Sharing room on a work trip

This!

I would refuse.

If the company cannot offer individual rooms for staff then it should not be organising this trip.

It could easily cause safeguarding issues.

I is also very iffy legally to expect employees with disabilities or long term health conditions to share and have random people potentially witness them dealing with their additional needs.

Bad idea all around...

Absolutely no way in hell would I agree to share a room on a work trip. Or pay anything towards the costs of a hotel room. Your employer is taking the piss. Can't believe your colleagues actually think this is ok.

What are you talking about? I am a professional adult and I expect to be treated as one which includes demanding my own room when travelling. I absolutely wouldn’t go if I was told I had to share a room. I am entitled to privacy and my own free time when I clock off.

No. It sounds like an adult demanding to be treated like an adult.

OP, this is totally inappropriate of your employer. Demand a single room or say you won't be going. Don't offer to pay for it. No single room = you don't go.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5497610-to-tell-my-manager-i-wont-share-a-room-with-colleague-again?page=1

I travel for work. We don’t share rooms, and if I were asked to do so, my response would be laughter.

I worked as an academic for many years with requirement to attend conferences. It was never suggested that I share room. Some of the hotels in the USA were very expensive especially in Las Vegas. The only person who ever shared was a wheelchair user and his companion. Back in the 1960s/70s I shared rooms with other females on a landrover based holiday but that was not work.

Absolutely not, I’ve worked globally and across the UK for private and Government organisations and have never once not had a private room.

Exactly this. I wear a wig due to having alopecia and my colleagues do not know. I obviously remove it behind closed doors and when sleeping. No way would I want to share with someone so I was forced to disclose my medical condition, it’s private and none f works concern.

Not in a million years!

I wouldn't do it. But it's not a massive safeguarding issue as pps have said. Look up what constitutes safeguarding, this ain't it.

Also agree with pp, ive seen this exact post pretty much quite recently...

I swear I read this exact thread almost word for word a few months ago on here

I think being a dorm would actually be better than sharing a twin room.

Except you don't necessarily have any say about who your colleagues are, and I am not sure some of mine should be let out in public, let alone share a room.

I go away for work usually every month, many of these are over nighters, I’ve been doing this for about 25yrs, I’ve never once shared a room. It’s a hard no from me.

Sharing rooms was totally banned at my work 20 years ago. I would book my own and take the hit financially if my attendance was mandatory

(Shame my work banned it as I took great delight in putting 2 nasty bullying bosses who hated each other in the same room when I was booking it for them 🤣)

99% disagree with you!

NOT demanding a single room from a huge company smacks of being a pushover grunt with no self respect.

Went on a school trip. Had to share a bunk room with 8 teachers, mixed sex. Absolutely horrendous.

I had to, once at a work offset. They brought us all to what is a fairly expensive hotel on the South Coast (Chewton Glen) for 2 nights and I had to share with my boss. Didn’t love it but I was junior at the time so didn’t feel like I could question it.
I’d question it now though. By that I mean a hard no.

Demanding a single room smacks of being a teenager, rather than a professional adult.

You sound like someone who has never done a job which doesn't involve sitting at a desk.

This happened to me once at a startup pre covid for a weeks conference in the US. I went along with it because I was new. Because I was the only female in the UK team I had to share with a woman I had never met before (or since) from a different country. She had recently had a baby and spent every evening crying on the phone. It was incredibly awkward and incredibly unpopular. Most of the men booked single rooms and made up the cost through bogus expenses. Two men had a massive fallout over one of thems excessive snoring keeping the other awake. They had to swap rooms with a manager and eventually the poor snorer booked a single room at a nearby hotel. When they asked for feedback on the week (couple of hundred people from all over the world) every single person complained about the sharing situation and they issued a company wide email saying we have heard you and we wont do this again.

What I remember in particular is that it was a very full on week with sessions starting at 8.00 and running until 17.00 (it was actually a tech summit rather than a conference so a strong training/new information component) and I really felt the need to go back to my room during the breaks to have a mental break/downtime before the next session and every time I did, this strange woman was already there yammering away or crying on the phone. It really ruined my experience and hampered my learning. I'm amazed a big multinational that will have a deal with the hotel chain is trying to enforce this. Everybody hates it.

I have chosen to stay in dorms when travelling alone - I've even stayed in mixed forms a couple of times. But I've only ever had my own room when on work trips. I work in a male-dominated industry, and I have usually been literally the only woman on work trips, and they wouldn't make me share with a man. Probably they wouldn't...

(I've shared rooms/beds a couple of non-work trips with colleagues in the past, mind you, but that was our choice and our expense.)

How stingy.
Very inappropriate and I wouldn't be going.
So much for dignity at work.

WTAF. NoooOoooOoooO.

I travel for work, often in groups. I have never shared a room/been asked to share a room (or a bathroom). No way would I do that.