Discreetly Booking a Gay Hotel

March 25, 2008

>You clearly skipped over:

>

>>Obviously I don't know your situation

>

>I've done travel both on a corporate card (where I paid the

>bill but got reimbursed) and using personal cards that got

>reimbursed. Either way, the company paid the bill. They have a

>right to specify what they'll pay for.

>

>Sorry, zip, you don't have the right to spend someone else's

>money any way you see fit. They have a say.

And the company doesn't have a right to you after the close of normal business hours - unless they are prepared to pay you overtime. Until then, you should be able to stay any damn place you want. I bet they wouldn't care if you told them you had a friend in that city where you would be staying - thus saving them the hotel costs!

+ *deej* · March 26, 2008

Overtime? Most business travelers are salaried employees. There is no such thing as overtime. Travel is in the job description.

>I bet they wouldn't care if you told them you

>had a friend in that city where you would be staying - thus

>saving them the hotel costs!

Stay anywhere you want when they're not paying the bill. If you expect them to pay for it, though, they have the right to say what they will and won't pay for.

rentingdad · March 26, 2008

RE: Discreetly Booking a Gay HotelI

I have to agree with Deej here for the most part. As a business owner with dozens of employees traveling all over the world during any given week I do have a say where I will pay for them to stay. However it would NOT be based on whether the place was gay or straight - it is based on how much I as the business owner (or the client if it's a client billable trip)am willing to pay on a per night basis.

And to Anton - your posts simply don't make any sense. Stick to escorting and wooden shoes my friend...can't engage with someone I can even understand.

March 26, 2008

>Also, if the company is paying for it they have every right to

>make sure you're not staying somewhere on their corporate card

>that would make for salacious headlines.

>

You may be right, but it seems that a lot of people responding here are jumping to conclusions about what the original poster's job is and some other facts. In general, I would wonder why it was so important to go to a gay resort while on a business trip. Can't you just hit the bars after whatever conference or business? But then again, I don't know all of the facts because the original poster hasn't shared them.

I recently went to a brief conference for work in Anaheim. My hotel and meals were paid for by work. After the last day of the conference, I went to Disneyland in the evening. I must say I was a little embarrassed at having that evening's meal receipt say "Disneyland" on it, but since it was right after the conference was over, I felt it was OK (and no one belabored the point when I turned in my receipts). When it came time to being reimbursed for mileage, I wrote for only those miles between the airport and the hotel, not for other things such as my escort tryst.

I realize other peoples' situations may be different, but even though I'm about as out as can be at work (and about 1/4 of the workforce is gay), I would definitely not have the nerve to ask work to pay for a gay resort. Since the trip was paid by them, I felt it was my responsibility to stay near the conference so that I could show up in the morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Trying to hide the name would make it seem even worse--as if I were hiding something.

tanman4u · March 26, 2008

Wow. Since my original posting of what I thought would be a quick and easy question, we're up to 4 pages or replies. I do appreciate the advice from Anton and will probably be contacting the travel agent he recommended.

Thank you Anton.

For all the speculation of my personal and business problems I thought I'd explain a bit more. I don't know why I feel the need to do so since, as was pointed out be a few here, it's really no one's business but mine (and I guess to an extend my employer since they're paying). But I've enjoyed reading the replies and though that since I'm stuck in an airport between flights with nothing else to do I'd write the final chapter.......yea like this will be the final posting.

It's not that my employer is super homophobic so I probably shouldn't have done the earlier reply saying "yea they're that homophobic". I try to keep my personal life separate and I absolutely know that my job would not be in jeopardy whether I was married with kids or riding on a leather float in a Pride parade (I'm neither BTW).

From a biz standpoint, I'm good at what I do, I do it during the normal biz hours plus the occasional biz dinner, and I'm paid well for doing it. I think the company could probably care less what I do after hours as long as my performance isn't affected the next day.

I usually book the Holiday Inn/Crowne Plaza group because I'm up to Platinum status with them so they've become one of the many frequent traveler programs that I've been sucked into. When I checked on their rates for Fort Lauderdale I found that they were really expensive. So I started looking for alternatives and started thinking that it would be cool to stay at a gay hotel or resort. I'm not crazy about the bars, used to go to the baths quite a bit (there's a couple of good ones in FLL) but not so much anymore, and sometimes just save myself the time and effort and hired a guy. I've got a few reviews posted here and another to come soon.

I found a couple of fun sounding places in FLL that are cheaper than the normal Holiday Inn/Crowne Plazas that I use so the company should be happy about that.

So my only real concern was the bean counters and not because of the "witch hunt" that was speculated by someone here. For me to stay anywhere other than the chain I mentioned is really out of the ordinary and I think out of pure curiosity that someone would Google the hotel just to see where or what it was. Of the two I'm considering both have amenities like clothing optional pools, saunas, etc., things I look for but things I'd just as soon not get into the office gossip circle.

If Cheaphotels.com represented either of them I'd already have it booked because the actual hotel doesn't show up on the company credit card statement. ( I just had to call their 800 number because I didn't even recognize the charge ).

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it and besides they're calling my flight.

tanman4u · March 26, 2008