This thread has been most educational and amusing. I showed it to my admin/flight booker and she vowed to keep it to show our service techs next time they complain about our policies. We are a small branch of a small company with clients and jobs in some obscure places.

As the manager/sales guy I have usually blazed the trail before the service techs, and stayed in cheaper hotels with nobody to meet me. So they can't bluff me (much). Generally I trust them to be frugal except where it's justified, and generally they have repaid my trust. One guy baffled us by never claiming for an evening meal but just a couple of beers. But then the job was in a small Spanish town where you got substantial free tapas with every beer ...

Every now and then, our US HQ tries impose blanket policies to The World.

One was "All FF points belong to the company - so should be used to book business flights" . (yes, we are a private company with eccentric owner) Given the unpredictable nature of our business flight requirements, this was impossible. And of course everybody suddenly didn't have an FF account to declare, so the only people following the policy are very senior management from Over There, who inevjtably fly at the wrong time and spend more by booking inflexible award flights then having t change them.

Similarly, our Grand Chef ostentatiously flies Economy even on the longest flight (to set an example) but then stays in $500/night hotels ... and hassles his staff to get upgrades on he flights anyway. He's a multimillionaire and I really don't care if he splashes out on flights, I will continue to apply tight cost control where appropriate.

Generally, though everyone we have is budget conscious and will have breakfast in the cafe next door rather than the hotel, get laundry done across the road etc etc. I think if you start messing with this voluntary cost control by application of strict policies, it will cost you more. One aspect that we could improve is that our expense reporting is very onerous and makes it easier to book everything up to the hotel than go outside for cheaper.

I accept that the mentality changes as companies get bigger , management is more remote and costs become more of an abstract concept. We try to hire responsible people , keep a happy team and avoid developing chips on shoulders so people don't feel like screwing the company.