The case of the missing 'free' hotel night

Readers come up with the most interesting scenarios, helped along by strange accounting methods and inflexible business systems. This plea from a reader is truly puzzling:

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"Recently I went to a conference and am now doing my expense report.  I have an ethical question.

"The hotel rate was stated at $150/night with a special 'buy six nights get the seventh free.'  Since the conference only required five nights, but I was taking the family, I jumped on this offer so I would only have to pay [for] one night instead of two.  All is fine so far.  

"Then I got the bill. The hotel doesn't actually 'bill' the offer as one day free, but discounted all seven days so the total would come out the same as the stated rate times six.  Even when I signed for the rate up front it specified the higher rate for six days with one night free. My request to the hotel to reprint my bill with six nights at the higher rate got me 'our system can't do that.' 

"I could turn in my expense report with the five days at the higher rate and use my original booking documentation as the receipt. Is that ethical?

"My thoughts center around the golden rule of separating personal and business expenses, 'what would it have cost if you ONLY did what was necessary to perform the business function.'  In that case I would only have stayed five days and paid the higher rate, thus the 'seventh day free' belongs to me because I chose to stay the last two days.  Am I just rationalizing for personal gain?"

I've always found that combining business travel with personal time brings up some strange situations, mostly in separating what's truly business from what's merely personal. I've always done my best to keep the categories separate -- as I'm sure most people do -- but, like the reader with the hotel problem, some things always crop up. In this case, the reader expected the hotel to produce a bill charging $150 per night for the first six nights and zero for the last night. That way, he could expense the $750 for work-related expenses and pay the $150 for his one and only "paid night," getting the last night for free. Instead, the hotel prorated the free night and charged about $128.50 per night for seven nights. And therein lies the problem.

A lot, I suppose depends on the size and flexibility of your own organization. I worked for one boss in a small company who had a practical approach. Suppose I had a midweek conference. If I tacked on a weekend for personal time, he was OK with my expensing the whole thing, as long as what I billed was less than what it would have been had I gone for just the days of the conference. Usually, the difference in midweek airfares versus a Saturday night stay-over meant I could get a free weekend because the airfare was so much cheaper. It was win-win.

Then, I worked for a guy who couldn't stand the idea of someone having a good time. He would demand that we come right back from the trip, even if it cost him an extra $1,500 for the more expensive airfare. That one was lose-lose.

Some companies require you to put the expense report through the dreaded "accounting department," where I swear they have an interoffice competition to see who can reject the most expense reports for the tiniest of transgressions.

So, responding to my reader from a practical point of view, a lot will depend on what sort of organization you work for. If your boss is a reasonable person and your organization is flexible, then the best approach is to talk it over and come up with some sort of arrangement.

If not, then you may just have to bite the bullet and pay for your two nights at the discounted rate.

Ethically speaking, it's more difficult. It's a valid point to say that had you stayed only the five nights, the company would have paid the higher rate, and no one would have said anything. That would have ended the matter. It was staying the extra two days that complicated things.

Staying for the sixth night made you eligible for the free night offer, but the previous five nights were important too. The sixth night, by itself, wasn't what triggered the special rate. The bottom line is that your employer contributed more to the special offer than you did. A good way to envision this is to imagine that you had paid off your account on the five nights and then opened a new account with the hotel. You and the company combined would have paid the full rate for all seven nights.

My feeling is that both you and your company contributed to the "free night," and you should both reap some benefit in proportion to your contribution. The hotel may have unwittingly led you down that path by prorating the discount over the seven nights. You reap two-sevenths of the lower overall weekly charge, and the company gets five-sevenths.

So, my semi-Solomonic decision is to approach the matter head-on. If you can't come to some agreement with your boss, simply pay up. I wouldn't recommend trying to flimflam the accounting department. I don't think that's an honest approach.

Another way to look at it is that you got seven nights accommodation for your family for the cost of two discounted nights -- and that's not a bad deal no matter how you slice it.