I’m taking a business trip next week, and a couple of new guys from the office are going with me - both of them asked if they had to share a room.
At my company we don’t share rooms, and I’m not sure I would want to go on any trips if it was required to share a room. I like my coworkers well enough, but not so much that I want to see them in their pajamas, or hear them snore, or subject them to my grumpy self first thing in the morning…
So how about where you work? Is it normal to share a room on a business trip (barring an emergency or room shortage)?
GRUMBLES
I hate sharing hotel rooms. And it really irks me that I have to. Now, if it was across the board, I’d grin and bear it. We’re a nfp so we have to save money.
But the higher-ups don’t have to share! Only us peons. Talk about a fucking double-standard.
Obviously I feel strongly on this issue.
I had to when I went to a class out of town. They made us bunk four to an apartment, and we had two girls to a room. It kinda sucked.
So…my brother in law went down to N.O. to help with the Katrina aftermath. They made them share rooms. His solution (and I swear this is true) was to pitch a tent on the floor of his hotel room. A little hotel within a hotel. I’m still laughing every time I conjur up a visual on this.
Never in a million years. If they asked me to, I just wouldn’t go.
My brother in law works for a company that makes their people travel. A couple years back, two of them volunteered to share a room. The company’s response: “Thanks a lot for sharing that room, guys. It could save us a lot of money. From now on, everybody has to do it.” Needless to say, the popularity of those two has dropped.
If they make you share, I’d offer to pay the difference between a single and double.
That’s offered as an option at my company, where folks have been expected to share. I would require a separate room and wouldn’t have a problem paying for it.
I would absolutely not share a hotel room with a co-worker, and I would absolutely not spend my own money for a separate room. What I *would * do is go find another job, post haste.
However, there is a convention everyone in my department attends every year where the hotel rooms book up early. This past year one of my co-workers decided to attend last minute and simply could not find a room.
I get along with her pretty well and in fact we’ve gone out socially a couple of times. So I offered to have my room switched to a double and she offered to drive us out there.
It worked out really well considering I usually am the kind of person that likes my alone time. I’d do it again in a similar situation, but it’s still my preference (and expectation) to have my own room on business trips.
I had to do it once when I was in my early 20s, and ever since then I’ve refused to. It actually hasn’t come up very often - the one time it did, I simply called and reserved another room and the company didn’t say a thing.
Room sharing is only required for the new hire training for our recent college graduate new hires. (I guess they figure they’re used to sharing?) After that, you get your own room, unless you’re married or specifically request to share.
I wouldn’t share a room, either. I value privacy, and I’m distrustful of cow-orkers. I too would refuse to travel under those conditions. I’ve refused travel before, but for different reasons.
Required to share a room? HELL no. Not on a regular business trip. We used to be required to share if we were travelling for the sole purpose of attending company-funded training, which was a) for our benefit, and b) not billable to anyone. I had a lot less angst over that. On a regular trip? No way.
A friend of mine once had her supervisor attempt to insist that she share a room with a colleague when attending a conference. A male colleague. Needless to say, that did not fly! (and no, the supervisor was not joking! :wally:).
Colleagues of mine (both female) once did share a room on a business trip - voluntarily; they couldn’t get a hotel room that came in under the government hotel allowance (travelling for government clients), they were “stuck” for accommodations, and though they could have gone over the allowance and jumped through some hoops to get reimburse, it would have meant a lot of paperwork. Since they were good friends, they shared.
I guess I’m in the minority here. We share hotel rooms and no one seems to mind. We’ve even gotten out the cots to put more people to a room. I offered once to bunk with a male co-worker (I’m female). Nothing hinky involved, just sleeping. The girl I roomed with in Vegas last year was a bit shy so after I told her that I planned on sleeping in the nude I gave her a minute to compose herself, told her I was joking, and let her know that I’d give her as much privacy as she needed and we never had a problem.
I don’t have the sort of job where one normally goes on business trips, but if I did, I wouldn’t have a problem with sharing, unless I absolutely hated the co-worker concerned. It seems like the sensible and efficient thing to do.
I had to share a room at a work do a few years ago. Turns out they had put me in with two hot twenty-something chickadees. I didn’t make a fuss - I wanted to save the company money. :dubious:
Hmm, I see that most doper ladies seem to value their modesty too much. Since I’m a male and there are already nubile pictures of me floating around the internet, I’d have no trouble. Heck, I’m in pretty good shape, so I might as well flaunt it while I still got it.
Oh yeah. I’ve worked for a very large company for the last 13 years or so, and they have a policy of room sharing. And yes, I have to travel a few times a year.
Room sharing is a HUGE problem for me, for many of the reasons mentioned already. For chrissake, this isn’t a bleeping slumber party! Plus, I have chronic insomnia, so I normally stay up all night reading or watching TV or both (and reading the Dope, of course!); having a roommate would mean I’d have to keep the lights and TV off and lay in the dark declining Russian nouns for entertainment. Not gon’ do that.
The alternative is for me to pay the difference between the cost of the shared room vs. the private room. This really hacks me off - why should I have to cough up my own money for the “privilege” of spending a week of my life at the stupid sales conference??? I’d be dreading this trip even if I didn’t have the room-sharing dilemma . . . a week in Las Vegas (in August) with 15,000 sales people = hell. Room-sharing for a week in Las Vegas at the sales conference = hell with Fred Phelps heckling on the side.
I could also decline to attend, but that would be a career-(and therefore income-)damaging move.
I just got another reminder email to register (ooh, and pick my roommate!) so I need to figure out what the heck to do soon. Sigh.
