How to Decide Where to Go with a Group

Why deciding where to go is the hardest part of group planning

You have probably experienced this cycle. The date is confirmed, everyone is excited, and then someone asks "so where are we going?" The chat goes silent for a few hours. One person suggests a place. Another says "maybe, but what about..." and suggests something else. A third person says "I'm easy, anything works" which helps exactly zero percent. Two days later, no decision has been made and momentum is dying.

The problem is not that people do not care. It is that open-ended venue discussions create a strange kind of social friction. Nobody wants to seem too pushy, so they hedge. Nobody wants to veto someone else's suggestion, so they stay quiet. The result is a passive deadlock where everyone is waiting for someone else to decide.

This pattern is universal. It happens when picking a restaurant for a group dinner, choosing a destination for a group trip, or finding a venue for a pub night. The group size does not matter much either. Five people or fifteen people, the same dynamic plays out.

The democratic voting method

The fix is surprisingly simple: let everyone suggest places, let everyone vote, and let the highest score win. No single person has to be the decider, and no one has to argue for their preference over someone else's. The group votes, and the result speaks for itself.

This is the principle behind Where2go on lesgooo.fun. It works like Reddit-style voting applied to venue decisions. Each person can suggest a place by searching Google Maps or pasting a Google Maps URL. The place appears as a card with its name, photo, rating, address, and a direct link to Google Maps. Then everyone in the group votes: thumbs up for places they like, thumbs down for places they do not want. The place with the highest net score wins.

This method works for any type of venue decision. Restaurants, travel destinations, activity venues, cafes, bars, escape rooms, hiking trailheads, coworking spaces, you name it. If it has a location, it can be suggested and voted on.

Step-by-step: how to decide where to go together

The process takes five minutes to set up and runs itself once people start participating.

1. Open a shared planning link. Create a new plan on lesgooo.fun and share the link with your group. No login or account needed for anyone.

2. Each person suggests places. Anyone with the link can search for places using the built-in Google Maps autocomplete or paste a Google Maps URL directly. This means people can suggest that amazing ramen place they bookmarked last month or the rooftop bar their coworker mentioned.

3. See photos, ratings, addresses, and map links. Every suggestion automatically pulls in Google Maps data so the group can evaluate options with real information, not just a name in a chat message. You can see what the place looks like, how other people rated it, exactly where it is, and open it directly in Google Maps for directions.

4. Vote up your favorites, vote down ones you dislike. Each person gets one vote per place: up or down. Voting is anonymous by default in terms of who voted which way, so people feel free to be honest. No social pressure to agree with whoever suggested the place.

5. The highest-scored place wins. Places are automatically sorted by net score (upvotes minus downvotes). The top-ranked place is the group's democratic choice. Done. No arguments, no endless back-and-forth, no one person stuck making the call.

Real scenario: picking a restaurant for 8 people

Your friend group has locked Saturday evening for a group dinner. Eight people are coming. You share the Where2go link in the group chat with a simple message: "Add restaurant suggestions by Thursday, we vote Friday, winner gets booked."

By Thursday evening, six restaurants have been suggested. One is a new Thai place downtown. Another is the Italian spot everyone has been meaning to try. Someone added a steakhouse. Someone else suggested a seafood restaurant near the harbor. Two more options round out the list.

Each suggestion shows the restaurant's Google rating, photos of the food and interior, the address, and a direct Maps link. People can actually see what they are voting for instead of guessing based on a name.

Friday morning, you remind the group to vote. By Friday afternoon, the Thai place has a net score of +5, the Italian spot has +3, and the steakhouse has +1 (a few people voted it down because of a vegetarian in the group). The seafood place has +2.

The Thai restaurant wins. You book a table for eight. Total coordination effort: about three minutes of your time to set up the link and send two messages. The group did the rest.

Real scenario: choosing a trip destination for a friend group

Six friends want to do a long weekend trip together. The dates are set for May using When2meet, but nobody can agree on where to go. One person wants the mountains, another wants the coast, someone else has been talking about a specific city for months.

You open Where2go and share the link. Each person adds their preferred destination by searching Google Maps. The options that appear: a mountain cabin area, a beach town, a city known for nightlife, a national park, and a wine region.

Each option shows location details, photos, and ratings for the area. People vote based on what actually appeals to them when they see the options side by side. The national park wins with a net score of +4, beating the beach town at +3 and the city at +1.

Now the group knows where they are going and can move to the trip planning phase: booking accommodation, splitting transport, and assigning tasks in the Checklist.

Tips for faster group venue decisions

Set a deadline for suggestions. Give people 24 to 48 hours to add their options. Without a cutoff, suggestions trickle in indefinitely and voting never starts. A deadline like "add your suggestions by Wednesday evening" creates a clear transition from suggestion phase to voting phase.

Keep options limited to 5 to 10. More than ten options creates decision fatigue and dilutes votes. If you end up with too many, consider having the group do a quick first round of voting to narrow the field, then a final vote on the top five.

Let the vote speak and do not reopen debate after voting. This is the most important rule. Once voting is done and a winner is clear, resist the urge to relitigate. The whole point of democratic voting is that the group's collective preference is expressed through the scores. Reopening debate after the vote undermines the process and brings you right back to the endless discussion you were trying to avoid.

Combine with scheduling and checklist. Where2go works best as part of a full planning flow on lesgooo.fun. Use When2meet to lock the date, Where2go to pick the place, and Checklist to assign tasks. All three tools share the same link, so your group has one place to go for everything.

Whether you are deciding on a dinner spot, a travel destination, or a pub for Friday night, the same pattern applies: suggest, vote, go.