Friend charged drinks and desserts to my hotel room.

[annaherrings]

I was NY where we have an office (the company I work for that is). I was staying in a hotel (paid for by company). I had two friends from London who were in NY at the same time visiting for Easter break. They wanted to meet up and I invited them to my hotel for lunch/drinks. I do not expense my hotel charges as I never have work meetings at the hotel and our offices are where all meetings are held. We also eat out a lot and work pays for that. So I settle any incidentals bill myself - whereas the room is paid for.

We had lunch and everything was fine. I had to head back to my office so I settled up. The waiter asked what my room # was when I asked to charge it to the room as I had to go. So I told him/said it out loud. I signed the check/bill and left. Before leaving, the two girls said: 'We might stay for one more in the adjoining bar'. That was obviously fine. They are free to do what they want/go where they want.

Upon checking out; I see extra charges of 4 drinks and two desserts. Totalling $140 and I'm pretty sure two of the drinks were champagne. (It was a 5* hotel in Manhattan).

It stood out because I was only aware of the lunch total since it was the only thing I charged to my room throughout the entire stay. So it wasn't exactly hard to spot.

I asked the hotel for the actual receipt (the one which you sign your name/room # on). Sure enough, it wasn't my signature. They had even added on the 20% tip.

When I queried them (the girls) on it, they said the hotel staff (same waiter) immediately charged it to my room and didn't give them a chance to pay. They 'wanted' to tip (tipping is a big deal in the US) so they said they asked for a check/bill - and tipped via the room - meaning my card. Hence the receipt in front of me. They also wrote down my room # since they heard me say it out loud prior.

I do not believe they didn't have a chance to pay. If they really wanted to, they could have. They then said they assumed my work was paying (I work for a famous/large bank) so we aren't exactly short of company money - hence their 'assumption'.

They then said they did 'ask me' if it was ok to 'stay for one more at the adjoining bar' and that I was more than ok with it.

To clarify, they didn't 'ask' and moreover; no two grown women need to ask my permission as to where they can go. It is entirely up to them where they go and what they do.

I need up paying their bill as I didn't want any awkwardness. I haven't responded to their texts and TBH, I'd rather just never talk to them again. AIBU to think there was no misunderstanding here? I could never ever walk out of a place - 5* or not - and not pay. The audacity of charging anything to a friend's room - and not even telling them about it after the fact - is unbelievable to me. My DH says to drop it and leave it be and called it 'cheeky' but not worth losing friendships over. I suspect he just doesn't want to engage.

My point was: an outing with friends in NY isn’t going to be cheap, and that if OP had met them for a show and dinner, not lunch, that could easily have been $300+ apiece, not even one paying for another.

Anyway, we aren’t going to agree and I’m mainly here for OP’s update, so I’ll leave it there.

I’m not sure Tandora is an adult. I have a genuine suspicion that she/he is a child using dp’s account.

😀😀

Actually, I'm wondering of Tandora is one of the friends OP is referring to

😂

Tandora is giving a very good example of how cheeky fuckers think.

$300 is not an unusual amount to pay for lunch for three in in Manhattan. It's certainly not unusual for a 5* star hotel in Manhattan.

Yet, Tandora has decided that this amount is obscene and that the two 'friends' were quite justified in fraudulently signing the bill using OP's name and room number. No doubt, the same justification can be used to shoplift (after all, the retailers are worth millions) and pilfer for those around them.

I totally believe it. I invited some younger mentees out to lunch one time and when the bill came I noticed that two of them had ordered takeaway boxes with large meals in addition to the lunch they had eaten. I'd been talking with the group and not really monitoring everyone's orders.

It was so awkward--I had to query the bill and it was clear that a couple of them were just taking whole additional meals home. When I said I couldn't afford the extra food and I'd just budgeted to treat them, the two offenders said, "Oh I thought the company was paying." Just shameless.

I would make it clear you need to be reimbursed by suggesting a method for reimbursement.

I would not focus on the 20% tip. That is really a non-optional part of the bill. It is just a bizarre system where you have to provide it separately instead of being included in menu prices, but the local etiquette is very strong. It should have been added to the lunch as well.

Your opinion is based on envy (it’s very unattractive) and ignorance of eating out in NYC.

$326 for lunch for 3 people including the standard 20% in a 5* hotel in NYC is not a huge amount.

I’ve treated a friend to lunch in the cute little restaurant at the top of Bloomingdale’s and it was a comparable sort of cost. Worth it for my friend’s NYC stylist’s gossip, and a divine Salade Niçoise.

You know what, that's a good point. Talk to the hotel too.

OP ignore the professional misers on here who can’t get their heads around spending $whatever on friends. Your ‘friends’ have knowingly taken the piss. Either out of you directly or trying to pull a fast one with your expenses (which as has been pointed out could have real repercussions for you at work).

If any of my friends did this to me (and like you I can be generous with friends, don’t keep score and am happy to treat), I would be really upset and probably give the whole relationship a rethink.

I hope they pay you back quickly and with apologies.

Absolutely shocking. Have they got back to you @annaherrings

I outearn friends significantly (which is irrelevant in the larger scheme of things) and will on occasion treat for lunch or expensive drinks if it's been my suggestion to go to an expensive place/ order something I want that I wouldn't feel comfortable halving on. But never would my friends think it was acceptable to charge something to my card unless I'd specifically said they could.

Company expenses are as others have said heavily prescribed generally. I have a generous company but unless it's for business purposes (client or networking that I can prove/ document) it can't be expensed.

When I charge things to my room in London hotels, they ask me room number and surname and then put it through. I do sign the bill, but as far as I know, they haven’t got anything on record eg a scanned signature to compare it there and then.

So anything looking like a scribble, S. Fentiman or whatever would probably do, (though M Mouse ought to raise an eyebrow.)

Honestly, there are a fair few people in the world who are more than happy to spend a lot if someone else is paying. They'll be very very careful with their own money, too. I find the OP totally believable. The only thing I would say is that probably one of them decided to take the piss and the other went along with it. If the OP can work out who was who in this scenario it might help her get the money back.

Amazing the amount of people on this thread who are so hard up for mates that they'd overlook two 'friends' stealing from them just to keep the peace.

It's mind boggling, isn't it? I'd rather be on my own forever than put up with that.

The OP was working. By the sound of it, she goes to New York a lot to the office there. So it was nice for her to see friends as business travel can be a bit soul destroying. And because she was working there and knows it well - and her friends were holidaying - she took on the role of “host”. And kindly paid for lunch in that context. At a venue that she has chosen, probably because it was close to the office and meant that she could get back to do an afternoon’s work. She did a nice thing and they basically stole from her. Dreadful behaviour.

Hardly anyone (except the OP’s DH!) has gone with her just sucking it up and paying.

Sadly I think your friends are worse than you are giving them credit for.

They knew you were paying personally because you had told them.

They simply hoped that their bill would be one of many expenses you had that stay so you would settle the charge along with ten other bills and not notice. You only noticed because you avoid chargeable items at the hotel normally.

Horrible of them.

Oh no - I didn't mean I didn't believe this OP, I was just wondering if the other one I remembered about people ordering whole bottles of spirits was completely true because surely the staff would have questioned people doing that. Just a thought.

I think the OP's "friends" were aware that she was paying and thought she wouldn't notice or would be too polite to say. I was a teacher too, and I understood how expenses did and didn't work - and in any case she explained this to them. Even if they pay it back, I wouldn't be able to see them in the same way any more.

Oooh so much victim blaming here...

She chose the hotel because its the hotel she is staying at - I assume using that hotel meant more time to see friends given the OP was working, and not on holiday. She hasn't randomly picked a really expensive hotel restaurant!

OP made it bloody clear only her room was on expenses - the fact she charged the meal to her room does not mean the meal was included in her expenses - I know when I used to check out of a hotel I'd have the bill split between company card and my own card, so anything I had charged to the room for the sake of convenience was covered personally.

CF's then go to a totally seperate bar and charge to her room, to do this they've signed in her name... thats not an accident, that cannot BE an accident. That was intentional.

If by some wild stretch of the imagination it were accidental, in the giddy throws of a holiday drunken spree... when you sober up that same day you realise, contact friend, apologise and send money... You don't STFU and hope you get away with it unless you're a cunty fucker.

So either way... these two are a pair of cunty fuckers.

In order to avoid this, if they hadn't been CF, they could have said ' we're paying for this, it's not to be charged to the room' when they ordered it. Wallah. Cheeky Fuckery avoided.

What @Totalwasteofpaper says perfect!

Welcome to the public sector 😂 Actually, I had a pretty good reason - I was 7 months pregnant and wasn't going to lug my luggage to the bus after throwing up on the plane! Also, I hadn't read the expenses policy 😂

Not sure why you have to resort to personal insults when confronted with a perspective that differs from your own…

It’s not though. I don’t envy OP or her friends in the slightest. 🤷🏼‍♀️
i consider myself very privileged, so have no reason to feel jealous.