Employee books $1,200 hotel stay on company card after poor enforcement of new expenses policy: 'Have fun paying for than double for the room'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jan 10, 2025 8:00 AM EST

Miscommunication is inevitable when new work policies are being enforced, so why not use that to one's advantage? After all, is it not worth it to put a new policy to the test to ensure that it is worth it? These are the kinds of mental hoops many employees jump through while sitting quietly at their desks and scheming once their managers announce unnecessary changes in the new year.

If you're a manager and you have found yourself on the other side of this issue, consider a few options before jumping to conclusions and blindly enforcing untested rule changes. Firstly, be transparent with employees on your team about why existing policies need a change and take their temperatures regarding what they think about it all. Next, ask for their input. It doesn't necessarily need to be a formal survey. It can even be a casual conversation. However, those conversations are important for both parties before sudden changes are made. Finally, when it's time to start enforcing these changes, have a legitimate backup plan and be open about should things go wrong.

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    Cheezburger Image 10452262656
    via Unsplash+ (Curated Lifestyle)

  • Here, we have an employee who had to go through a whole new bureaucratic process when it came to submitting expenses like hotel stays for business trips. He wound up following the new rules to the letter and it backfired majorly for the company.

  • 02
    TLDR; I can't book a hotel using my company credit that is in my contract that I'm allowed to do? Have fun paying more than double for the room.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 03
    I work remotely for a small company (~100 employees) and based on my contract, I have to return to the office for a week 4 times a year. The last time I went back up was in November. In the contract, it's laid out that my employer pays 100% of hotel and gas/airfare.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 04
    Normally this is an extremely uneventful routine, it's a mid- sized Midwestern city with not much to do, it is what it is. A few months before I went back up we had our financial audit and one thing that was pointed out to our accounting department was a lack of controls on purchasing.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 05
    The way it used to be was every manager/supervisor had a company credit card with a $1,500 balance and as long as we stayed under that limit, we didn't have to do any kind of purchase orders.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 06
    After our audit, my accounting team decided to make purchase orders 100% of their focus. Going forward, it doesn't matter what it was, what the situation was, if you didn't have an approved purchase order you could not make the transaction. All this
    via reallyf***intired
  • 07
    happened in early October as I was trying to book my hotel for my on site week in November. Normally I have freedom in choosing when I go onsite, but I was requested to go that specific week by my CEO and CFO as we were launching some strategic planning and they wanted me onsite.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 08
    So I put the purchase order in for the hotel and I don't hear anything back. I forget about it for a couple weeks then remember mid October that I still don't have a hotel room booked.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 09
    When I initially made the request it was about $550 for 4 nights. Looking again in mid October it was now up to $700 for 4 nights. I look around and noticed that same week I'm supposed to go up there's a concert in the same city followed by a big college. sporting event in that town. I
    via reallyf***intired
  • 10
    send an email to my accounting folks that I need to book a hotel, rates are going up, room availability is going down, yadda yadda yadda. I get a tersely worded email back saying that everyone has different priorities and my purchase order will be addressed once all the ones before it are done.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 11
    So I sit back and wait and keep checking every other day and keep seeing prices go up. I send a weekly email asking if it's approved yet and I keep getting absolute silence back. Finally a
    via reallyf***intired
  • 12
    week before I email my accounting team with the CFO included saying if I don't book a room that day, there wouldn't be any left and I wouldn't be able to make it up for the strategic planning work. About 30 minutes later I get back an email that says word for word: "You are authorized to reserve a hotel room for 4 nights".
    via reallyf***intired

  • Thankfully, the employee kept a paper trail of his email correspondence with the folks who handle purchase order approvals, including his several warnings about hotel prices going up. Now, there was absolutely nothing his employer could do when those prices ended up doubling to a grand total of $1,200 for four nights. Yikes!

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    Cheezburger Image 10452262400
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)
  • 14
    Cool, I book it, that $550 room is now $1,200. I book it and move on with my life and don't think any of it. Last week, I got around to uploading my credit card receipts and submitted my expense report which included that $1,200 hotel stay. I got a call
    via reallyf***intired
  • 15
    from my CFO today just exploding on me, furious about where the h I did I stay that cost that much and what was I thinking. I very calm just forwarded the original purchase order and all the emails I sent saying that prices were raising. I
    via reallyf***intired
  • 16
    had de d silence on the phone as he read through the email chains and just said 'for foks sake' then hung up. At the end of the day all supervisors got an email that the purchase order system was being shutdown until they could figure out how to manage it better.
    via reallyf***intired

  • Several members of the community shared their reactions and similar anecdotes regarding unnecessary work policies they have had to deal with time and time again. Here's what they had to say!

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    RivaTNT2M64 • 10h ago I will admit to being mildly surprised at the ending... Typically [especially in larger organisations] this kind of thing is the only flex the numbers guy can push onto other employees and will be lost in the far larger amounts moving about.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 18
    What is a significant amount to an individual, is less than a rounding error on corporate books and will - get missed & help preserve the number guy's ego.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 19
    Seems like your company is small enough for it to be noticed and the CFO knew you well to call you directly and get details unvarnished.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 20
    And he was fast acting enough to get the whole thing shut down when it obviously isn't working the way it is supposed to. Both are unlikely to happen in larger companies.
    via reallyf***intired
  • 21
    Nice work on the CYA email and the snarky reply is probably worth its weight in gold. >:)
    via reallyf***intired
  • 22
    Beneficial_Test_5917 · 10h ago "And don't rent any car with the word "economy" anywhere in its description, we're a classy company!"
    via reallyf***intired

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workplace-stories hotel toxic-workplace job malicious compliance work workplace Horrible Bosses company toxic-work-environment
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