Work paying for hotel - would you do this?

[stagione]

Work are paying for my hotel when I attend a conference. It’s on a Thursday night and then I am taking annual leave for the Friday so that I can explore the town the conference is in.

Our budget is £300 a night. About 10 miles from the conference town is a gorgeous 5* hotel. It’s £600 a night.

Would it be unacceptable to book this hotel and pay the £300 difference? I’ve done this in the past but it’s been £40 here or there and always when the hotel is in the town where the conference is.

I could do the conference and dinner and then pay for my own cab over to the hotel.

Most companies would not be able to facilitate this as it needs to go through their accounts

Do it. Why not? Just claim the max budget back. Most companies are ok with this, but do check your travel policy.

Yes, I would expect the company to either book and pay directly for the hotel, or want an invoice when you submit your expenses (partly for auditing purposes and partly because they can reclaim the VAT.

This would be allowed at my work. The person would have to check with their manager, and flag it with accounts. They would have to book and pay the hotel themselves and then when expensing note on the invoice how much they are claiming back, possibly with a screenshot of the price of the official hotel to show the price difference.

Just reread the OP - I see there isn't an official hotel, just an allowance of £300. Same as previous post then, just mark on invoice that you are expensing for £300.

It would raise a few eyebrows though if everyone else attending had stayed in hotels that were £200. I'd find the cost of a hotel that you would have stayed in, and expense the cost of that rather than the full £300.

She won’t have a receipt for that. Much cleaner to expense £300 from the £600 room bill.
If the allowance is £300, it’s £300.

Is anyone else shocked at the cost of these hotels per night? When I stay away with work the cost per night is much lower

It would be fine with my company, but we get a lump sum that covers hotel, per diem, and travel (a set amount for travel to/from each airport). You need to provide an invoice to show that you stayed at a hotel (if, for example, you happen to have friends/family in the city and stay with them, they deduct the hotel portion from the amount that they give you) but the amount on the invoice doesn't matter (be it above or below the hotel portion of the funding).

Wouldn't be fine at my company. You really need to check with your manager first.

Just because the company is paying for it, do you really have to spend the full £300 on a hotel never mind another £300 of your own?
If it was your personal money would you really spend £600 for 1 night?

This is a question for your company - they will either say yes or no.

It depends how it's paid for. With my work they pay for hotels directly. But if you pay and then claim expenses your company might be okay with it.

If I could I would. It sounds like a fabulous little break

Yes this.

I deal with a lot of expense claims and our policy is the most cost effective suitable hotel up to a budget of ‘X’. So if everyone else stayed at somewhere that cost £200, I would reflect a £300 claim just because that’s our maximum with in policy but appreciate every company policy is different.

For the actual time you are in the hotel, Thursday you’re at the conference and Friday out exploring. You’re paying a large amount of money when you’re out most of the time.

I’m going away with work in a few weeks and staying Mon-Fri, we pay for and book everything and then claim it back. The hotel we booked is over 250 per night incl breakfast, we could have booked cheaper but they looked shite to be honest. I want comfort!

We calculate carbon footprint via expenses so my place wouldn’t accept this if the fancier hotel had a larger carbon associated with it.

Ask the company. If you can claim back on expenses it should be fine, if they want to pay direct then it might mess up accounts.

Don't guess. I remember a thread a few years back where the OP did something similar with a flight and the company basically accused her of fiddling expenses.

That hotel must be quite luxurious!

What you're planning is all above board. I would do it if I was you. Enjoy!

Personally I wouldn’t do it. You know that you haven’t done anything wrong, but it could easily be misinterpreted.

I have been working a long time and whenever someone senior has been ‘brought down’, for whatever reason, they always get them on expenses!

No. The 300 I'm guessing is a limit, not a target. You could get a much more inexpensive hotel and not waste your companies money. It is a business and spending the full 300 is a poor business decision

Just get the hotel to issue two invoices. One for £300 and another for the remainder.
It’s not that tricky.

I wouldn't spend £300 of my own money on a hotel for one night unless there was absolutely no alternative. The bonus in being away with work is that they pay and you get to travel. Would you otherwise take yourself off somewhere and spend £300 for one night in a hotel?

I travel regularly for work and we have a $400 per night limit for hotels in most international cities, with the exception of a few really expensive cities at $500. This is the absolute maximum we are allowed to spend but we are definitely expected to seek a cheaper deal if we can!
If your company is the same it might look pretty cheeky to claim the full £300. Perhaps check with your colleagues what they generally pay for hotels? I assume the amount indicated is the limit but not expected to necessarily reach that much.
As an aside, £600 for a hotel room is insane for one night!

I think it is a bad optic. Plus why for one night? You are at a conference all day then a dinner and will only be sleeping there. The next day you up and out by 11. A top hotel is great for a prolonged stay because of the service and amenities. But you aren’t going to use any of these.

Unless it is London a £300 hotel will be nice. I’d stay there and use my other £300 to pay for another night. If you can’t use it for something else.