Originally Posted by
sunk818
Does anyone currently have an employer that is willing/able to reimburse in cash Starwood bookings you made with points or cash & points?
I recently stayed at the Holiday Inn because that is where the conference was being hosted at $140/night. The Westin booking would have cost me 12,000 points per night. If I could somehow be reimbursed for this (e.g. show an invoice of $120 per night instead of 12,000 points paid), I would rather give Westin my business instead of Holiday Inn and save my employer $80.
When I worked for the IRS before I retired in 2009, you could enter into a voluntary "gain sharing" agreement with them and receive 50% of the savings in the form of a bonus (taxed as wages on your W-2). Here's out it worked: Any time you spent LESS than the government rate on a hotel, you would be eligible to receive 50% of the difference at the end of the fiscal year. So if the government rate was $240, and you spent $100, you would receive a bonus of $70, or 50% x (240-100). If you stayed for free with a friend or by using points, you would get half of the government rate as the bonus.
I think this a great solution and it saves the taxpayer money, too. The gain sharing program is still in effect and is explained in the Internal Revenue Manual at
www.irs.gov/irm/part1/irm_01-032-014.html. Might want to ask your employer if they would set up a similar program.