AIBU - Assessment Centre?

[Onthejobhunt]

Name changed just in case, but I am a regular and posting here for traffic.

I had a second interview today and they advised that I'd be sent an invite to an assessment centre - great!

The email came through and it's for one day in a couple of weeks and is a 5 hour drive. All fine, however there is a note on the invite advising that if I want a hotel for the night, then they have an arranged discount with the local hotel, but that they wont be reimbursing me .

AIBU to expect that they should pay for the hotel, given the fact that I will need to stay over as I can't drive a 10 hour round trip and do a full day of assessment centre activities without falling asleep at the wheel? I'm happy to cover the rest of the expenses, but I think a 300 mile trip plus hotel costs is a bit much to fork out for a job that I may not even get.

5 hrs away? That's ridiculous.
Is there only one assessment centre in the entire country?

Agree with user and Cath - I'd be wondering if I wanted to work for a co like that.

Could you stay at a travelodge a half hour drive away and thus save a chunk of cash but not have to leave at 3am, if you did want to go?

I've had interviews 2hrs away at 9am where they wouldn't pay for a hotel but otherwise they have done. (All grad jobs)

Absolutely they should pay. Whether relocating or otherwise.

I do lots of recruitment, and my organisation would definitely cover your expenses.

I've never been to an interview where I haven't been invited to claim back my expenses either. Including the recruitment process where they flew me half way across the world for a 2 day assessment centre, and then flew me back again for the second interview. They paid for all my flights, hotels, transfers - everything, basically. My current organisation would do the same.

" then they have an arranged discount with the local hotel"

What is the discounted price of the recommended hotel? Would you be better off seeking out a Premier Inn, Travel Lodge, or similar?

This isn't regular "interview expenses" though. I have no issue covering those when they're basically just getting to the location of where you'd be working. Insisting you travel to an assessment centre five hours away and refusing to pay for it themselves is disgraceful in my opinion. I wouldn't do it on principle - I've had a varied career and I've never heard of something so ridiculous.

Thanks so much for all the replies! Just to answer some of the questions that have come up since I went to bed early last night!

It's a national company but they only have one small office which is where the assessment centre is based, and which is (surprise surprise!) in the south (the job is in the north). The majority of staff are field based, all over the UK. I wouldn't (as far as I know) be expected to travel to HO for work at all, or at the most, for one off occasions, although I'm not sure what expenses would be covered for that. I'd hope the majority of them would be!

Although the role comes with a car, it's not excessively well paid (not sales based or exec level), so I would expect some type of expense policy to be in place. In fact they double checked the salary level as the first question in the first interview, which in hindsight makes me wonder whether they think it is underpaid 🤔

As the centre is in north London area, I've already checked out the local Premier Inn and Travelodge and they are coming up around the same price as the discounted hotel before the discount, so their hotel is likely to be the best option I think (although I've not called yet to find out what the discount is).

I was thinking expenses of up to 50-60 miles was a reasonable amount to expect to pay, and as I think I've said, I'd be happy to cover the full petrol costs anyway. It's just the hotel that I was surprised at.

I think I'll probably go anyway - the job looks like a good one, and the perfect next step in my career. But I will make sure that I find out about expense policies before I accept an offer, if I'm lucky enough to get one!