How to allocate rooms in a rented space in the fairest fashion?
This is interesting, because we are seeing a split between allocating the rooms and pricing them. Which is reasonable. To price the rooms, I suggest this: give everybody, say, 35 points. Each person assigns each room some point rating (minimum of 1 for a dank, crumbling closet). Then total up the values. The rents will be assigned in proportion to the room scores. Note that this omits the common areas–add some constant value to all the scores to cover that. To assign the rooms, I suggest a closed-bid auction, again using completely abstract points. Say each person has 10 points to bid. If you’ve got a room you doubt others will want, you can safely bank all 10 points on that room. If there are three you want, you’re going to need to decide how badly you want them. Ties will be resolved by arm-wrestling.
Step 1: divide the total rent (say $700) by 2 ($350). Each roommate pays a base amount that’s an equal share of this ($50). Step 2: briefly discuss among the 7 what makes each room more or less desirable (size, location, etc.) Step 3: half of you (probably the 3 who care least) decide how to split the remaining rent ($350) among the 7 rooms without any more input from the other half (those who care most); you now have a total price associated with each room (ranging, say, from $70 to $150) Step 4: those (4) of you who care most get the list of prices of rooms; start choosing with the most expensive room. If anyone is willing to take one of the rooms uncontested at the price listed, you get it. If there’s a dispute, the people involved can bid higher; the amount extra paid for the room is split evenly to reduce everyone’s rent, or to buy some sort of extras monthly for the house. Absolutely nobody pays less than the initial base amount ($50). Throughout the process, keep in mind you’re
