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.

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

So you are prepared to pay six hundred pounds for bed and breakfast for one night? Even with work paying half, that’s lunacy! Just how great can one room and one breakfast be?

I think the 'fabulous little break' aspect would raise eyebrows. Presumably the business is funding attendance at the conference with the expectation that OP will be hard at work all day and networking in the evening, otherwise why stay over? Easier to justify if you are paying privately for a second night, perhaps.

Yes, usually the conference hotel offers a deal to delegates, so the chances are it is discounted to well below the £300. Most companies will only reimburse what the cost should have been, so if the conference accommodation is actually £150, that would be all you’d be entitled to.

As others say if you are simply going to have B&B and then checkout after breakfast, store your case in the hotel carpark (or even their luggage room) while you do a city tour, to consider a £600 alternative hotel seems madness to me.

This post actually feels a bit off - it’s sort of a stealth brag one, isn’t it?

It wouldn't fly where I work as we need to book via designated travel agency and the max allowances are nowhere near as generous as £300 p/n.

Me, but I work for a council so our nightly budget is about £40... 🙄🤣🤣🤣
I'm just jealous!

Hey OP, I think you're getting an unnecessarily hard time here!

I would absolutely do this if I wanted to stay in a nicer hotel than the one the company budget allowed. And you're having the next day off so will get the use of the room until 11am or whenever check out time is.

Our company policy says they will pay up to X and if we spend over that we need to pay ourselves so I sometimes stay somewhere nicer and pay the difference. I can tell you the difference between a £300 and £600 a night hotel and I would happily pay it:

The service is often better in a more expensive hotel
There is usually room service
The mattresses are good as are towels, toiletries and bedlinen
Sometimes there's a pillow menu, good if you want firm or goose down
The food is often better
The location might be better
There may be valet parking, turn down

I stayed in a city centre hotel this week on business and it was 4 star, priced at over £100 a night (the company booked it). It was awful, the mattress was thin and lumpy, the towels were tiny, there was no room service, the lift didn't work, the hairdryer was tiny and rubbish, the tv was miles away so pointless and I didn't have a good nights sleep. The reception staff were indifferent and unhelpful.

If I'd have known I'd have booked elsewhere and paid much more to stay somewhere better. As it was only 1 night I sucked it up!

I think you need to be asking your work this, not us.

I have no idea of my own work's policy on this let alone yours.

This really sounds like AI

This wouldn’t be allowed where I work.

I regularly go to conferences with work covering the whole cost. I always look for good value hotels that I would likely stay in if I was paying, not the most expensive thing I can get away with.

This a question for your employer, not Mumsnet. It's not a question of objective right and wrong but your work policies.