BearX220

When we started our company and didn't have much money, we Pricelined hotel rooms on the cheap so we could each have our own, giving up hotel frequent-stayer points, rather than share. We love each other, but room-sharing is the mutual-respect line we don't cross.

Tony_B

Never, but I have required my staff to on a 'team building' event, they didn't complain. To be honest, if I had to I'd just get my own room and a new CV ready!

303george

At my fed agency, we never share rooms. In fact, I remember when a group of employees wanted to share a suite and had to jump through tons of hoops to get it approved, even though it saved the agency a ton of money.

dcpatti

That puts a different light on it... when I worked as a government contractor, we had both inclement weather situations and emergency situations that forced staff to stay overnight, sometimes for several nights. Instead of a hotel (there was a perfectly nice Sheraton right across the street and a Hilton a block away), our accomodations were the couches in the Director's and Deputy Directors' offices. There were 4 or 5 offices with couches all together and we'd take turns crashing out on the couch. I lived about 2 miles away and just started handing out my housekeys; we all took turns sleeping and showering at my house.

Kind of puts it in perspective... I guess a shared room is still better than a nap on the Executive Director's couch!

lvnvflyer

As a lawyer in a private firm, generally I travelled alone, so not an issue; but when I did travel with others, under no circumstances ever would I have considered sharing a room. If I have a deposition to take, I often will be up until the wee hours preparing, scattering documents around the room and then will be up at 5 to get ready; not conducive to sharing. Plus, I agree that there is something unbelievably creepy in having to have your personal space shared with someone you wouldn't normally share a room with (that is, a SO, family member, or close personal friend). The time in the hotel room is the only downtime one gets. I also agree that there is just too much potential for problems, whether disrupted sleep, or gossip about a roommate, or in extreme cases some type of theft or other criminal activity, to make this worthwhile. In the case of a lawyer in private practice, given hourly billing rates, I doubt clients would start to ask for the lawyers to share; the cost savings is probably less than half an hour's worth of time. For me the only exception to the no sharing rule would be in case of extreme emergency such as a blizzard stranding several people in a hotel with only limited rooms.

amy45888

at my old company, i only travelled once a month so i had to bunk up. i had a good friend in sales with me though so it was fine (i was 21-24). at my current company, i travel 3x's a week and i'm not required to share YAY!

my poor sister works for a non-profit organization. her per diem is.....$15 for the whole day. YES. she went to a trip in manhattan and her per diem was $15. i believe she only ate one meal because she hates fast food. they are not only asked to share rooms, they try to send people that have relatives in the area so they can bunk there for FREE. yes. how cheap is that? on one hand..i'm impressed, that means more charity dollars go to the charity...but i have a feeling her execs are not as stringent as my sister has to be.

dgwright99

My employer used to require it for the annual sales conf in Hawaii. As a result I never went. Cost cutting caused them to move it from Hawaii a few years back, and no more shraed rooms.

I think the point made about US companies is well made. Most Americans shared a dorm room in college.

On a couple of occasions when I have made last minute travel plans/changes I have shared a room with a friend co-worker (who already had a room)because everything above a Motel6 was booked up; but that was my choice - would rather stay in a double queen with a friend than stay at motel6 or drive 20 miles. Had to drop by a store to buy pajamas both times

Wouldn't mind sharing a 2-room suite at RI or Staybridge though; that does not seem unreasonable.

stut

Wow, really? I can't imagine this. There's an awful lot of things I did at university that I wouldn't want a room-mate around for...

ajnz

I think they're used to people expecting/wanting privacy, and were surprised anyone would even offer to do it. It's not that they minded, just... not something they'd seen before.

The rooms were about average price - $140AU/night is what I expect to pay in Melbourne for a moderate room near the client site. My colleague had arrived a day earlier and scored 2 room suite for the price of a regular room ($141); I was booked into a Holiday Inn on the other side of town for $140, facing a 20+ minute walk to work.

The other one I mentioned was the only nice hotel in a small town being inundated for a conference, $150NZ is probably on the high side there, but certainly not out of the ballpark for what I'd expect to pay for an OK room in NZ.

We watch our travel costs reasonably carefully as it runs into the hundreds of millions of euros per year; however it's stupid things like $800 MEL-SYD-MEL runs that kill you.

jfidler

I thought I'd post the Eastern European perspective (though I'm American so maybe I don't have a clear view). There's definitely a culture of "make do with what you have" which I suspect came from the Soviet times when shortages of any goods were common. Sharing appears to be quite common and no one questions it.

My girlfriend's company had a company retreat 2 weeks ago, and the company rented out this "relaxation center in the woods" (that's the literal translation from Estonian and I can't think of the word.. basically imagine going to an American summer camp where you have a few cabins and many outdoor activities). They had about 50 people and 5-10 cabins to accommodate all the people. She said that when people showed up, they just found a vacant bed and plopped down their bags. Men and women were in the same cabins; no big deal.

Keep in mind that the average Soviet-era apartment had 2-3 rooms total (plus one bathroom) for a family of 5, so room-sharing is part of the culture. Oh, and a major selling point for an apartment is if the bathroom is split so there's one room with the toilet and one with the sink/shower

Fraser

I seem to remember watching one of those Walmart behind the scenes CNBC specials and thought it was really amusing that some of the high end management interviewed were allowed to use one of the private jets but then had to share rooms at the cheapest hotels in town. It was often said they went to Red Roof Inns

FreakwentFlier

There are a few occasions that I've been asked to share a room - large meetings where there may not have been enough hotel accomodations. In those cases I've either used reward points to book a private room, offered to pay the single supplement or managed to get a "room mate" who lived near the meetings and didn't actually stay - although that's usually a friend who would be welcome to stay if it was a late night and driving was unwise. Always make sure I get two doubles in that case.


For my normal travel, it's one person - one room. Given the time on the road, private time to catch up on phone calls and email is critical. Plus I'm an early riser and most of my co-workers are late nighters so there is a small gap when both of would actually be asleep - between 0100-0400.

Cheers,
Jeff

BearX220

Yes -- most of us lived in doubles in college housing; I lived in a triple for awhile, which was a real circus -- half Feydeau farce, half Peyton Place.

The universal signal in college for leave me/us alone, BTW, is a necktie hung on the door. When you get back to your room and discover the necktie you have to go camp somewhere else for awhile.

WHBM

You never had The Oak to close, did you ? Poor chaps.

Fly4SCUBA

Same here!