Snuggs

Maybe. I've personally known three people in very similar circumstances. none of them involving more than $500, and each lost their very well paid and cushy jobs, along with their pension, the sort I can only dream about having.

scubaccr

Really need make distinction between employee looking for unetical self enrichment at employers expense, versus employee being compensated for being more than slightly inconvenienced by some hotel/airline issue where the compensation "in kind (not cash)" is morally due the employee for the inconvenience.
Taken to the extreme, if ones employing company is only beneficiary of hotel/airline attempt to make things right, employee might just as well refuse the offered compensation.

All the companies I have worked have been strict on personal ethics, even if not strictly by law actually a fraud, if ethically unsound/wrong, you are out the door, no references etc
Problem is any self enrichment at expense of the company is not ethical, often borders on fraud , and in some companies unethical behaviour is an automatic sacking.
This also would eg include use of cashback websites for booking hotels, though usually hotel corp rates are non-comiisionable so can't accrue cashback.

Say IHG/Hilton/MR hotel walk you as an elite. Usually means
i)Hotel then refunds you the first nights room cost
ii)Hotel puts you in other hotel and pays that first night
iii)If refund to personal (not corp card) company wil be unaware
iv)no receipt from other hotel as first hotel paid it. Even truer if mandatory corp card is not charged
1. Net result, first night is free to you, but should not be charged to your company, ethically unsound to do so, could be fraud and worse lose you your job
2. As last person to arrive at 2200-0100 is you, you reach alternate hotel room at 2-3am but get up at 7am. You are the one incovemienced so believe compensation is due tou the employee, not your employing company who was paying for that number of nights anyway
.... i)In this case, ask first booked hotel to pay refund with points for first night (not cash).
.....ii)is (i) above still ethically sound ? As you enrich yourself at your companies expense. However this is the morally/ethically acceptable course for ones managers who sign ones expenses off

Larger issues regards the fraud , non ethical scenarios, where traveller is allowed to book themselves (no corp travel agency to use) and has max hotel rate for country+city pairing and chooses
a)book most costly even if not nearest convenient hotel to client location purely as more $$$/night means more hotel loyalty points accrue (really adds up over a year/lifetime )
b)book a bonus points rate (eg IHG rates) and argue still costs my company less than colleague staying in costlier HH/MR hotel.
(Sorry above still stiffs employer for extra usd10-20/night to self enrich you, whereas usd10-20 on different hotel whilst costing employer $$$ does not self enrich one)

.However I like most employees/managers/companies have no issues with employee booking HH/MR/Hyatt if closely comparable cost as have Elite status and free lounge/breakfast with one chain/alliance vesrus another.
I encouraged employees to choose a chain eg HH/MR and book that hotel to get elite perks, gym+pool even, though maybe slightly costlier on average as they are away from family+home+friends on company business each night on the road.
However I would never signoff employees without questioning why they max out allowed hotel rate, meals most nights away. Such company allowed rate figures are set maximum rates for when hotels are eg approaching high occupancy, and not for booking upto limit in a 5* versus 4* in quiet cheaper periods/times

Regards flights, some companies are well aware of voluntary downgrade tricks to enrich employees, and as well as booking invoice receipts require boarding passes t.oo. That prevents employee charging employer based on J invoices and travelling Y with a refund (VDB or other downgrade methods).

Most I.T. companies I flew for required both BPasses + Receipts for my expense claims, as they need to ensure only actually incurred costs are passed onto our clients. Same with hotels, checkout receipts (not booking invoices, CC Bills) needed to show hotel was actually used. and eg UK->/Europe/USA flights, never an issue anyone booking slightly costlier OW/*A/Skyteam flights to get lounge access, in recognition if flying in ones unpaid personal time.

Colin

JapanFlyerT

Often1

People who are willing to lift $100 are the ones who will do something much worse. Who needs those people representing the company whilst traveling?

Pay what it takes, get rid of them and replace them with people who want the job.

Colin

yeah, because it's exactly like stealing a $100 bill from the petty cash drawer.

i'm with Badenoch, at 4% unemployment, screw the miserable skinflint.

it takes the mindset of a union cog to think in such binary ways about human capital.

employers look at the total value proposition.
it's why companies don't fire talent for coming in 15 minutes late too.

jrpallante

The employee is the one who personally suffered from the poor service/experience/etc., so she should be the sole "beneficiary" of any refund or other compensation. Suppose the employee had encountered bed bugs at the hotel? The client/employer did not suffer from those bites, so they should not be unjustly enriched by this unfortunate situation. I can think of dozens of analogies. Your flight is delayed 6 hours, and the airline throws you a bone in the form of a $100 voucher. Should you give that voucher to your employer? Of course not! She is not the one who had to sit in the airport for 6 hours. When one of my employees suffers a miserable travel experience, I actually empathize with them. I might even toss in a bottle of wine, or perhaps some of my own points/miles for their personal use. It would never occur to me to ask "did you get some compensation for your wretched experience? Gimme gimme gimme!" Fortunately, I have been the boss for 25+ years, and prior to that I never worked for a really bad boss. Sadly, there are many bad bosses out there who think they should personally benefit from their employees' misfortunes. Inhuman...look it up.

cfo314

I posted a similar question several years ago relating to EC261 compensation. TL;DR - I kept the money.

Is this an ethical question or non-issue?

mikeschemm

It is not as black and white as many seem to think. So something bad happens to YOU. The hotels fault. Your employer gets rewarded for something bad happening to you? That is crazy.

Fabo.sk

I struggle to think why my company should be benefiting from my personal inconvenience if I am compensated for that.

I mean, if the only room available in the hotel when I arrive at midnight is noisy for reasons of e.g. faulty ventilation, I am the one who is personally inconvenienced by that, I am the one who couldn't get enough sleep and then (let's say) has to get up next day at 6 without properly sleeping to go to the airport to travel on. My company has benefited none from this, and neither has the client, if the trip is client billable. Similarly, if the trip is in business class according to travel policy, and I accept a voluntary downgrade, it's on me to make sure I am still able to work to 100% level after arrival (presuming that the travel policy is there to maintain productivity after long travel). Why the company should benefit from the 75% refund... it's not like they're gonna tell me not to bother showing up at clients first day then.
And if there is any impact on productivity, that's another story, but again, what difference does it make to the employer if that is because I accepted a downgrade or just went drinking of my own volition the night before.

Of course, if I was personally compensated for an expense I incurred I otherwise wouldn't, then that's a different thing - let's say that I had booked on a hotel rate with dinner, but dinner was never provided - instead I was given cash equivalent - that should go to the employer to offset the expense of the dinner I will claim on corporate card from other restaurants.

At the same time I understand that one should not actively seek out situations as outlined for personal benefit, i.e. book myself into a suite and then ask for a downgrade and pocket the difference. If the employer puts me up in the suite, it's probably for a reason. The argument I get for not claiming on commercial gestures from suppliers for reasons of creating tax issues, I understand, and I would grudginly agree to lower my claim as per any such refund received, but I will not agree that this is ethical. After all, my employer, or the client, as case may be, has received the services charged for. To them, it makes little difference if paying $10,000 for consultancy, or $5,000 for consultancy + $4,000 for flight + $1,000 for hotel. but I was supposed to consume the service of a hotel night in quality advertised, and was unable to do so.

MSPeconomist

Often1

Then you change the policy.

Plenty of places pay for F, top hotels, and room service for top performers. Or they don't, but they pay significant bonuses.

The question raised here is what happens when the policy is rigid and you self-justify the pilferage.

thesaints

Should one deduct from the travel expenses amount the cash back from the CC used to pay them ?

I don't think so and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. By the same token, discounts/refunds/rebates/compensations obtained by the traveller are not to be deducted from the expense refund amount.

By the way, Federal regulations allow the traveller to keep any refund personally obtained during the trip, as long as business is conducted as planned.

Badenoch

Pilferage? LOL.

The employee in the OP's scenario answered a questionnaire and received a benefit for doing so because he was unsatisfied. The benefit is on his personal card. There is no mention of "policy" in the original post. In the absence of a policy, what is not specifically forbidden is approved. In this situation, only an obsequious, forelock-tugging toady would rush to his employer offering him the benefit.

FlyingHighlander

I was actually transparent and cleared it with my manager. It was also done during a time of an expenses freeze - I was instructed to put it on a personal card then expense it a few months later. That I got a statement credit is none of my employer business (although as I said, I told my boss anyway and they were fine). I paid $550 AF to qualify for that statement credit.