ohmark

How about if somebody worked for a branch of the government that is involved in direct regulation of some part of Marriott's business? How about if that person is directly involved in making some sort of arguably significant decision involving Marriott? How about if that person is staying at a Marriott at a government rate while making the decision? Maybe it would still be okay to stay at the Marriott at the government rate, but a careful government traveler might decide to seek an opinion before doing such or might, as I did, decide to stay at a different, non-Marriott hotel.

ChrisJC5

Seems to me that it's a stretch of someone's imagination that might see goblins around every Federal employee corner. Perhaps one should also be concerned about discounts offered to our armed forces -- at ballgames, movie theatres, or leisure travel!

ChrisJC5

How about not letting potential, unsound perceptions get in the way of your thought process and that you exercise sound judgment? I mean, as a retired Federal employee, with my share of tricky ethical issues over my career, I find this line of thinking of finding potential fault with a relatively benign issue to be a figment of imagination more than a "problem." To each his own, but I think that people who engage in this type of thought process over potential (and in my view imaginary) ethical issues can be so risk adverse that it sometimes impedes efficiency in the federal service.

Look, even if you were the contracting officer for some contract that Marriott had some involvement, I don't even think then that your leisure travel with lodging at Marriott (at the Government rate afforded to every Federal employee) should raise any ethical issue, but to each his own. And if you "regulated" Marriott (though I can't imagine what that regulation might be unless perhaps you were auditing or examining Marriott's records or compliance with some Federal law or rule), again I don't think your leisure travel with lodging at Marriott (at the Government rate afforded to every Federal employee) should raise an ethical issue, but to each his own. As for me, I would never raise this as an ethics issue with my colleagues, supervisors, or Ethics Office -- we had too many other real issues to resolve.

But to each his own and good luck in your career!

Often1

Whether you can accept a discount or other gift will be determined by federal law and agency rules. Marriott is free to offer and unless you work for some agency which has some reason to prohibit it, you may accept the discount.

By way of example, you may have read of the GSA event planners who accepted freebie suite upgrades at a conference where they had a say in selecting the property as well as other event expenses.

The point is that unless you have some specific prohibition, you are not prohibited. Agency ethics officers exist to walk people through this stuff.

ohmark

Thanks for your "insight." I decline your bait. Enjoy your retirement.

VickiSoCal

Which was offered to them specifically on a quid prop quo basis.

If that hotel offered free suite upgrades to every fed employee who walks in the door, then they are free to take it. Clearly they didn't.

tom_MN

Absolutely, there is a huge Marriott following among federal employees. There are not enough rural Marriotts for it to be my go-to brand.

PHLGovFlyer

Absolutely my friend, and the OGE letter nicely covers those situations...

http://www.oge.gov/DisplayTemplates/...ub.aspx?id=921

hnewman

Back to the original topic anyone have any suggestions for a contractor on what to do to get USG rates when COR says the receipt not the bill to the USG must be within USG per diem. This is getting way to difficult.

VickiSoCal

Try calling the sales manager for the hotel with number of people on contract and number of nights they will be losing.

SkiAdcock

I was just going to say how about getting back to the original topic

Cheers

MSPeconomist

This fall, one of our local mall chain clothing stores was offering discounts with teacher IDs, IIRC 30% during the back to school shopping period.

SkiAdcock

Neither your nor Vicki' s examples are related to Marriott and its gov't rates, so while perhaps interesting from an anecdotal point of view is irrelevant to the actual thread topic, which is is Marriott enforcing more since Oct 1. I think those on gov't rates would be more interested in anecdotal of Marriott's since Oct 1.

Cheers

sethb

I haven't seen that specific case, but it gets interesting: what if every similar property offers the same freebie suite upgrades to event planners? They should probably turn them down; what happens if they're upgraded at check-in (and not necessarily told until they arrive at the room)?

SkiAdcock

Quite frankly that's a generic topic and has more to do with meeting planning 101 than anything gov't related.

Cheers