This is bollocks. I went to London with a girlfriend when we were 15. She’d never been to London. We stayed in Kent with a distant relative, got old green line bus in each morning and used underground. We were both Yorkshire lassies but we didn’t get lost or scared once. I’ve been countless times since. My dc now lives in London, I take tube, busses etc all over when I go to see him.
it is really very hard to get lost in London. Tube is virtually foolproof as if you miss your stop, get out, cross over, come back. London public transport is a doddle compared to other cities or rural areas.
yes, there’s an element of safety on your own. But unlikely during the day and even in early evening loads of people around. You even have London transport police, the equivant of that doesn’t exist on my rural train line.
he’s just putting blocks in your mind as a “helpless woman”…I’ve travelled all over the world with work even in places like Brazil. Get yourself informed about area you’re the selling though, plan your journeys, take the sensible precautions almost all women do whenever they’re out on their own.
if he wants a cheap visit to London, fair do, but jeez to make it about protecting you is sheer gaslighting.
fwiw, you need to read your companies travel policies. Or speak to HR, AND your manager or whoever is going to approve your expenses.. You need to be very clear what you can and can’t do. Some companies are sniffy about partner travel as travel then becomes a “perk”. Others are more “you’re doing us a favour to agree to travel so if you can get something back- fair enough”. It just depends on company.
my company was ok but certain rules
- they would not pay for any extension to stays beyond business need (applies whether partner going or not)
- they would not pay anything but my airplane seat according with policies. That meant I couldn’t change times or pre book special seats to sit with partner, e.g. local cheap Europe (eg pre booking seats I’d have to cover of wanted to sit togther)
- they’d pay for my meals only - partner would need to pay for theirs. Simple as just ask for split bills. But my meals had to fall within company rules around alcohol etc. more complex if eating in hotel.
- double room supplement would need to be paid by me. Separately. And that could be an absolute pain as our booking system at work only allowed single occupancy. I’d have to then call hotel direct and make a seperate payment /booking for double occupancy
NEVER, EVER, just try to “sneak” a partner into your hotel room or a business trip. That certainly would be disciplinary event. Be upfront, ask and gain approval before you go . Sneaking someone into your hotel room is a fire risk anyway - my company would have had my bollocks for that as a health and safety breach.
BUT, in the 20 odd years I travelled with work partner only came with me 3 times (literally I must have made over 150 journeys/stays within uk, Europe and intercontinental all way to Australia, Japan etc ). And all 3 were when I first started out with work travel. I learnt very very quickly that work travel is exhausting. Your days tend to be long, packed full to get through agenda needed in shortest possible time to reduce travel costs. There’s often a lot of evening work social contact needed- again becuase you’re trying to cram building relationships into as short a time as possible. Having to “worry” about what your partner will do, whilst you’re just trying to get through day, and potentially evening and be as flexible as possible is a stress that’s not needed. There’s nothing worse than you have a tough day, arriving back at hotel at 7pm, having left at 7:30am, just exhausted, to have a partner who’s been bumming around all day enjoying themselves and now wants to paint the town red.
we soon realised that it is NOT a pleasure, there’s literally no time for leisure and we were better leaving our travel and break times to planned holidays we could both fully enjoy together.