I see 3 ways of looking at this:

1 - I have never used a corporate/government code that I was not entitled to use even though I am aware of all the codes published at this website (and the fact that many of the codes are not especially difficult to crack – e.g. IBM). Many economy and mid-range hotels do ask me for ID if I book an AAA rate… and it does not bother me in the least to be asked. If abuse of these codes is becoming a problem… simply ask the guest for their form of payment and company ID. This is not out of line in my opinion…. and it would take no more than a few extra seconds.

2 - There are very few occasions I’d ever even want to use such a rate. When I’m traveling for business and expense everything, I really have no personal incentive to use anything other than my legitimate company rate, or other public rate. When on leisure travel… there are very few cases when a corporate rate will be lower than other rates for the times I do my leisure travel (often weekends). That goes for my companies negotiated rates or any other companies rates I have checked from time to time. On those rare occasions when the illegitimate corporate rate is lower than the prevailing public rate (for example this weekend at The Marriott Long Warf in Boston)… it is still usually more than I want to pay, so I’ll use points or stay someplace else (I’m staying at the Marriott in Cambridge which still works out way less).

3 – Finally, I have to be honest and say if I knew I could get away with it … and if it saved me money and there was really no other alternative… I could rationalize using an illegitimate code. When I call a hotel, airline, or car rental they try and charge me as much as they can. I’d bet a million dollars there are more people staying in Marriott hotels tonight paying a rate that is higher than they could have otherwise legitimately booked if they had known about it than there are people saving money by using an illegitimate corporate code. And my final thought on this is perhaps the Marriott Long Warf in Boston really would like me to book the illegitimate rate this weekend… if I did they would have any extra $179 a night they might not otherwise have.