Family cabins · Free template
Free family cabin rotation template
A spreadsheet for families sharing a cabin, lake house or vacation home: every week of the season for four years, with peak, holiday and shoulder weeks each rotating on their own, a pick order that changes every year, and a sheet of rules to agree on. Free to download, no sign-up, no email required.
The template comes filled in with made-up families (Family A to D), an example May-to-September season and the years 2027 to 2030, so you can see how the rotation works. Replace them with your own families, weeks and years.
What is in the template
| Sheet | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Read me | How the workbook works and how to adapt it, inside the file, so every family who receives it can follow along. |
| Rotation | One row per week of the season, one column per year, with the family that holds each week. Weeks are marked Peak, Holiday, Shoulder or Maintenance and shaded by kind. |
| Holidays | The holiday weeks on their own, by year, plus the family that has no holiday that year. |
| Pick order | For families who pick weeks in turn instead: the order for each year, with first pick moving one place a year and round two in reverse. |
| Summary | Peak, shoulder, holiday and total weeks per family per year. It counts from the Rotation sheet, so it updates when you edit. |
| Rules | A starting set of written rules with blanks to fill in: season, turns, trades, unused weeks, guests, work weeks, changeover and disputes. |
How the rotation works
Each kind of week rotates on its own cycle and shifts one family each year. In the example season of eight peak weeks, four shoulder weeks and three holidays, that gives every family two peak weeks and one shoulder week each year, and every family holds each specific week once in four years. With three holidays and four families, one family sits out each year, and over the four years every family gets each holiday once.
| Week | Kind | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memorial Day week | Holiday | Family A | Family B | Family C | Family D |
| Fourth of July week | Holiday | Family B | Family C | Family D | Family A |
| July week 2 | Peak | Family C | Family D | Family A | Family B |
| August week 1 | Peak | Family B | Family C | Family D | Family A |
| September week 2 | Shoulder | Family A | Family B | Family C | Family D |
Equal counts are not always equal value. An early-July week and a late-August week are both peak, but your family may not rate them the same. If that matters, split peak into two kinds (say, high and regular) and rotate each one separately.
How to use it
- List your real season. On the Rotation sheet, replace the example weeks with the weeks your place is open, and mark each one Peak, Holiday, Shoulder or Maintenance.
- Replace the families. Use your siblings or branches. Find and Replace changes Family A everywhere at once.
- Draw the first year's order. Do it with everyone present, or with a method anyone can check afterwards. Then let the rotation shift it each year.
- Check the Summary sheet. If one family holds more peak weeks than another in a year, fix the grid or write the reason into the rules.
- Agree the Rules sheet before you share the rotation, and fill in the date you agreed it.
- Record every trade and released week in the Notes column, with the date. It is your answer when someone asks why.
Not sure whether to rotate weeks or pick them in turn? Our guide on how to share a family cabin fairly compares the common methods, and covers holidays, guests, work weeks and unused weeks.
The template only tracks who uses which week. Ownership, cost sharing and what happens when someone wants out belong in your deed, trust, LLC operating agreement or family agreement. Talk to a lawyer about those.
When a spreadsheet stops working
A fixed rotation fits a spreadsheet well. Picking weeks in turn is harder:
- People pick out of order. If every family can edit a shared sheet, the order is a suggestion. Whoever opens the link first takes the best week.
- Two people edit at once. Two families type into the same week, and one of them quietly loses.
- Someone has to run the turns. Telling each family it is their turn, chasing the one on vacation, and re-sending the sheet after every trade falls to one person.
- The record goes stale. Trades made in a group text never make it into the sheet.
Ordered sign-ups for family cabins are coming to Ordallo. You can join the early list on the cabin guide. Gym and court sign-ups are available today.