Sharing a hotel room with a stranger

[nomorespaghetti]

I've signed up to do some volunteering for a large national charity. I need to attend a training weekend for it about 2 hours away from where I live. It will involve one overnight stay. The charity will pay for train travel and overnight accommodation, but they've asked that volunteers share a twin bed room with another volunteer to keep costs down. It doesn't specify that it'd be a person of the same sex (but I'd hope so!)

The thought of sharing a hotel room with a stranger makes me feel super anxious. I wouldn't mind doing it if it was someone I knew, a work colleague for example. And I've stayed in hostels before (many years ago in my youth!)

I've no issue with telling them that I'm not comfortable doing it. But I want to know if others would be ok with it in this situation. Friends in real life also said they'd not like to.

YANBU = I wouldn't want to do that
YABU = I would be happy to share a room with a stranger

PS I think our invisibility cloak still works.

Busily starts licking the floor to clear up the remains of the jelly. Finds a Malteser and shoves it in gob. Spits it out in disgust and retches. Retires to bed to cuddle her sharks Sissy and Sassy.

Pussy did you give your ha'penny to the man from yesterday

I kept my cherry for many moons after that Thigh it was a shiny pert pink beacon for ‘gentlemen’ for some time afterwards.

I think my ha’penny eventually went to the man from uncle

TTT, no fucking way, I think that might well be against the Geneva convention?

At last Womble someone who talks sense!

Oh, i wasn't paying attention. I thought you were a random twat.

There's only us who talk sense Thigh, that's why we are invisible, it might be contagious!

HRTFT but I always sleep with as many strangers as possible! Sometimes two at a timeI meet them online and they pay me!

I shared a room with a stranger In a hostel once. She had noisy, squelchy sex with a random man and then stared at me in the dark after he left. It was tremendous fun.

Also WHERE IS TIGGS’ SHARK?

I work for a charity that does this. I have said that I would share, but it actually has only ever been that I've been alone. The charity I work for is also happy if people don't want to share. You could just say that you snore / have anxiety/ take frequent toilet trips/ other genuine reason. My charity is totally fine about people not sharing, but it helps keep costs down where possible.

I love it when you share a room with a stranger and every time you open your eyes they are doing their best psychopathic stare at you!

Or maybe it is me that is staring at them!

Had to do this a couple of years ago on a trip with a complete random. There was only one key for the room and she kept a hold of it. If I wanted to go back to the room I had to ask her for it and then she would take it back straight away. Never again.

Are companies/charities that do this not opening themselves up to litigation if things go wrong?

@avocado - I think yes!

I initially voted YABU as it's a charity, but after reading and considering all your replies I now agree with the OP, YANBU. I have shared rooms before with women I didn't know and it's all worked out well, however that was my choice and as I get older I like my own space and am happy extra to pay for this

I initially voted YABU as it's a charity, but after reading and considering all your replies I now agree with the OP, YANBU

Everyone needs to remember this thread next time there is a post criticising charities and how they spend money on ‘overheads’ and ‘administration’ and it should all go to the cause, blah blah blah!

For what it's worth my worst room share on a sports trip was with someone I knew relatively well - same club... Every time I've shared with complete strangers we've got on absolutely fine and most have become friends.

The whole not sharing thing seems to be a British thing (rather than European) and I assume many US types shared at university.

I don’t think I’d be bothered if it was a same sex stranger volunteering with the same organisation as we’d probably get to know each other quite quickly anyway.

Everyone needs to remember this thread next time there is a post criticising charities and how they spend money on ‘overheads’ and ‘administration’ and it should all go to the cause, blah blah blah!

I don't know if this was aimed at me but I wasn't criticising big charities for having these expenses - the reality is of course they have these expenses and anyone who says they expect their money to go to the cause alone clearly hasn't thought about it.

But it is one of the reasons I prefer small projects to huge international ones that act like big business.

But where is the line between 'the cause' and OH's?

Training a volunteer to help in the cause is that and OH or the cause? The line is blurry.

Yes, training a skilled volunteer, so they can use their skills to deliver for your charity, is not inherently a 'big charity' thing to do. It's something tiny charities do to - because harnessing volunteer skills is a really cheap and efficient way of delivering for your cause.

@RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime No, it wasn't specifically aimed at you, or any individual on this thread.

It was aimed at the numerous posters who on numerous threads cite costs like this as the reasons that they don't give to charity.

Most of the giving public won't see the detail in the accounts where volunteers - unpaid, skilled volunteers who can actually do the work of the 'cause' have expenses and overheads. Big and small charities.

And the big international charities - safely and effectively delivering millions and millions of tonnes of the right aid equipment to the right place as quickly as possible , getting through red tape, undertaking complex risk assessments, etc probably does look like 'big business'. it is.

Disaster management and aid is not a job for small local charities.

(I run a smallish localish charity)

Most of the giving public won't see the detail in the accounts where volunteers - unpaid, skilled volunteers who can actually do the work of the 'cause' have expenses and overheads. Big and small charities.

While I agree with your general annoyance at the way "overheads" are dismissed as wasteful by many people giving to charity, any charity that knows what it's doing should not be putting expenses related to volunteer training to provide programmatic support of clients in their overheads bucket. It's part of program delivery and should be showing up as direct expenditure on their "cause".