ohmark

The point is that neither you, nor the above poster knows. Yet the OP is subjected to a personal attack that is uncalled for regardless of whether he made the right choice or not.

dayone

I didn't "attack" anybody. I believe it’s fair to ask the question, challenge the logic and present a more "rational" alternative. I don't care about how the point was made. Most of us have thick skins. Let's focus on the issue of $75 for parking. Is it reasonable? Have you ever submitted such an expense? What would your boss say?

I guess my point is accountability. Most of the time, I try to travel as if I'm paying the bills. I fail once in a great while, usually when I'm hit with something way out of the ordinary. But I’ve been traveling a long time and I've been robbed, cheated, towed, wrecked and a few other things I won't admit to but none of those things ever hit my expense report.

ohmark

1. I didn't say you did. My comment was as to the poster who launched the personal assault. I don't view your posts as personal assaults; they are reasonable posts explaining your position.

2. You may not care how the point was made, but bullying personal attacks of the sort above (not your posts) have no place here, in my opinion.

3. Once more, whether $75 is reasonable for parking at three different areas in a parking challenged city depends upon the circumstances and the alternatives. Since neither you, nor I, nor the poster who launched the attack are aware of the circumstances it is impossible to determine whether or not the decision to pay for parking rather than some alternative was reasonable.

ondeadlin

My company, a mid-size business for which I travel between six and a dozen times a year, would pay for such an expense without blinking an eye. Why? Because they trust me. My boss knows I have a history of coming in under budgeted travel expenses, so I've never been called on any expense, including ones much larger than a $75 parking total.

I'm my business, we're often forced to travel last minute. Just this week we saw airfares jump $300 in a matter of days in a trip we knew we'd probably have to take, but couldn't lock in until the last minute. That's simply a cost of business and it happens all the time.

And, as has been repeatedly and correctly stated on this thread, you can't know the circumstances, which is why the personal attack was crass and uncalled for.

rbedgood

Assuming each of the three parking locations were approx equal at $25, poster would have had min $25 parking for the day. We don't know his actual locations and the possibility or convenience of public transport/cabs. That being said, yes he could have saved some $$$ by leaving the car and cabbing his way to the conf and the mtg. However my experience is that the cab fare would be minimum of $20. So maybe he could have saved $10-15 by leaving the car. Maybe he actually saved you some TAX dollars by not leaving the car.

Personally I expect every post I place to get flamed (lowers the disappointment and emotion levels when it happens) . So to complain about an attack in a public forum is kinda a waste of energy. If you get a compliment on some posts its a bonus...if your post gets ignored hey not to bad. If you get flamed and already expect it...ahh oh well.

btw...I don't mind if they continue to charge for HSIA but I enjoy staying at FS marriotts when possible. If they include HSIA and don't increase prices then fine, but if they increase the price many of them will slide just above my allowed hotel expenses and acctg is a b**** about each expensable line items not going over alloted amounts...(i.e. dinner not to exceed $25 unless entertaining clients...doesn't matter if I skipped lunch.) by having the HSIA on a separate line item on the report it doesn't show as part of my hotel expenses. Heck include it as a tax on the hotel bill and I wouldn't care, just not in the room rate.

Happy travels...

uibd

Wow, I didn't know that my post caused such a stir. I'll be the first to admit that $75 bucks is a lot to spend on parking. There were many issues that led to it happening. Regardless, it had to be done to get what needed to be accomplished, accomplished. Public transportation was not an option due to time restraints and locations. The other option would have been a cab which would have not been a lot cheaper. Also, I only annotated places that I paid for parking, not all places I had to visit that provided parking.

Gizmos

Back OT does anyone know a decent website that shows you hotels with Wi-Fi (free or not). I'm on about independents as well as chains - specifically I have been looking for hotels on the barrier islands off Florida (Longboat, Siesta, Lido) for a holiday but need internet access and refuse to go back to dial up.

u600213

I'm an SBC Yahoo DSL subscriber and for $1.99 per month you can add SBC Freedomlink WiFi to your DSL account.
At the Ren. Arbouretum in Austin TX. I use it all the time and the signal is as strong as the STSN/iBahn if you get a room on the side of the hotel facing the SBC office building across the parking lot.

Courtyard Beverly Hills CA amd Marriott Downtown LA actually have it right in the building, and many more.

location finder:
http://olfsbc.pctel.com/OnlineLocationFinder

You can search a state by hotels but you will miss some that are not in the hotel intentionally but within the range.