Shared Hotel Rooms for Work

Funny you bring up this example because this was the exact scenario my boss mentioned when I asked him about this whole program.

Again, I am in the construction world. No shade meant by this, but "progressive" isn't the word that comes to mind when you think of laborers. Anyway, apparently they hired a guy and later learned that he was gay and they had him bunking with other crew guys, like always. It was an impossible situation because A) you can't out the guy to his crew mates and b) you can't just let him be the only one in a single room, as that would be singling him out. My boss honestly wasn't sure how they resolved it.

I said "This is the exact kind of scenario I would think we'd want to avoid."

Or imagine a married guy bringing back a woman or something and his roommate having to decide if he keeps quiet. Just an infinite number of ways this could go poorly.
 
Last edited:
I can't believe there are companies out there that still require this. (any company bigger than a mom & pop type operation). I work in law, and my firm has always had a strict policy of each person with their own room. No exceptions. We even go a step further than that, we are very strongly discouraged from even meeting to do company work in hotel rooms - especially if it is a 1 on 1 type scenario. There are just so many things that can go wrong that open a company up to liability.
 
  • Winner
Reactions: CycloneCJ
I am not kidding one bit when I said I just did that exact thing while typing a response that I eventually just gave up on.
The reason that men and women don't share a room is because it might be uncomfortable for one or both, correct?

Does the same not apply when it is two men or two women?
 
I can't believe there are companies out there that still require this. (any company bigger than a mom & pop type operation). I work in law, and my firm has always had a strict policy of each person with their own room. No exceptions. We even go a step further than that, we are very strongly discouraged from even meeting to do company work in hotel rooms - especially if it is a 1 on 1 type scenario. There are just so many things that can go wrong that open a company up to liability.
So many things that could go wrong and open company up to liability, but it is "critical to the culture" of the OPs company.
 
I'll add that I learned that this is a very one-sided topic! We are at 9 pages of responses now and it feels like 99.5% of it is "This is dumb. No company should do this."
I haven't done the math, but I think the percentage may be a bit higher than that.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: throwittoblythe
So if one roommate orders to the room a lot of alcohol, room service, and raids the drinks/snacks in the room, does the company cover those expenses or is it up to both roommates?

If a roommate gets drunk and breaks something, does the company cover that or are both roommates responsible?

If one roommate steals from the other in the room, is the company responsible?
 
So if one roommate orders to the room a lot of alcohol, room service, and raids the drinks/snacks in the room, does the company cover those expenses or is it up to both roommates?

If a roommate gets drunk and breaks something, does the company cover that or are both roommates responsible?

If one roommate steals from the other in the room, is the company responsible?

What if your roommate brings a woman back to the room and SHE steals your stuff? Then what?!
 
We're getting the same kind of pitch on returning to work, travel, etc. Because being in the office with Bill will make you BFF's or something like that. Luckily someone higher up had the sense to put the brakes on it and not make anything mandatory.

I think there's going to be a lot of old managers making mistakes like this over the year where they want to revert popular benefits that came around during Covid. Good way to lose people.
 
Company culture? What is this, rural West Virginia culture? Sounds like you can basically just book single occupancy and they aren't going to fight it to much. Just punishing those who don't raise questions.

It's hilarious where people will try to save pennies on stuff like this. I got crap once because I flew economy plus on a flight from LA to Chicago for our managers meeting and turned in the extra $35 upgrade fee. I responded with telling our controller that I didn't have a single alcoholic drink the entire trip so I'm sure that if you compared my cost per person to some of the other people I was probably the cheapest person there. Didn't here anything after that (considering I saw him walking around the first nights meet and greet with a bottle of wine just randomly pouring it for people).
 
  • Agree
Reactions: throwittoblythe
I'm calling BS on this. I would talk to HR about this first and then start looking for employment elsewhere, in my opinion. If this thing is so critical to their culture, then the company has some culture issues.

It reeks of good Ole boy culture
 
Honest question - I understand the part about the no sharing with the opposite sex, but what if your coworker is gay? I'm sure that's come up for companies before. Just seems to me if you are requiring employees to travel for the benefit of your company, just pay for their own room.

Right? Now you require disclosing of sexuality? What about covid vaccination status? It's an HR nightmare.
 
Another issue I'd have with this is that when we travel for work, we usually have pretty intense days working together as a team. So there's lots of talking and conversations and going out to lunch. By the end of the day, if I can get out of dinner with my co-workers I jump at the chance. I can't imagine having to come back to the hotel room and spend time with those idiots. And I'm sure they don't want to spend time with me. I need down time away from people.

One potential solution for the OP would be to book a big hotel suite and then call their bluff on the team building ********. Tell them we can bond at night in the suite living room. Or book an airbnb with 2 beds/2baths.
 
I can't believe there are companies out there that still require this. (any company bigger than a mom & pop type operation). I work in law, and my firm has always had a strict policy of each person with their own room. No exceptions. We even go a step further than that, we are very strongly discouraged from even meeting to do company work in hotel rooms - especially if it is a 1 on 1 type scenario. There are just so many things that can go wrong that open a company up to liability.

Me either. I think this type of thing is somewhat common in higher ed or non-profits. But even then it isn't something that always happens.
 
I did this all the time when I was younger & working a travel type labor job. Didn't think anything of it, honestly.

Can't really get my mind around it now that I'm in a white collar job with a wife & kids.
 
OP’s CEO probably wants to get a room with a single queen bed when traveling with a coworker. Might be $10 saved compared to the two double beds and he can snuggle with someone.
 
Agreed. I've talked with one of my coworkers and we've both concluded that this is polishing a turd. Just call a spade a spade: it's a cost-savings maneuver. Don't feed us lines about "culture" and "family" and "connecting with your teammates."

And yes, we said the same thing. If you want to control costs for work travel: give us all a per diem and let us do what we want. Don't force the issue by making people room together. Give me a reasonable per diem and if I want to spend an extra $30 to get a nicer room, that's on me.

If sleeping in the same hotel room was good for “culture, connecting, etc” hosting sleepovers for your coworkers would be a common occurrence.

What a strange policy and pathetic “reason” behind it.
 

Latest posts

Help Support Us

Become a patron