Work trip - no food in hotel!

Is anyone else singing 'Away on a work trip, no food in hotel' to the tune of Away in a Manger?

Glad you've been fed @Boxingshibes

I'm glad you got fed tonight.

Walk into the kitchen and help yourself

Are you using a debit card when you travel for work? Do you not have a personal credit card you can use? Most people don’t mind the pay it themselves and get reimbursed model because that way they earn the points while the company foots the bill. The reimbursement comes before the credit card bill is due and you just pay it off entirely.

It doesn’t always work though.

I remember my very first business trip, I didn’t have enough credit to pay all the expenses as the bill for just a week was nearly 10K. (And this was in the 90s). A colleague had to pay some of it. Thankfully I got a much higher credit limit very quickly because asking was quite embarrassing even though expecting me to be able to front that was ridiculous.

if you can’t get a credit card for whatever reason, I would ask for a cash advance on reimbursement. I worked for one company that did these as a matter of policy for everyone that didn’t have a company card. That way you had cash for things like taxis and food. You still had to file an expense report, but you weren’t out do pocket.

I did nil by mouth before my c section and that was quite hard because I had no idea how long I was going to have to wait! And then when I finally had my tea and toast I was sick afterwards. I also fast for religious reasons once a month and it's definitely different, because I know it's happening and for how long. If I turned up somewhere I was expecting to be fed and was refused I'd be cross. I always take snacks with me though. Cereal bars are great for travel. 😊

OP didn't have money for an extra taxi journey or to buy food as she was expecting to be fed at the hotel.

I do get your point, I was very tired last night when I put my comment up, so wasn't alert enough to make a clear concise post on my own, as I normally would. I also haven't worked as a GM in a long time so had a bit of self-doubt too, hence using the tool. I didn't mean to offend anyone by using it.

Hi, I work in finance, I just wanted to add the taxi firm might be happy to invoice your employer directly for your week’s trips. If you talk with your finance department and see how quickly they can raise a payment, or they might take a credit card payment over the phone if your manager can use his card. Please don’t be embarrassed to ask about these options, no decent company would want their employee to be paying out of pocket expenses which put the family budget under strain and they shouldn’t assume everyone can wait to be reimbursed.

Are you sure you can take food you've prepared yourself with animal products on your flight? If you're starting outside the EU and going to Italy, I doubt it's legal.

Because she has to advance it and she doesn't have the money at the moment.

I'm presuming the taxi price is for a few trips e.g. there and back every day that she is there.

"Lots of people are acting like being denied a hot meal is the absolutely worst thing in the world when it's really not a big deal, especially as a one-off."

She's being denied ANY food not just a hot meal. It's not a Jeremy Clarckson prima donna situation.

As for people who have to fast for an operation or who do Ramadan - those are very different circumstances.

I agree. Absolutely shocking.

Well this thread has made me plan for a famine like situation where I'm going in September. Outside the main tourist season and to a relatively undiscovered seaside town in Italy. Arriving at around 11.30 pm and add an hour or two for bag collection, immigration, and transfers from the airport.

I can see sleepy Giovanni at the desk getting the chef out of bed to make us something at that hour, can you? Also it's a Sunday night and by the looks of things all the restaurants will be closed by the time we arrive.

Never fear, there is a coffee maker in the room + mini fridge. I'll freeze some plain cheese sandwiches (not smelly), put them in the checked bag, and throw in some biscuits and other scoff. I'm kind of looking forward to my 2am picnic now lol! 😊

Well in that case they absolutely should have catered for you in some way.

I'd make another complaint and say if you've booked dinner, you should get dinner.

@Boxingshibes what did you have for dinner?

Hope you can come to a better agreement with work for situations like this.

Then why not post your own knowledge and experiences? If you are a professional you would know a hell of a lot better than a stupid chat bot just guessing the answer.

And fucking tedious and annoying and environmentally ruinous and boring and irritating and damaging and 💥

If you've paid for a DBB tariff, then they've breached the terms, they need to compensate you accordingly. I'd also report them to Trading Standards. You'd PAID for dinner as part of your tariff (that's if I'm not misunderstanding the comment I'm quoting), so that forms the contract that they must provide you with dinner! So they've breached that clearly.

Glad to hear it op! Definitely have a word with your manager about travel expenses going forward. Very unfair on you.

When you say you're on a meal plan, do you mean worj booked you into the hotel in a dbb basis?
If so, that's dreadful practice on the part of the hotel. I doubt the base that you're working at would want to be using them if they pull stunts like that.

Is there no mess at the barracks you could utilise before coming back to the hotel?

This made me laugh, as I've been close to that myself. Trips to the SPTA can sometimes be like that.,.. but can also be immensely fun.

In all honesty for OP welcome to the world of business travel. Some days it's the business lounge in premier airport, some days it's traveling for 24 hours to arrive starving in the middle of the night with everything closed. When traveling for a late arrival it's always 50:50 that food will be available so I will usually grab something on the way if I really want to be sure.

In reality a booking from "Corporate Travel" isn't a personal recommendation based on experience, it's a name plucked at random from a list, just treat it as so.....

I think a lot of it was the lack of money to throw at the problem rather than simply ‘not possible’. My husband once got a pizza delivered to a tank crossing on Salisbury plain 🤣 but entirely possible that on a Sunday evening in the middle of the countryside, that the only options were unsatisfactory and expensive.