Yeah, i feel pretty much the same way.
With one HUGE exception.
Snoring.
Sharing with someone who snores can ruin everything.
I travel fairly routinely for work, and I’ve only ever had to share a room with a coworker once. We got our hotel rooms so late that there weren’t enough rooms (well, not enough CHEAP rooms) for everyone to have their own. I was very new at the time. I’d never agree to it now though. Most of us can barely tolerate each other in the office as it is.
They don’t pay me enough to share a bedroom with some of the gibbering baboons I have to work with, but they certainly pay me enough to afford not to share…
I’m in a strange industry for room sharing. If we’re on a trip for meetings, it’s single rooms. If it’s training, it’s shared. If it’s an “educational” trip (hey hey, hello Calgary next week!), it’s shared.
The deal saver for me is that I’m a guy in a largely female populated office. They seem to have a problem making me share a room with a female coworker. I, of course don’t have that problem depending on the coworker 
I can’t even imagine a company wanting to take the potential risk of having coworkers share a room on a business trips. I’ve been nickled and dimed to death on expense accounts, but never asked to share a room. I’d do it only in an extreme emergency such as one room left at a hotel that we arrived at after a long flight delay…etc. That would be ONLY for one night.
It would be an absolute deal breaker for me with a company.
I’ve shared with a co-worker in order to upgrade to a “spa” hotel. It was at our request, though. We just told the manager that we’d like to share a room in a better hotel instead of two rooms at the cheapest hotel. Ah…down duvets!
Could’ve backfired if he’d said “share in the cheaper hotel” but that company didn’t work that way.
I admit I’m a little peeved about the cost of the rooms spent for two coworkers that were having an affair together. They regularly went on trips with $300-400 a night accomidations and bought two rooms. Whatever. I could have used a raise with that money.
I got conned into sharing a room with a coworker once. The person making the reservations blind-sided me with this quick, “oh-hey-we really want to send you to Rome for that conference-but the only rooms left are at the most expensive hotel-so whaddaya say you and D. share a room?”
What can I say? I was a new professional and hadn’t yet mastered the art of “I beg your pardon?” It was agony – I shared with a very nice coworker, who liked to sleep with the windows closed and the TV on … while I am one of those people who prefers a completely dark silent room with a brisk breeze from the open windows. We were both polite and tried to compromise and managed not to take it out on the other person, but it was misery all around.
When other colleagues heard about that later on, they were amazed – we don’t have any sort of sharing policy. I suspect the reservations person was trying to cover up the fact that she had waited too long to secure rooms.
Wow, I never knew so many people had such a problem with this. I shared a room so many times. Maybe it’s just that I had good roommates who didn’t snore, etc. Other than things like that, I can’t imagine being that picky.
Absolutely not. But it certainly isn’t something I’d quit my job over. That’s ridiculous. Give up my salary because I’m expected to share a room? I’d pay the difference for another room if the situation came up.
Modesty? hell no.
But I’m a morning person. My normal waking time is 5am, no alarm clock required. Sharing a room with someone who can barely drag his/her ass out of bed at 8am means 3 hours of being vewwy vewwy still while listening to their not-necessarily-soft snores.
Mom’s losing weight. One of the benefits is that we can’t hear her snores through two closed doors any more (we can hear them through one). I don’t want to share a room with her and she’s my Mom, why would I want to risk being snored out of sleep by a semi-stranger?
We had to do this at my old job. I only went on one trip, but I learned waaaay more about my supervisor than I ever wanted to know (such as, she showers/bathes once per week–yikes).
I also got the flu while we were there and she was completely unsympathetic, complaining the whole time about my lack of energy, my not wanting to do extra activities on the trip, etc. I did want to do some sightseeing, of course, but I was so sick that it wouldn’t have been any fun, and I needed to save my energy for the meetings and such that we were there for.
The icing on the cake was that I had gotten married only six weeks before and just wanted to be home with my husband.
I once spend a week sharing a room in Las Vegas with my boss. Never again. NEVER.
Thing about me is, I am very professional. I do this by drawing a good sharp line between private and personal lives. I have some medical problems and idiosyncracies that you’d ever know about working with me. However, if you live with me for a week, you’ll know. Having the office follow you all the way to bed is really shitty.
By the end of the week, my boss knew that I had a bad back, migraines, sleeping problems, and traveled with 1/2 dozen medications. She was even wigged out by the fact that I shower at night and don’t wash my (fine, dry, chemically treated) hair every day.
Had I had my own room, I would have presented myself at the begining of each day, as I did at the office. I’d have smiled and been professional right up until I returned to my hotel room. I could have cried myself to sleep alone if I needed to (trade shows can be VERY hard on the back). Instead, she saw everything, including the case of food poisoning I got from a buffet on the last day. No one’s boss should have that much personal information about them.
She never looked at me the same again, and I was fired a few weeks later.
The last conference I went to, everyone on our team shared rooms – except Chris, who got his own room 'cause he was the only guy. They didn’t make us share, we offered, but it was pretty clear that the trip would have been too expensive if we didn’t. We all get along pretty well, and a few nights spent with a cool co-worker was no big deal (we just laughed about each other’s snoring and sleep-talking).
Not exactly the same thing, but: My last company was headquartered out-of-state, and that’s where all the training took place. They had corporate apartments, and we were absolutely expected to share if an employee of our same sex was going to be there at the same time. (We could state that we didn’t mind sharing with the opposite sex, but they would never require that.) They were 2BR apartments with a living room between the bedrooms, so it wasn’t the same as sharing a room at all, but that’s the only time I’ve had to share any living space while traveling on business.
Incidentally, There are a few people in our company who opt to share rooms when they go on business trips together. I can’t imagine it. I NEVER do. Ever. Not ever. In fact, I’m on a business trip right this very minute, sitting in my hotel room replying to this post, and I’m pleasantly alone. My TV on, My music blaring from my computer, doing things I like to do. My colleague (whom I’m great friends with BTW) is in a room down the hall, doing things colleagues do when they’re down the hall on a business trip. We sat in the pub together tonight and had dinner, had a few drinks, watched the Oilers smoke Carolina in the first period of OT, and had some laughs, talked about work, home, friends and generally had a great time… then we said goodnight and went to our respective rooms. The way it should be.
I wouldn’t go if I had to share rooms.
As my mom would say, “Learn to adjust.”
Sharing rooms can keep you away from danger as well. Didn’t you guys ever see Munich?
cite? 
and no, although i am female, and have spent enough time in intensive care I could probably use the toilet in the middle of the stock exchange floor if i needed to - I snore like a freight train, i am an insomniac and strangers wake me up just moving around in bed so sharing with a stranger would be purgatorial for both of us - them not getting to sleep, and them waking me up. And I get nasty when I am sleep deprived.
no freakin’ way. I travel waaaaaay too much. It’s one thing for the annual company shindig, but if you travel a lot there’s no way. I work about 16 hours straight when on the road and need to have my space.
We have an annual sales and marketing convention with a serious amount of people - for that everyone except the top dogs have to share. It bites.
We’re still a small enough & entreprenuerial enough company that most folks are already on pretty familiar terms & also take a expense awareness personally. Even then, we generally don’t share rooms unless enough accomodations are unvailable or crazy-expensive.
We’re sending 4 execs to a convention next month & the only available rooms nearby are $400/night. The President & one VP are sharing a room & so are another VP & a manager.
3 months a go we sent a team of 8 people to a customer site and bought 8 rooms times 7 nights at $120/night.
So it all depends. As our size & revenue (& profitablility) grow, we expect to stop the sharing for good.
To me, the idea that a large compnay would require room sharing is reprehensible. Reward, sure, but require? Never.
I shared rooms with co-workers back in my younger days when I worked for the University and there wasn’t much travel money available. If anyone wanted to go to a conference, room sharing was pretty much expected then.
These days, no way. I have trouble sharing a room with my husband, there’s no way I’m going to share with some stranger. Next week I have a week of training, and I am so looking forward to a nice quiet room all to myself.