the same kind of trip was honestly the whole thing.
Questions we get
Straight answers.
Is my information private?
Yes. Your private trip preferences stay private, and we never sell your personal data.
Do my friends see my budget?
No. The group only ever sees aggregate agreement — ranges, overlaps and match scores. Individual answers are never attributed to a name.
Does everyone need an account?
Only the host. Voters just open the link, add a first name so the host knows who's voted, and answer.
What if we already know where we want to go?
Pick the shortlist mode when you create the trip — you put 2 to 8 places up and the group votes on those instead.
Less debating. More departing.