this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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Hotels
Not even all that expensive either, especially for the chain "premium" hotels like Leonardo or Marriott or Village or whatever.
Turn up smart, look tired, ask for a room and ask for "the corporate rate, because I need to claim it back on expenses" or some shit.
A £180 or £200 per night suddenly because available for £70-90... if they have any availablity of course. There's a wild markup on hotel room prices.
That's not how it works at all. There's no secret words to get a lower price. The best possible scenario is an upgrade if you have status at the hotel, and that isn't even guaranteed. Hotels charge businesses a lot of money.
Nobody's mentioning a secret word at all.
Sure, if the demand is there, then hotels charge whatever they like - if Taylor Swift is performing, or if it's a Champions League final, or a convention is on, for example - but for evenings of high availability, there's an understanding that businesses can't justify ridiculous expenditure.
Certainly with my last few employers - one of which had their own travel cell, and otherwise used outsourced travel providers likes the Hogg Robinson Group - each country had a maximum rate you could charge back to the employer on expenses depending on country, or sometimes depending on city based on the granularity of your company's policy.
Hotel chains (and some of the more flexible independent hotels or B&B's) know this, and are more than happy to give the room away at that rate - I suspect the cancellation terms are a lot harsher though.
I've certainly called hotels ahead of time, told them what my employer would pay for a room without my expenses report being subject to automatic audit, and they've dropped the price from £140 to £80 a night.
I would imagine that so long as there's a category for that available on the receptionist's till, then they're not bothered how much a room is sold for so long as it's sold.