Work trip - no food in hotel!

[Boxingshibes]

I'm way for work for the week. I'm staying in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. It took me 4 hours to get here in v hot trains.
Room and hotel lovely but I went down to the bar/ restaurant and asked about dinner- to be told as they have an event on the kitchen is closed.
They offered me a free drink but apologised and said unfortunately there are no takeaways that deliver.
I'm on a meal allowance. I'm pissed off!
And I'm having to pay £200 for taxis for the. Grr
I'm hot hungry and annoyed. Aibu?

A lot of places don’t provide a work card, you use your own then claim it back on expenses. Presumably OP is in quite a high paying position. My dad has worked several companies and done work trips and all of them have done it this way

Well, fool be your dad and a lot of other people. No way I’d work for such a company, and yes I do have a company card, as I insist on it. I also wouldn’t let any of my team go anywhere that involved an expense without one, as I insist on it. ‘We don’t do that’ is not good enough, unless people are silly enough to say ‘okay’, as then it will never change. And the expectation should not matter if you are in a high or lower position, it’s the principle of the matter.

Well i would be annoyed but I would have checked the facilities out myself in the first place just because my work book's things doesn't absolve me from checking things out myself

@PollyBell it sounds like this was a bit unusual though and hotel should have said beforehand. Hope for OP's sake breakfast starts soon.

id definitely have gone and helped myself from the breakfast supplies last night if they’d all gone home. Toast and cereal at least! Hope you have a lovely breakfast OP

This is how it works in most places including the civil service (but the public probably thinks the individuals in the civil service should foot their own bill for work travel 🙄). I think you’re quite delusional to think otherwise.

Not really the middle of nowhere then. It’s obviously too late now but if you can’t find a convenience store there will be a garage open somewhere where you can buy food.

In my 20s, I used to travel for a huge company where you would have the hotel and travel paid for but expenses would be paid for by yourself and claimed when you got back. Depending on the date you claimed it could be up to 2 months before you were reimbursed.

The above usually worked OK until something went wrong. I remember literally being stuck in China, unless I paid hundreds of pounds to get a taxi /train as one of the flights had been cancelled or stay an extra night in the hotel. It was bloody scary. I stayed an extra night. Paid out of my own money, which pushed me into debt.

I got back to the UK. Told my manager that I couldn't afford to travel if this was the company policy. Fortunately, she went into battle for me and made sure I got a company credit card.

It's madness that this sort of shit still goes on. I would have hoped that there would be financial mechanisms in place so that the pressure is taken off employee. It's 2025 and this sort of stuff still happens FFS.

OP I hope you get fed

how can you be the only guest if they've got an event on?

Going forward you would be better taking a credit card for your expenses rather than having no emergency money.

If they won’t even do that I would leave. That’s pathetic

Contact your company and ask for an emergency advance against your expenses.

I hope you are now having a slap up full English.

That’s mad that the hotel really couldn’t even serve you a bowl of cereal or slice of toast with no prior warning . I would be complaining about that.. what if you had a child with you or a medical condition?

No, many don’t have the disposable income but most do have a credit card. If you don’t, I think you should be looking to get one. Sometimes I run up hundreds of pounds of expenses that I don’t have in my current account, but I just claim for them before my credit card bill is due.

Can't work order you something online, pay and get it delivered to you? And yes for November 2025, get work to pre-order (and pay for) the taxis so you're not out of pocket for that sizeable cost.

Just so you know, a meal allowance paid in this way is taxable. It’s only tax free if you spend all the money on meals and subsistence and it falls within HMRC’s scale rates.

www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim05100

Have your manager call the taxi company and put the week’s transport on their company card. I’ve not met a taxi company that wouldn’t do that. Too late for last night but at least it gives you a buffer for the rest of the week.

I would get a taxi to an all night supermarket and I would purchase some cup-a-soups, biscuits, cheese and and avocado. I could snack on those until the ready frozen meals that I also purchase have been heated in the downstairs kitchen microwave.
Service should be better.

You have lucked out but you need to regroup and feed yourself in the easiest way.
Order in curry via a taxi etc. You are not in remote Northern Scotland.
Yes, eat a large breakfast.

I stayed in a hotel that was unable to provide evening meals, which were normally available. I was warned before I arrived there, indeed before I set off to get there. So I could find out the alternatives, or even if I could not, would have stopped on the way to get something.

The OP would probably had she known got something on the train or at one of the stations.

You do need a 0% credit card you just use for work. I used to do a job where I was travelling all over the country, my hotels were booked but I had to claim expenses no company card (public sector) I had a zero interest card I used just for that, parking, petrol, taxis if needed, food and drinks, I also had a ledger I would log all expenses in and I'd submit every week as soon as the claim was paid, I'd pay it off the CC. Also always take a stash of cereal bars, crackers and a porridge pot or something just in case. I was also on government expense rate so had to be savvy about where I ate (the rate is now £25 a day for all food and drinks (all meals but sometimes you'd get lucky and get breakfast at the hotel), it was £21 back then)

This is shit op. Travelling for work at the best of times is rubbish, never mind when it goes wrong. I hope that you manage to get some breakfast.

Why are people trying to pick holes in the OP's story? There are lots of places where there are no takeaways to deliver. My mum's house - and she is 4 miles from a large-ish town. Some of Wiltshire is very rural indeed. This is why she has had to organise her taxi well in advance because - guess what - there are no Ubers either.

As for the "well how were you paying for your dinner" - OP was possibly booked into the hotel on a pre-paid DBB rate covered by her employer. She was to cover the other expenses like her taxi, which she budgeted for.

DH travels a lot for work and his hotel and flights/train are prebooked and paid by for the company direct, he covers incidentals and claims that back. We are happy for him to do that as they refund quickly and we can get reward points on our card. OP though should be provided with a company card.

It is also entirely conceivable that the hotel had some sort of event (funeral tea, baby shower, 40th party) which involved people being there until 6pm or 8pm and then leaving with nobody staying overnight. However, it is totally out of order that they would not provide her with any food. Even bacon, eggs and toast or similar.

Hope you're fed, OP, and complain to someone else today.

Hi OP, hope you got through the night OK. Just want to say, ignore the people who suggest you're a mug for not having a company card.

I've worked at a succession of universities and regularly have work expenses, like my colleagues. Never heard of a UK university offering a card; everything is 'pay upfront then claim back'. Where I work now you can ask for advances for longer trips, but that's quite a fuss. Workplaces differ, people.

You sound very together and committed to your family (and your team). Enjoy your breakfast!

@ThreeLocusts I have worked in a UK university and staff absolutely do have credit cards or are issued advances before travel. Staff of all levels academic and admin.

I was starving at an evening wedding do, and none of the buffet was vegan. Needed food with my meds.

I asked if they could make me something small and quick like toast with jam. They came out with a jacket potato and beans. It was very kind of them to do that during an event, I was very thankful.

Tipped when we left and wrote good reviews online. I keep extra protein bars in my bag/car for emergencies.

They couldn't have done you a baked potato in the microwave, or toast? Takes minutes and turns your experience from negative to positive.

> unfortunately there are no takeaways that deliver.

I've had a deliveroo out to a castle in Carlisle over 20 miles from the nearest town

Try them

Or ring a taxi firm and ask them to bring you a takeaway

If your employer booked the hotel, you can reasonably claim the taxi fares, if you did, or you're self employed ... trickier