Vince Chan

I am really curious.

I, as PP and P for next year, never travel for business, I pay all my room fee all by myself, travel staying at Marriott for pleasure. I wish I could find a job that my boss would willing to pay for my room fee , but I couldn't. Probably because I'm a loser straight outta Compton always dreaming becoming a rapper but never do.

Nowadays I work as a sales person in a hotel in Asia ( not Marriott or starwood), I guess I was surprisingly to find that, many large companies, even the international one, that have very little budge for the more basic level employee, such as sales person, assistant or engineering for their room fee, mostly are under $100! You can barely find a CY under $100 in Taipei, Seoul or Japan! Not to mention those full service Marriott, Westin type of " general business hotel" in the US, which I found in the movie that most major company would allow their employee to stay their and doesn't consider a Hilton or a marriott "a fancy , luxury" or a too-much expense for business travel,

So I as a Marriott loyalty member , but my family think that I am silly to chasing status and pay for my room fee staying at those hotel, they said when you become someone like Donald Trump...your boss would pay for your room fee. You should stay at days inn and work harder and save money and never travel.

I disagree but just wondering , are most Marriott Gold or Plat above members travel for business mostly?

Are many people here pay for your room fee and travel for pleasure ?

Are most American company allow their employee to stay at FS Marriott or Sheraton?

Mr. Vker

I am about 50/50 business pleasure. I pay and work reimburses me. We have to book the hotel through Concur, but we can pick the individual hotel as long as it fits pricing guidelines. Most of the time its CY, SHS etc. for work. Marriotts sometimes.

northernstar84

just pleasure all around the world.

MSPeconomist

CPRich

I'm quite confident that a vast majority of annually-earned elite status is from business travelers.

The FT ratio is not representative.

Yes, various companies allow employees to stay at various brands - there is no one answer.

caimaster

It's pretty crazy to think someone will stay 50 or 60 nights at hotels in a course of a year for pleasure. That's a lot in my opinion.

kennycrudup

... guess I'm late for a straitjacket ....

But to the OP, it's so obvious most of FT is people traveling on business (which I have no problem with, more power to 'em- but the sense of entitlement is a little hard to take sometimes when its OPM).

yeunganson

I normally have it 60% pleasure and 40% business. There was two years that I was transitioning between jobs and it was 100% pleasure to hit the 50 nights. Luckily, cash & points and free nights counted as well as two rooms on some trips so it was doable.

supatight80

Not really..Almost all of my spg friends (myself included) stay at least 100 nights a year for the last 5-10-15 years and all on leisure, paid by ourselves stays.

And quite a number of us are only in our mid 30's

kaizen7

lougord99

OP's assumption is that business travel is not paid for by the individual staying at the hotel. My hotel stays are 95% business and 100% paid for by me.

damon88

C17PSGR

For many of us, its a mix.

Different companies have different contracts/travel policies. I have a couple of friends whose employers have contracts for them to stay at Hilton Garden Inn or Hampton Inns. For me, I can stay where I want but I don't see much difference in rates between a full service property (Marriott/Renn/Westin/W/Sheraton) vs a Courtyard so I stay in the full service properties in major cities but in the other properties in non-major cities. It may also depend on your position in the company on what type of hotel you can stay in.

Personally, from traveling a lot, there is value in having status but ... I wouldn't spend time or money traveling, to have status with a hotel chain. It's more a matter that I'm traveling 125-150 nights a year between work and personal so I should maximize the benefit of that.

andeluxe

CCIE_Flyer

I certainly agree with you in the more extreme cases. But bear in mind that many of us who travel on business have carte blanche when it comes to where we stay (typically within a certain range, albeit). Sometimes I can get my clients to reimburse my travel directly, dollar-for-dollar. Other times they don't want to see those kind of expenses being invoices, so I build it into my rate that I charge them. Either way, point being that while it may be OPM, the individual traveler often still has a choice as to where they hang their hat, and they expect their loyalty to be rewarded.