I was really surprised by an artilce I just read on hr.blr.com based on a survey conducted by Orbitz Travel. It said that nearly 1 in 4 (!) (24%) of business travelers have said they've had to share a hotel room with a co-worker! Say what?

Are travel budgets that bad? Anyone out there have experience with this? Can't they just send people to budget/cheap hotels? I'd rather do that than be forced to have a co--worker for a roommate unless they were also a close friend.

Meanwhile, I'm sure that these are "same-sex" arrangements, but with same-sex harassment claims on the rise, why would any employer think it's a good idea for co-workers of any gender to be in such close quarters? Can't you see it now? A claim from an employee in which he/she says that the employer "made us" share a room, which led to this problem?

Am I alone in my surprise?

i'd rather stay in the cheapest hotel by myself than share a five-star room with a colleague. in places like new york city hotels are really expensive but i'd rather try to save money in other areas than ask employees to share hotel rooms.

My company books separate rooms, but on one trip to Philadelphia for a conference, my colleage was so frightened to be in a hotel room alone in the "big city" that she  was in my room most of the time.

When I worked for a school system years ago, we had to share a double room.  OK except in the morning with showers and getting dressed--kind of awkward.

My husband's company has a sharing policy too. On his last trip, the conference was at a resort with 2 bedroom townhouses and the only other co-worker he was going with was a 21 year old female intern. Seemed wrong to me and I told him so. He switched with another pair from a partner-company so that the men stayed together and the women stayed together. I am all infavor of economy, but let's get real!

There is a big difference with sharing a 2-bedroom townhouse than sharing a hotel room.  For one thing, a 2-bedroom townhouse would have separate bedrooms and bathrooms. The only sharing would be in the common areas: kitchen, living room and dining room.  I have no problem with sharing a townhouse.  I've done it.

At the same time, I have not ask employees to share a hotel room.  When it came down to it, there was never a question - two hotel rooms were reserved.

My current company does have employees share a room (also my last company did as well).  We try to have single rooms whenever possible but if the expense is large for the room then we ask people to share. In fact, my President and Sales Director just went on a trip and shared a room for the night.  My President's philosophy is he would rather spend the extra money on doing things for the employees, like a nice Christmas party, lunch for everyone, a gift card at Thanksgiving, etc. then to spend it on travel. 

I can understand what you are saying about same-sex harassment, but if we had an employee that was totally against the arrangement I think my President would make an exception. You could have a harassment situation even if the individuals were not sharing a room. 

I'm sorry, but this has disaster written ALL over it. I would seriously consider changing your policy.

My previous organization also "requested" that employees share rooms.  I was extremely uncomfortable with that and expressed that my boss. In the end, I had to pay the difference in the cost to have my own room.  Unfortunately, it caused speculation among other people as to why I had my own room and they did not, why I was uncomfortable sharing and etc.  I was very frustrated with the entire situation and felt that the whole thing caused more harm than it needed too.  I would agree with all of the posters that say sharing rooms is a poor practice.

This sounds like a nightmare. There are some boundaries that just shouldn't be crossed with co-oworkers....

We have a shared policy in our company as well; we have found it to be beneficial in building a sense of teamwork and unity and rooting out selfishness in the workplace.

erinkuntz:

My previous organization also "requested" that employees share rooms.  I was extremely uncomfortable with that and expressed that my boss. In the end, I had to pay the difference in the cost to have my own room.  Unfortunately, it caused speculation among other people as to why I had my own room and they did not, why I was uncomfortable sharing and etc.  I was very frustrated with the entire situation and felt that the whole thing caused more harm than it needed too.  I would agree with all of the posters that say sharing rooms is a poor practice.

Depending on the types of things people speculated as the cause, they could have inadvertently invoked ADA or other types of state-related civil rights protections for you as a person perceived to have the protected characteristic (e.g., disability or gender transition).  Situations that generate this type of gossip are very harmful to organizations overall and teams in particular.  I hope supervisors and/or managers stepped in on that situation.

I wouldn't mind sharing a suite but I'm not a big fan of the 2 co-workers, 1 room thing.

I worked for one of the largest electronic retailers for over five years.  In that time I took an average of 6 trips a year in which I had to share a room every time.  It was a total nightmare.  I do not suggest it to any employer. 

I am an HR director at a small public university and I have yet to work for any employer over the last 20 years who did not require employees to share hotel rooms.  Most of the time if you want a single room, you have to pay the difference.

The only way I've been able to avoid sharing a room is by explaining that I have sleep apnea and other sleep disorders which make it very difficult to sleep with others outside of my family.  My tennis teams often go out of town for competitions and I'm always amazed at my teammates willingness to share a hotel room. 

Our organization has always had a share policy-same sex of course.  One way people have gotten around this is by getting a statement from their physican saying they have a medical issue and would need their own room.