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?

The £200 is for return trips to the barracks for the week, not 1 journey. The issue is she only budgeted £150 for this as that's what it was last time

Yes OP, get a delivery for a frozen ready meal that has a lead time of 2 days to your hotel yesterday evening.

If there is a town 5 miles away the taxis can not be that scarce. 5 miles is nothing for a car, I hit more that that on my morning runs. It doesen't make sense unless i miss something

This makes sense. Thank you

Not very quick on the uptake there. Where is OP? It was a joke. 😊

Her taxis for the week are 200.00. she pays it upfront then claims it back.

The cost of a return taxi last night to try find food would have been 50.00

She gets her meals included with her stay, she doesn't have to pay for them, the hotel had a function on so kitchen wasn't preparing food for other people .

She has 250.00 on her card. Her taxis cost 200.00 leaving her 50.00 , she gets the 200.00 back when she claims it. She's meeting a friend too so is trying to keep 40.00 aside for that.

She is in the middle of no where, there's nothing in walking distance, she shouldn't really be walking alone at night anyway.

Taxis are scarce, shops are scarce and there's no man on a bike to bring her food.

She didn't bring food with her as she thought she was getting a feed in the hotel.

She doesn't have a company credit card, she doesn't have a stash of money in the bank. She's working away this week and trying to support her family at home too and it's shit that this is the way her company work expenses.
🙄

OP with the risk of sounding like a "Karen" (sorry Karens) I would talk to the manager. Is unacceptable to cancel dinner without warning and not provide you with alternative. Theay have an obligation to provide you with meal, they can make the trip into town themselves to put this right for you.

It depends on the town, I wouldn't expect a small town to have a full on taxi service, and it might be a village that OP has described as a town

Either way it would be at least £25 for the return trip, not including buying any food, which is more than OP can afford

😂

Op I never go on a work trip without some emergency cereal bars just in case! Advise to pack something in your luggage, at least then you can’t totally miss food

Honestly I just thought it was the latest in a barrage of incredibly stupid and useless suggestions like from PP, my apologies!

Op would appear to work for the MoD. Possibly a service person or civil servant but I would guess not a high rank. The MoD systems are generally not that flexible.

OP do you have a close friend who can transfer you money untill you claim back? Is very risky going with exact money somewhere remote you never know what could happen, train breaks down, you fall ill and need medicine, your jeans split, your period comes, you get stuck somewhere...always have spare! Take a credit card out with small amount (£800 or sonething like that ) take with you and leave it in the wallet, you don't have to use it. But if you are stuck you sort your problem and can pay it back within 3 weeks. Not being patronising, just advice

Rude of the hotel to not quickly make you something, even a sandwich!

Could you plant something last autumn to harvest now? Did you invest in livestock in the area before visiting? Yesterday, did you remember to pack an air fryer?

Nah, those things are only the contingencies for pre wedding munchies. You know, the few hours between breakfast and wedding dinner when people starve to death.

@Boxingshibes- in my experience of claiming expenses back from MOD they usually pay within a couple of days once all receipts are uploaded.

But the £200 is for a week’s worth of journeys to and from the barracks where she’s working. Not one taxi ride to the nearest takeaway. And getting a taxi in a rural area on a Sunday night can be near on impossible. And she’s short of money so hadn’t budgeted for a taxi and takeaway.

The villain in all this is the utterly unhelpful hotel.

@ saraclara · Today 11:40

Kilofoxtrot99 · Today 11:37
Can you not eat at the mess at the barracks? Most units will have a coffee shop and naffi, or little shop for the staff that work there etc, just to get a few things to tide you over.

You've not read all of OP's posts have you?
It was late at night. She didn't have the cash for a taxi to anywhere. And if she had, the mess would probably be closed anyway.

I was thinking more about the following days, as OP had mentioned her tight budget- the mess is usually pretty cheap

You might not believe it, but I promise it is how large parts of the country are. As I said, where my parents live is 5 miles from the town. If you get into a taxi at the town train station and say that's where you want to go they are either visibly annoyed or just refuse to take you. It's 5 miles on narrow, rural roads and at the end of the drive they'll have to go back again to get someone else, they're not going to pick up another fare en route. They'd much, much rather do short runs around the town. As I said, booked taxis often don't turn up, and then you're screwed. There are a couple of companies with a few cars each.

Hotel is a disgrace to the hospitality industry

Oh and the 5 mile journey takes around 20 minutes - usually little traffic, but quite a lot of it is single car width so no, you're not doing it in 5 minutes!

This is terrible of the hotel OP. For future work trips. Can you get a credit card and pay it off when you claim back expenses? Also ask work to book you in DBB then they’re picking up the cost in with hotel stay.

I hope at the end of her work today the OP can update us.

Most of all, it let the school down.