Has your employer ever forced you to share a hotel room?
Apr 13, 2007, 10:33 am
#181
Suspended
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Seattle
Programs: Ephesians 4:31-32
Posts: 10,690
You sure jump to a lot of faulty conclusions, robb.
First the couple isn't married which is none of my business; second, it was the couple who suggested that we bring the intern along for the experience. Third, they are all three very good friends who really enjoy one another's company both on and off the clock; and, fourth, the original suite had a completely private bedroom and living room area at the HGVC.
We are a small company where everyone gets along with each other very well, and that probably makes a huge difference.
You are absolutely right that I would not have incurred the expense of taking the intern along if the three of them had not come up with a cost-effective way to make that happen.
As it happened it all worked out beautifully to everyon'e satisfaction.
First the couple isn't married which is none of my business; second, it was the couple who suggested that we bring the intern along for the experience. Third, they are all three very good friends who really enjoy one another's company both on and off the clock; and, fourth, the original suite had a completely private bedroom and living room area at the HGVC.
We are a small company where everyone gets along with each other very well, and that probably makes a huge difference.
You are absolutely right that I would not have incurred the expense of taking the intern along if the three of them had not come up with a cost-effective way to make that happen.
As it happened it all worked out beautifully to everyon'e satisfaction.
Apr 13, 2007, 2:28 pm
#182
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: BWI
Programs: SPG Plat
Posts: 105
Sharing rooms for the odd conference here and there is one thing. I could handle a few days here and there. But for those who travel 100% for their jobs and log 100+ nights a year in hotels a year(like me), I would go absolutely crazy if I had to share a room. There is nothing I look forward to more than retreating to my hotel room at the end of the day for some peace and privacy, just as I would if I was at home. If I didn't even have that to look forward to, I would probably be the most miserable man ever and would quickly be looking for a new line of work.
Apr 13, 2007, 3:12 pm
#183
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: SJC
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 3,686
I've never shared a bedroom.
I've had a bedroom in a 2 bedroom suite before (in Kuala Lumpur, it used to be cheaper than 2 single rooms, and we didn't mind since we got a ginormous living room with floor to cieling windows and a view of the Petronas Towers), and stayed in a two bedroom flat we kept in London.
Most companies these days I know won't risk the legal ramifications of anything else.
Steve
I've had a bedroom in a 2 bedroom suite before (in Kuala Lumpur, it used to be cheaper than 2 single rooms, and we didn't mind since we got a ginormous living room with floor to cieling windows and a view of the Petronas Towers), and stayed in a two bedroom flat we kept in London.
Most companies these days I know won't risk the legal ramifications of anything else.
Steve
Apr 13, 2007, 6:27 pm
#184
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Join Date: May 1998
Location: Seattle
Programs: Ephesians 4:31-32
Posts: 10,690
You are right, SixString. If you are traveling for serious work, and pushing hard all day long on the road, you do need peaceful down time.
Nowdays, our son is the one who does most of the really hard travel for our company and he always has his own room on the road (unless his girlfriend, who also works for us, joins him on the road).
Hunki and I, who have worked together for 22 years and still do some hard travel, always share a room.
All the rest of the "work" travel in our company is really mostly for fun.
Nowdays, our son is the one who does most of the really hard travel for our company and he always has his own room on the road (unless his girlfriend, who also works for us, joins him on the road).
Hunki and I, who have worked together for 22 years and still do some hard travel, always share a room.
All the rest of the "work" travel in our company is really mostly for fun.
Apr 15, 2007, 10:10 am
#185
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: LIT
Programs: AA Plat, Marriott Plat
Posts: 169
i dont mind sharing.... but not sharing living space!
My career requires me to travel 95% of the time - usually staying in hotel rooms although right now I'm on a project in Clearwater, Fl for a few months so I got an apartment instead (company paid of course ). I would never share a hotel room, as that is my one place of solitude while on the road. You work with these people for 8 - 14 hours a day... you don't want to live with them as well. My consultancy firm has never required us to share hotel rooms - if they did, 90% of the consultants would leave. Our management is pretty cool and consultants themselves, so I doubt they would ever ask us to do that.
My colleagues and I were staying in a Mariott at the beginning of this current project and were discussing getting apartments but we didn't think that would be able to find any within our accommodations budget. Initially we thought that if we were going to get apartments that we’d have to share 2 bedrooms apartments with one other. If that was going to be the case, I said I’d just stay at the hotel instead. We had a few drinks while discussing…(and if you know me at all, you know that I’m very laid back, have a dry sense of humor and and that I love to be a smart@ss. Lol)… and I said “if I’m going to be sharing a bathroom and kitchen with someone, that person better be having sex with me!”.
Haha. Of course, my point was that I'd only want to share living space with a significant other. Now, that’s the running joke of the project. Everytime I mention something about us going back to my apartment to do some work, one of them will say “Wait a second Michael… what if we need to step into the kitchen or the restroom?? 
”. Haha! Of course, then I just respond with “Well, you know the rules…”.
- Mike
). I would never share a hotel room, as that is my one place of solitude while on the road. You work with these people for 8 - 14 hours a day... you don't want to live with them as well. My consultancy firm has never required us to share hotel rooms - if they did, 90% of the consultants would leave. Our management is pretty cool and consultants themselves, so I doubt they would ever ask us to do that. My colleagues and I were staying in a Mariott at the beginning of this current project and were discussing getting apartments but we didn't think that would be able to find any within our accommodations budget. Initially we thought that if we were going to get apartments that we’d have to share 2 bedrooms apartments with one other. If that was going to be the case, I said I’d just stay at the hotel instead. We had a few drinks while discussing…(and if you know me at all, you know that I’m very laid back, have a dry sense of humor and and that I love to be a smart@ss. Lol)… and I said “if I’m going to be sharing a bathroom and kitchen with someone, that person better be having sex with me!”.
Haha. Of course, my point was that I'd only want to share living space with a significant other. Now, that’s the running joke of the project. Everytime I mention something about us going back to my apartment to do some work, one of them will say “Wait a second Michael… what if we need to step into the kitchen or the restroom?? ”. Haha! Of course, then I just respond with “Well, you know the rules…”. - Mike
Apr 15, 2007, 10:53 am
#186
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 915
While working for a Fortune Top-10 running as an instructor I had to deliver some really bad news to a student in an employee development class.
I and the co-instructor rated single rooms but the students were "doubled-up" (needless to say of same gender).
One guy wanted to live alone and said he certainly was amenable to paying the 50% rate each night.
I had to tell him that while he certainly was permitted to pay the extra freight he would also have to pay it for the former roomate who was now, (involuntarily) was now being relegated to a single room.
Same policy at recognition events for top performers -- part of the "recognition" was loss of privacy.
(Allowable exceptions for reasons having to do with health/physical condition and if there was an odd number of attendees.)
Other than those circumstances (or unforseen ones) it was a single-room practice; choose your own hotel among the many the company had negotiated rates with or which were available via Amex Corporate Travel which arranged all travel arrangements.
I and the co-instructor rated single rooms but the students were "doubled-up" (needless to say of same gender).
One guy wanted to live alone and said he certainly was amenable to paying the 50% rate each night.
I had to tell him that while he certainly was permitted to pay the extra freight he would also have to pay it for the former roomate who was now, (involuntarily) was now being relegated to a single room.
Same policy at recognition events for top performers -- part of the "recognition" was loss of privacy.
(Allowable exceptions for reasons having to do with health/physical condition and if there was an odd number of attendees.)
Other than those circumstances (or unforseen ones) it was a single-room practice; choose your own hotel among the many the company had negotiated rates with or which were available via Amex Corporate Travel which arranged all travel arrangements.
Apr 16, 2007, 5:02 pm
#187
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Boston environs
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 559
...
One guy wanted to live alone and said he certainly was amenable to paying the 50% rate each night.
I had to tell him that while he certainly was permitted to pay the extra freight he would also have to pay it for the former roommate who was now, (involuntarily) was now being relegated to a single room.
...
One guy wanted to live alone and said he certainly was amenable to paying the 50% rate each night.
I had to tell him that while he certainly was permitted to pay the extra freight he would also have to pay it for the former roommate who was now, (involuntarily) was now being relegated to a single room.
...
he was staying with her instead, for example...are you saying that anyone
who opted out of the company-provided housing had to pay for what they
would have used?? The "other 50%" is just to make the bookkeeping
simpler for the company, i.e. a dummy employee. It's really the person
opting to rent their own accommodations.
--LG
Apr 16, 2007, 7:57 pm
#188
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 915
But that doesn't even make sense...suppose his cousin lived in town and
he was staying with her instead, for example...are you saying that anyone
who opted out of the company-provided housing had to pay for what they
would have used?? The "other 50%" is just to make the bookkeeping
simpler for the company, i.e. a dummy employee. It's really the person
opting to rent their own accommodations.
--LG
he was staying with her instead, for example...are you saying that anyone
who opted out of the company-provided housing had to pay for what they
would have used?? The "other 50%" is just to make the bookkeeping
simpler for the company, i.e. a dummy employee. It's really the person
opting to rent their own accommodations.
--LG
In that case there's no charge - the company expects to pay for two in the room and will. If one party chooses not to sleep their, that's their business but they're not incurring extra expense for the company.
But you're right, in actual practice they are renting their own accomodations.
But when they do so it isn't a matter of simply paying 50% more and getting a private room.
In the situation I was describing the employee who doesn't want to double up is in effect, not accepting what the company is providing -- their half of the 2 person accomodation. So, although there's no out-of-pocket expense to them for doing so, they're still, in effect, "paying" (with their half of the lodging expense being provided to them) for one-half of the other party's now-private accomodations.
They're also Incurring a full (100%) charge for the private room they intend to occupy.
It's not simply a matter of "I'll pay the 50% so I can have a private room."
BTW, had it been up to me, everyone would have had a private room -- I think it is inherently unfair to force employees to involuntarily surrender their personal privacy as an expense saver.
If a company cannot find another way to do it, then let them meet via video conferencing.
Apr 16, 2007, 8:36 pm
#189
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: DEN
Programs: UA 1MM, Delta Plat
Posts: 11,224
I was an overseas work assignment for a year, and I had to share a room with a smokin hot blonde. I also had this kid in the next room that was always calling me "daddy" and asking for money. 
I also had this kid in the next room that was always calling me "daddy" and asking for money.
Apr 16, 2007, 8:45 pm
#190
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: LIT
Programs: AA Plat, Marriott Plat
Posts: 169
Apr 16, 2007, 9:16 pm
#192
Join Date: Dec 2002
Programs: SQ Krisflyer Gold, BA, CO, Amex
Posts: 65
This is the God's honest truth:
We had just moved on an expat assignment to Singapore and after a couple of weeks, my spouse had to attend the company's annual Asian conference. It was held at the Sheraton resort in Phuket.
Just for one night of the trip the hotel was fully booked and my spouse was asked to share a 2 bedroomed suite with another English guy based at the Hong Kong office. He wasn't keen on the idea as this guy - head of audit worldwide for the MNC - had a bit of a reputation for a debauched lifestyle, but due to the overbooked hotel there wasn't much of an alternative.
My husband knew it was ominous when he was warned that it "might get a bit noisy in my room during the night". The shameless guy had found a hooker and brought her back to his room for the night! (yes it was noisy, apparently).
Well - eventually this guy - I think he was in his late 40s or early 50s - got himself into a really bad situation. He was on a business trip to NYC and checked into an hotel. A few hours later the police were called up to the room; the guy was dead (the official reason given was a 'heart attack') but his 'guests' were a couple of transvestite hookers and one of them had had to call the emergency services when he collapsed. He also had in his possession a substantial amount of $ and large quantity of cocaine.
The company quickly covered it up before the press got hold of the story and as the guy's poor wife was at the time living in London I often wonder if she was ever told the full truth. Of course a few weeks later there was a glowing obituary about him in the company magazine....
A few years later someone who had left the company did write an account of how this guy died and how the company covered it up (we knew as a mutual friend attended his funeral) but I honestly can't recall whether or not he was named by the author and I don't think it's appropriate to give his name on this thread.
We had just moved on an expat assignment to Singapore and after a couple of weeks, my spouse had to attend the company's annual Asian conference. It was held at the Sheraton resort in Phuket.
Just for one night of the trip the hotel was fully booked and my spouse was asked to share a 2 bedroomed suite with another English guy based at the Hong Kong office. He wasn't keen on the idea as this guy - head of audit worldwide for the MNC - had a bit of a reputation for a debauched lifestyle, but due to the overbooked hotel there wasn't much of an alternative.
My husband knew it was ominous when he was warned that it "might get a bit noisy in my room during the night". The shameless guy had found a hooker and brought her back to his room for the night! (yes it was noisy, apparently).
Well - eventually this guy - I think he was in his late 40s or early 50s - got himself into a really bad situation. He was on a business trip to NYC and checked into an hotel. A few hours later the police were called up to the room; the guy was dead (the official reason given was a 'heart attack') but his 'guests' were a couple of transvestite hookers and one of them had had to call the emergency services when he collapsed. He also had in his possession a substantial amount of $ and large quantity of cocaine.
The company quickly covered it up before the press got hold of the story and as the guy's poor wife was at the time living in London I often wonder if she was ever told the full truth. Of course a few weeks later there was a glowing obituary about him in the company magazine....
A few years later someone who had left the company did write an account of how this guy died and how the company covered it up (we knew as a mutual friend attended his funeral) but I honestly can't recall whether or not he was named by the author and I don't think it's appropriate to give his name on this thread.
May 29, 2007, 9:15 pm
#194
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SFO/SEA
Programs: Amex Biz Cent, Marriott LTP, Avis PC, Hilton Owners Diamond, AS MVP
Posts: 3,380
I have to share a room at training for my summer internship. No biggie, I don't even think there's enough rooms at this particular resort for everybody to have their own (it's a national training program for every intern at this company).
May 30, 2007, 9:02 am
#195
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Bronze; HHonors; ClubCarlson
Posts: 173
I'm really surprised that so many companies (mainly in the US it seems) expect employees to share. In the UK I've worked in Government service & the public sector and have done extensive travelling. I have never been expected to share and have never ever heard of any colleagues being expected to share. It simply is not something which would be expected or accepted.