Expectation that colleagues should share a hotel room?

[CGaus]

Just that really, AIBU to think that professionals on business trips should not be expected to share hotel rooms to cut costs?

For context, I am a professional in the public sector. I live in Australia, and work in a large government department. It is not an entry level position, and both colleagues are female. The business trip is to carry out essential work (not optional training) and we would be staying in a hotel for just one night. We will be driving for several hours interstate to a regional town.

The colleague I’ve been asked to share with is lovely, but I haven’t known her very long and don’t feel comfortable sharing a room with her. A senior manager booked the room for both of us, I only realised he requested funding approval for one twin share room when I saw the email.

Thankfully I noticed this before we left, and was able to have a quick chat with my direct manager. I compromised by booking a family suite, so a small lounge area with two connecting but separate bedrooms and a shared bathroom at a small additional cost. My manager had not made the booking herself, and approved of the additional cost without hesitation.

Yanbu. Colleagues aren't necessarily 'best buds'.
My DH was told he'd have to share a room with en-suite bathroom while at a conference with a younger male colleague. Didn't happen.

Maybe it's decades of crashing in various people's rooms at parties and 'indoor camping' ie sleeping in a village hall with about 40 other people on folk weekends, but it wouldn't even occur to me to mind about sharing a room with a colleague.
I think some of you are being just a little bit precious TBH.

I was expected to share a room on an overnight conference (as were other colleagues). I refused and was asked to reconsider a number of times. I kept refusing. I got my own room.

The very idea of sleeping in the same room as a colleague, who is, in this respect a stranger. Bleurghhhh.

I have crashed in village halls on climbing trips, shared dorms in mountain huts, even shared beds with platonic male friends... I still wouldn't want to share a room with a colleague on a business trip. It would be far too intrusive. Work want me to go and represent the organisation somewhere away from home - I want privacy and quiet for my down time.

Quite right, I have never and would never share a hotel room with a colleague. It wouldn't be expected or even suggested

Went on a five day work trip recently, and it wasn't till we arrived that it turned out we were expected to share rooms. I thought it was not on; I hadn't even packed night clothes.

Same-sex teachers are often expected to share rooms on residentials, which isn't ideal. In fact, I've had to share an apartment with male colleagues (separate rooms), and a female colleague and I have had to share a room with a married couple. On those occasions we didn't know about staff room arrangements until we were actually at the (overseas) accommodation, as the block booking was made via an educational tour operator.

DH’s company used to make people share and half the time they hadn’t even met the person they were sharing with. The policy changed when someone snap chatted pics of someone they were sharing with asleep and snoring

Oh wow I would never, ever want to share a room with a work colleague

It’s a push for me to do it with a friend.

Sharing a toilet and bathroom and sleeping a metre away from someone are actually very personal and intimate things to do and it would make me enormously uncomfortable.

I think you were being very flexible about the family suite and I’d have to next time voice right from the conception of the trip that I will only go if I get my own room.

God, no chance. I don’t travel much in my current job but have in previous posts (one in the public sector) and it has never even been suggested. I have severe IBS and even sharing a hotel bathroom with my DP - who I have lived with for years - sometimes feels like too much!

In my industry it’s individual rooms, but I’ve shared when necessity dictates. I don’t really see it as an issue on an odd occasion but am glad for individual rooms as the norm.

To be honest, there’s so much bloody bed hopping, If people were honest about where they would be “sleeping” we could probably cost cut by only booking the beds needed anyway. And save people the stress of creeping down the corridor in the early hours with their knees clamped together and hair all over the place.

YANBU! I don't even share a bedroom with my husband - and there's absolutely no way that I would ever be willing to share with a colleague!!

I once ended up sharing a room with my female line manager. We’d been to London to set up for a marketing event. My manager had swanned off mid afternoon and left me to it. Absolutely shattered at 7pm and desperate for a shower, I got a call to say the hotel we were booked into ‘was dreadful’ and she’d found us a better one and told me to get myself over there.

I was given the key by reception to what I thought was ‘my room’ and when I entered I found my manager in there.

It got worse when she then announced she liked to strip off at the end of the day and hoped I didn’t have a problem with nakedness!

I was so gobsmacked and knackered I just let it go. It was a final straw in a very long list of inappropriate behaviours from this manager. I left the company shortly after.

I have never agreed to share a room since.

YANBU.

I do the same sort of role in the UK and I wouldn't be expected to nor would I, share with a colleague. I am so socially awkward that it really would be a huge barrier for me.

When younger I did a two week work-related trip where everyone shared twin rooms. That was acceptable because it was an educational jolly and it was seen as a huge perk to be sent on it, at major cost to your employers. Hence the quid pro quo was that you shared rooms to keep the cost down.

I also missed out on another fantastic jolly because the hosts had invited an even number of blokes but couldn’t find another woman for me to share a room with. Now that, I was pissed off about.

But for standard business or training trips I’ve always had a single room.

No! I find it weird they would even think that was reasonable. However, if i was expected to share with the really fit bloke I was in a meeting with last week, I could be persuaded...

Exactly, Fermat, it's different when it's work colleagues.

@YetAnotherThing

Absolutely I think gender plays a role here - I’m also in a female dominated industry (80% female team), and now I think about it men are not expected or even asked if they are willing to share.

“Public sector sob story” - I think I can relate to this too, we work with extremely vulnerable people and it’s often implied that overtime and expenses come directly out of that pool of money. I understand that we absolutely need to be very careful about how we allocate our limited public funds, but being moralistic is not the way to support hard working staff.

Absolutely not in my industry. Horrified at the several instances of women being expected to share and men booked separately

Definitely YANBU. Teddybear45 in New Zealand here and it's never been a thing, maybe for some industries rather than others perhaps? My DH travels a lot at certain times of the year (he flew in last night, thankfully, as fog is affecting flights for Ak, Wgt, Ham and most of the South Island this morning) and tends to sort his own accommodation. But even if booked through either his work or the company he is travelling to/for, never ever any thought of sharing a room.

There’s only one reason I ever shared a room with a colleague

One of my friends works for a small company. She's shared a twin room with her female boss who likes to sleep naked!

@Cautionsharpeblade

Presumably the same reason as the one I listed above

Ha! Some years ago I attended a conference abroad and half of the attendees ended up sharing not only rooms but even beds in some cases. (Remote hotel that had had a bit of trouble with part of its roof just prior to our arrival.)

As far as I recall, everyone was asked if they’d be willing to share and allowed to pick their own bed/roommate. A friend and I lucked out with a rather nice suite originally earmarked for a partner.

(This was an international law firm btw.)

All the nopes. I wouldn't want to snore and fart in front of people whom I need to be professional with. No way.

My friend goes away on holiday with her bestie and they share a room and a double bed, which has always horrified me (not for any salacious reason just because I cannot imagine wanting a friend in my bed with me, urgh!)