Travel companion planning worksheet

The short version

• Complete the worksheet separately before comparing answers, so one person does not set the group answer by speaking first.
• Treat Needs a plan as unfinished until it has an owner, deadline, limit, and fallback.
• Do not average away a Stop for now concern because the other answers look good.
• Revisit the worksheet after a major itinerary, accommodation, budget, or companion change.
• Keep independent control of identification, money, tickets, medication, communication, accommodation access, and a route home.

Before you start

Agree which trip you are discussing, the destination, the possible dates, when you will compare answers, and the date on which you will recheck them before payment. If the plan is still vague, answer for the most demanding realistic version rather than the easiest version you hope will happen.

Preference differences are not automatically warning signs. Different sleep schedules, food choices, or activity interests can often be planned around. Pressure, retaliation, repeated evasiveness, or attempts to control another person’s money, documents, phone, accommodation, movement, or ability to leave are different and should stop the booking process.

1. Trip shape and pace

Compare the ordinary day, not just the shared highlight reel. A group can agree on a destination and still build two incompatible trips around it.

• Which dates are fixed, and how much earlier or later can each person travel?
• Describe an ordinary trip day: wake-up time, first activity, meals, rest, nightlife, and bedtime.
• Name three must-do activities and three things you do not want included.
• What walking distance, long drives, heat, cold, altitude, crowds, or early starts can each person realistically handle?
• How much time should be together, and how will you reconnect after separate activities?

2. Money and bookings

A shared budget should coordinate the trip without giving one traveller control of another traveller’s money. Each person should see the real provider, price, cancellation terms, and confirmation for anything they are expected to fund.

• What is each person’s all-in spending ceiling, daily comfort range, and separately held emergency reserve?
• Which costs stay individual, which are split, and what split applies when prices differ by room, ticket, or activity choice?
• Who makes each booking, and will every traveller receive confirmation and direct access in their own name where possible?
• What is the largest non-refundable amount either person will commit without a fresh confirmation from everyone affected?
• How will expenses be recorded and settled, and who bears cancellation costs when one person changes or misses the plan?

3. Accommodation and everyday boundaries

Make the sleeping, privacy, substance-use, visitor, and sharing rules explicit. Booking or sharing a room is never consent to romance, physical contact, access to belongings, photographs, or location sharing.

• Are rooms, beds, and bathrooms separate or shared, and what privacy is expected inside the accommodation?
• What are the agreed quiet hours, alarm expectations, cleanliness baseline, and approach when someone needs uninterrupted rest?
• Which allergies, dietary needs, accessibility needs, or medication routines affect planning without requiring unnecessary private disclosure?
• What are the boundaries around smoking, alcohol, intoxication, and other substance use during shared time or in shared accommodation?
• Are visitors allowed, and what consent is required before sharing photos, tagging locations, posting the itinerary, or enabling live location?

4. Safety and independent control

The goal is not to remove all uncertainty. It is to avoid a plan in which one person becomes the gatekeeper for the other person’s identity documents, transport, money, communication, medication, accommodation, or exit.

• Before a longer trip, what lower-stakes step will you use—a live call, public meeting, day outing, or short test trip?
• Can each traveller independently access their identification, phone, tickets, money, medication, accommodation, and route home at all times?
• Which trusted contact receives the itinerary, and what check-in times and missed-check-in response will you use?
• Identify one staffed public place, one alternative place to stay, and two transport options for leaving independently.
• Which emergency numbers, provider contacts, insurance details, and essential health information will each person keep accessible for themselves?

5. Decisions, conflict, and leaving

A useful agreement covers what happens when the plan fails. Nobody needs a group vote to leave an unsafe or unwanted situation, and a financial disagreement should never be used to stop someone leaving.

• Which decisions require everyone’s agreement, and what happens when the group cannot agree by the booking deadline?
• How should someone raise a problem, request time alone, or pause an argument without being followed, mocked, or punished?
• Which conduct ends the shared plan immediately—for example threats, coercion, unsafe driving, taking someone’s phone or documents, or ignoring a clear boundary?
• If one person leaves early, who contacts the accommodation or transport provider, how are remaining shared costs handled, and where does each person go?
• After a serious incident, what evidence should be preserved, who should be contacted, and when should platform reporting give way to emergency services, a bank, insurer, or police?

Turn every unfinished answer into a plan

For each Needs a plan response, write one compact decision outside this browser: Issue; agreed action; owner; decide-by date; spending or risk limit; and fallback if it fails. If nobody owns the action or the fallback still depends on the person whose conduct created the concern, the answer is not finished.

Recheck the worksheet before the first non-refundable payment, after any material route or accommodation change, when another companion joins, and whenever new information changes the level of trust or independence in the plan.

How to interpret the result

This is deliberately not a points test. A page of Aligned preferences does not cancel one serious safety concern. Aligned means the answer is compatible and specific enough to act on. Needs a plan means the difference may be workable only after you record a concrete resolution. Stop for now means do not book while the issue remains unresolved.

The worksheet supports a planning conversation; it does not verify identity, perform a background check, predict behaviour, or guarantee compatibility or safety. A TRIPPSITTER verification badge is only a limited identity signal. Meet a new companion in a staffed public place, retain independent transport and money, tell someone you trust where you are going, and leave if a boundary is ignored. In immediate danger, move to a safer public place and contact local emergency services. A platform report is not a substitute for emergency, medical, banking, insurance, or police assistance.

Primary sources and further reading

• TRIPPSITTER travel companion safety checklist
• TRIPPSITTER Safety Center
• India Emergency Response Support System — 112