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.

Agree and even more shocking that they are teachers.

So it is the OP's fault for being generous? These comments are silly and patronising. If the OP wrote a thread saying: "well I was working in Manhattan and 2 friends came over on holiday and I took them out for lunch but, as they are teachers and earn significantly less than me, I booked somewhere cheap". Imagine the comments she would receive?

The reason the bill was that much was because they all* *ordered and ate the food and drank the wine. If they felt like @Tandora I'm sure OP wouldn't have minded too much if they had had soup and soft drinks. They certainly didn't think it tacky to drink champagne and have a 2nd dessert. Presumably OP told them where she was taking them and they had the opportunity to say they would rather go to a lower end restaurant.

All this is completely beside the point. The issue has nothing to do with where OP took them for lunch or how much she earns and they aren't falling out over money, they stole from her and basically committed fraud.

Just waiting for the update 👀🍿

OP please update when you can ! I’ve worked for a multinational with extensive travel and associated expenses. Majority of friends never understood how it works and that my entire life could be funded. No idea that you could be subject to random audits etc

Here for the update ! Ive worked for a multinational with extensive travel and associated expenses . Majority of people don’t understand how it works and the random expense audits.

In most businesses charging the company for a non work related lunch could get you fired!

Thank you both as I am just mind-boggled that anyone could try to "find" excuses for these CFers to put more drinks and an additional dessert on her tab.
Even if they asked if they could stay and the OP said, sure, if you want, that is NOT permission to rack up more charges. They certainly didn't ask the OP, "Can we stay and rack up some more charges on your tab?" Why didn't they? Because they knew they were going to pull a fast one and hoped the OP would just pay it without calling them out on it.
These are people who are around children several hours a day. I pity their school and students.

So, what is the ending of the story? Hopefully your CFers paid and learned a valuable lesson. Acting like an entitled CFer doesn't often work but the fact that it works at times is why they try it.
They are the people who, watching a blind person drop a $20 bill, will swoop in and take it, rationalizing it all the way and never putting themselves into another's shoes.

It's like they just keep digging for some excuse to rationalize their behavior. They need to suck it up, admit they did it on purpose and pay up.

After they did that, they would still be persona non grata in my life. People like those two don't really "learn", they just more devious and better at excuses.

I'm actually beginning to be shocked that these two CFer "friends" didn't go get another room key and go up to her room to empty out her minibar and go "shopping" among her possessions.

Since she signed and charged the lunch before she left, therefore ending the lunch AND the transaction, they would have to be quite dim-witted to think they could just keep "charging stuff to her room". They are even more dim-witted if they actually think any company would just think it "okay" to do.

If they get funds to buy supplies for their classrooms, do they think they can take it and go off on a holiday? No, they have to turn in the receipts. Their "we didn't know" excuse or "they wouldn't let us" excuse don't hold water because both have more leaks than the Titanic.

@AcrobaticCardigan - they did not ask the OP if they could stay on. It's right there in the OP's opening post, she's pretty clear on this point.

'We might stay for one more in the adjoining bar'

A statement, letting the OP know what they were doing, not asking her permission or okaying payment.

@NewNovember you must be a cf loading off others. Have you read ops posts!?
Who in their right minds, after being treated to $300+ lunch then still has the audacity to demand more? Op doesn't own the hotel, it's not like they were in her house staying back whilst op went to work. They are grown women that wanted to check out the bar, it's on them to pay, not expense it on their kind friend.

Even if work was paying for it, do ppl really not know how expenses work??

Op ensure they pay you back, the audacity of them doing this in the hope you don't realise is theft, they are not real friends.

Why on earth does she need to explain what she spent on lunch? It's not in the least tacky, nor is it necessarily that much if it covers three courses for three people plus drinks plus a tip. There is no way on earth that that could conceivably lead a guest to assume that they could continue drinking and eating after their host had left and charge it to her. Who the hell - other than, maybe, extremely rich and extremely generous people - ever leaves their guests with, effectively, unlimited access to their credit card?

Am I the only person on this thread to have a completely different understanding of what the word ‘tacky’ means? How could spending any amount of money on any lunch be deemed ‘tacky’?!

They were CFs. Without any doubt at all. OP I hope they send you the money they owe with a big apology.

Seriously 😂

Take it you haven’t bothered to read any of the thread!

How could they misunderstand? They knew OP wasn't charging this to her expense account, they say her sign for the bill for lunch, they did not hear her say anything to the effect of "Do carry on drinking and eating as much as you like and charge it all to me", The cost of lunch equally cannot logically lead them to conclude that OP is happy to pay half as much again. They also told contradictory stories, saying both that the waiter had charged it to the room before they could stop him and that they thought it was OK with OP. It is absolutely obvious that there is no misunderstanding here.

I’ve read all of the thread thanks. What makes you think I haven’t?

People going on and on and on about an £80 per head lunch as if it the most extravagant thing they have ever heard of have clearly not been to New York recently. Its crazy expensive. $300 for a lunch for 3 people would not be unusual and at least 20% of that would be a tip.

To use the OP doing a very generous thing and treating her friends as an excuse for them going on to steal another £140 from her is disgusting. There's another thread going on at the moment with several cries to call the police because a mum has been wearing her daughters necklace yet 2 people forging their friends signature so that she is forced to pay their expensive bar bill is apparently OK. Some really weird people on MN.

I hope you have by now got your money back OP. I wouldn't have anything to do with the theiving bastards ever again.

I hope you reported back to the company that these two thought it was absolutely fine to steal from them?

And I take it you didn't bother to read the post you quoted 🙄😂

That does not even hint that the OP was going to continue to fund their drunken, rotten, CFer behavior.
If they had said, "I think we are going to go down to Broadway and catch a show. That okay with you?" and the OP says, "That's fine"., it is not giving the CFers permission to charge the tickets at the concierge desk to her room.

I do NOT understand these posters who seem to think that once lunch is done, desert is had and the bill paid, that moochers should be able to continue to mooch because they didn't leave the hotel.

She never and I mean ever said, "Go ahead and charge it to my room" and I know of no one in my life who is that daft to think they could do that.

These "friends" sound like their collective IQ doesn't hit triple digits.

I can’t believe some of the responses on here. You were so generous to buy a lovely lunch for them. And to those saying it’s tacky, yes $300 is a lot, but for a nice NYC hotel for 3 courses and drinks for 3 people, it’s certainly not a crazy price.

They were complete CF’s. They knew you were paying. They knew you’d settled the bill. They knew THEY were staying to enjoy more drinks themselves after you had settled the bill and that was on them. And even in the very slight chance they thought you were paying, they could have ordered ANYTHING else. Coffee, a glass of (non ridiculously priced) wine, even a cocktail. But a second dessert and champagne, which is probably one of the most expensive things- that makes it clear they knew what they were doing, that they hoped you wouldn’t notice, and that they’re complete CF’s.
I wouldn’t waste any more time with them.

Good for you. I still don’t think that it can be assumed for the average person (teacher) that if they saved the cost of lunch they obviously must have 70£ to spare.

What do you imagine would have happened, @Tandora, if the waiter had said "Sorry, I know neither of you is annaherring, we can't charge this to her room without her direct authority"? Do you think maybe they might have had to find the £70? And that maybe they realised that full well and had factored in that they could afford to pay if the waiter took that line?

Have they been back in touch with you yet @annaherrings ? They've had more than enough time to either transfer the money to your account or to come up with some piss-poor excuse as to why they can't.

Please don't let this one go though. They really need to reimburse you as you were the one out of pocket here.