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?

Wow that is really poor that the hotel couldn’t offer you anything at all. what were they doing when you asked them, just shrugging their shoulders and saying nothing they can do? I would have been asking them what they propose as a solution!

Fair enough if they had no kitchen staff in, then they couldn’t cook or even prepare a sandwich (am thinking food prep health and safety) but I’m amazed they weren’t in a position to offer you any kind of food at all. In your shoes I would have been happy with a box of cereal!

It’s very poor you weren’t notified in advance that the kitchen was closed when it is a hotel in a remote location. Perhaps if it was booked by your company any message didn't come through to you.

Maybe they aren’t used to people arriving without their own car?

We were once in a similar situation as the hotel restaurant was closed for a private event and DH was running a marathon the following day and really needed to carb-load. The hotel absolutely bent over backwards and re-opened the kitchen to prepare an off-menu meal for him to fuel up, and didnt charge us for it.

Not everyone has the credit score required to take out their own credit card, nor should they need to.

I once worked in a large US company that had recently opened a UK location, and as office manager I was the only person in the entire UK branch that was given a company credit card for expenses. Everyone else- from junior staff on 20k a year right up to VPs on four times my salary- had to pay out and expense. The latter all had platinum credit cards so even though it was annoying for them it was ultimately fine, but I used to lend out my company card to the junior staff who were expected to take prospective clients out for lunch and pay out of their own pocket and reimburse, as I thought it was outrageous.

I hope you've had a delicious breakfast OP! Both your company and the hotel have behaved appallingly here.

This is insane, OP.

You need to call you boss and/or HR department and spell out the situation.

Tell them you cannot get food at the hotel and it is going to cost you X amount in taxi fares to get to and from the nearest place you can get food, which you cannot afford to sub the company until you can claim it back on expenses. Ask them to find a solution which enables you to eat and doesn't involve you paying cash you can't afford upfront.

And then tell them that you won't go on any future business trips without a card for expenses.

Ask to have it in writing that you have no food.

Please come back @Boxingshibes ! Or have you faded away from lack of food? I want to know what you had for breakfast. Presumably the lack of dinner last night was a one off and normal service resumes today. If not well I would have thought you can’t stay there for a week.

Why are people telling the OP what to do to get food now? It’s the next day….

She's at WORK

I hear you and feel for you OP. I made a thread a while ago, and was pretty much slated from everyone for not following their advice, and basically taking a full on kitchen when working away, including fridge I might add! 🙄🤨😵‍💫
I hope you got sorted, as that’s shit.

Really! I live in a village in Wiltshire, the single shop opens for one hour on Sunday and the pub shuts at 4.00 pm. It’s three miles to the next shop and taxis have to be booked well in advance. No Deliveroo or Just Eat, closest garage is in the town four miles away.

I never ceased to be amazed at the number of people who cannot comprehend that even areas near to small towns can be utter dead zones for food and taxis, especially after late afternoon.

Any hotel in this kind of location will know the situation which makes their response even worse.

That is a real issue and extremely unfair on the part of the employers. You should not have to effectively subsidise the company. You should ask for a cash advance.

Also you need a work credit card if you are travelling regularly for work. It's unreasonable of them to ask you to fork out so much and then claim it back.

No need to shout. I was happy to wait till she clocks off. I still want to know what happened at breakfast this morning and dinner tonight as do many others on the thread.

If they've really locked up and gone home and left you potentially the only guest in the hotel, it begs a few questions:

• what would happen in the event of an emergency?
• did they leave the kitchen unlocked so you can go and help yourself??

Honestly some people are just mad, just don’t understand. I kept getting on my thread - take a weeks worth of food, take your own fridge/cutlery/plates etc. Make your own meals. Eat sandwiches every day for lunch and dinner (partner is a heavy manual worker). No way can you not get dinner for less than £20 - there’s ALWAYS a Wetherspoons within 2 miles of you. The advice was crazy to our situation. 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️

Have you ever thought that your opinions may be unpopular because they are not well thought through?

People might well fast for all sorts of reasons but it's their choice to or it's a necessity.

And I might well not eat a lot during the day or have food with me if I'm expecting a good dinner later.

Learn to drive

Yes I work in Wiltshire! 9 miles in a taxi doesn't cost that much!!

Yes that will help her get food..LAST NIGHT!

I had to go to a hotel for work during Covid when nothing was open and they weren’t serving food. Thankfully there was a petrol station in walking distance where I was able to buy a few snacks. Since then I always take stuff like cup a soups/noodles I can make using the kettle and some pre packaged pastries. What a shit situation OP. Hope you had a good big breakfast xx

Taxi Quote says £23.10 for 9 miles in wiltshire - and OP would need a return trip so over £50 by the time shes bought some food too, well out of OPs budget

Next time you do this kind of trip either get a company credit card to cover the costs or your employer could pay you an advance. It is ridiculous for you to need to supply working capital like this when it might leave your family short.

If neither option is possible, then I wouldn’t be working away from home - it is deeply unreasonable for your employer to put you in this situation.

Doesn’t sound like it’s that often, and it doesn’t sound like the OP is in a very senior role. Only a fairly small minority of employees have company credit cards. DH and I both worked for decent sized companies, travelled a fair bit - him to some rather unusual parts of Asia - never any possibility of company credit cards. Most companies simply don’t offer them. Fork out and claim back on expenses is absolutely the norm.

You’re missing the point 100% that she’s got limited funds.
18 mile round trip soon adds up.

For comparison, people preparing for surgery will have to fast for x number of hours. People on diets regularly skip meals. People recovering from dental surgery or painful procedures like braces often spend weeks without eating 3 meals every day and they also survive. People doing Ramadan fast from sunrise to sundown and all survive just fine.

There is always one!