1P

hotels.com and booking.com both ask you this routinely. It doesn't seem to make any difference which you say, business or leisure.....

Jailer

When traveling on a Govt contractor rate I think some gentle questioning is OK, but it usually goes screwy, as it did last week, admittedly a Hilton:

What Govt agency do you work for?

I don't.

It says here you do.

Nope, Govt contractor

So, do you work for the Department of Defense?

Sigh, It would be a Federal crime for me to disclose why I'm here other to give you my name and affirm that I'm a Justice contractor.


Any savvy CSR would call bull, but they are a bit hog-tied over challenging guests meaning whatever information they are trying to collect is worthless: on a four-stay trip I likely have four unrelated answers.

Proudelitist

Try a blanket answer: " I work for Noneofyourbusiness Inc."

JackE

They should ask this question when we reserve a room with the choices including "Prefer not to answer'.

That would save everyone some time and make check-in more pleasant.

JackE

Or "My spouse thinks it's business."

hts

Sometimes I answer "CIA" but my preferred go-to these days is "Vandelay Industries."

MSPeconomist

Hertz asks when you try to reserve a car online and I seem to notice higher rates if I say it's a business trip. I wonder whether some of the AAA coupons, for instance, are exclusively for leisure rentals.

Jon Maiman

Acme, LTD. Kidding aside even though most of my stays are at limited service properties, I am rarely asked. When I am, I typically tell the truth. Sometimes this results in an email message or phone call from the sales department trying to get me to negotiate a corporate rate.

Working for a mid-size company, we have a dedicated travel department and I have nothing to do with negotiating rates as a field based sales employee. I would suspect for most mid to large size companies this would be true. So, basically I think this form of prospecting by the hotels is likely to have a very low success rate. Since the properties aren't too persistent about it, I find it more amusing than an annoyance when they ask. If they were more persistent about pushing to negotiate a rate, then it would become annoying. Finally, I think the properties could better target their prospecting efforts. YMMV....

--Jon

GoPhils

Same here, although I work for a company that is partially owned by a larger company whose rate we use, so the FDC's get confused sometimes if I try to explain it. Now that I know it's just "research," I may just say the actual company.

Hopefully the people who say "none of your business" aren't staying on corporate rates!

halls120

I don't share that information with any affinity program

Mr. Vker

Let me tell you something. I am glad they ask. I have had an incredible career. Fantastic positions with unbelievable companies and agencies--all within my own fantasy world and reported to Marriott.

FBI
NASA
Apple
Oracle
Disney
Coke
French Foreign Legion (Why Not)
Executive office of the President

and on it goes...

Part of the fun is thinking of someplace VERY interesting for me and hoping they ask.

DenverBrian

As I recall, many hotel brands (not just Marriott) ask so they can track the number of nights used by various businesses.

Let's say you work for Porn-a-Rama. Your company has negotiated a corporate rate with Marriott, but your $69 rate (tee hee) will only be extended past this year if you generate, say, 6,969 nights.

If you're too embarrassed to say who you work for and say "CIA" or "Wayne Industries" or some such, then your stay won't be properly credited to the current contract's number of nights, putting your negotiated rate at risk for the following year.

I'm also somewhat amused at how people here are up in arms over having to answer such a question at check-in...while the Internet is scraping all of your personal information, over and over, every time you surf the web.

HMPS

Well said. As time goes by we are all becoming more paranoid. SNL should do a skit on this !@:-)

darthbimmer

Punchline from a classic Reader's Digest anecdote years ago about a man staying on a corporate rate:

"And once again, welcome to our hotel, Mr. Bell."
"Oh, please, call me Taco."

happygolucky_nomad

I had the same question posted to me although it was from Starwood Online Live Agent Chat several days ago.

The Agent asked whether is it for Business and Leisure and I replied that this is irrelevant to my question/problem that I have. Then the agent apologised and mentioned that she is curious.