You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[WideReceiver]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Honestly I kinda feel the same way about the Banff Springs.

A lot of hype but low on substance.

The rooms are subpar but the hotel is super cool. We took a tour and learned about the hotel’s history, including all of those ghost stories. I know many of those from writing a magazine piece Ghosts of the Banff Springs.

[Wormius]

The pool during my stay at a Quality Inn in Santa Clara a few years ago.

It was not St Patrick’s day, and you could smell that from the balcony.

[Locke]

Oh come on! You could have been brave enough to get in there! You could have done a rendition of a horror movie!

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Locke

Oh come on! You could have been brave enough to get in there! You could have done a rendition of a horror movie!

I would have taken bets.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I would have taken bets.

Grab a floatie and a beer and you could have been 'Swamp Thing!'

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Locke

Grab a floatie and a beer and you could have been 'Swamp Thing!'

I am sure that what he was injected with. I also think the smell permeated the a/c unit. It was a foul place. I blame myself for not booking a better place ahead of time, considering I could expense it for work.

[puffnstuff]

Work always pays for nicer hotels than I do

[PaperBagger'14]

Only once did I ever stay in a dump of a hotel for work, and only because it was very close to site and the timelines for this job were incredibly tight. I’ve done a few upgrades at the spray lakes hydro dam years ago, it definitely had its perks working out of Canmore. Same with the Sparwood coal mines but staying in Fernie. We got stuck in Fernie after a huge dump of snow for a few days and it was awesome. Highway was shut down, the hill was pretty well empty with a ton of fresh snow. It was amazing.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by puffnstuff

Work always pays for nicer hotels than I do

Normally, yeah. This was for a conference I wanted to attend and didn’t want to push things by booking a $500 / night place.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Sliver

You just described literally everyone.

Except for all those who have posted the exact opposite. Everyone has a different threshold for how much they are willing to spend on hotel stays: some view the hotel room as the last thing to spend money on for a trip, to me it's a fundamental part of the experience.

We finished with travel hockey a few years ago and I won't be going back to crappy hotel rooms anymore.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Normally, yeah. This was for a conference I wanted to attend and didn’t want to push things by booking a $500 / night place.

Work once paid for me to stay downtown Toronto for under 24hrs $750/night

####ing dumb

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Work once paid for me to stay downtown Toronto for under 24hrs $750/night

####ing dumb

I also think conferences are a huge waste of company resources unless you are in any sort of sales capacity.

And no "well acktually I added $$$ value when I went to some bullcrap conference"

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by fotze2

I also think conferences are a huge waste of company resources unless you are in any sort of sales capacity.

And no "well acktually I added $$$ value when I went to some bullcrap conference"

I only hit up 1 conference a yr and that's because our biggest client always goes and supports that conference.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by fotze2

I also think conferences are a huge waste of company resources unless you are in any sort of sales capacity.

And no "well acktually I added $$$ value when I went to some bullcrap conference"

I’d disagree. Where you can concentrate a lot of technical training in one venue, is the perfect of company resources.

Maybe you are thinking of tradeshows or something or being an exhibitor vs attendee.

[Shazam]

You can learn a lot at nerd IT conferences.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by fotze2

I also think conferences are a huge waste of company resources unless you are in any sort of sales capacity.

And no "well acktually I added $$$ value when I went to some bullcrap conference"

Sure if the only conference you have been to is the global energy show.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

That's funny, I can't imagine going on vacation and spending most of my time in the hotel. The point is being somewhere novel to explore and experience but to each their own I guess.

I also think going on vacation to sit at your hotel and get hammered is for morons too. You can do that at home for a fraction of the cost but I guess for a lot of people getting out of their daily routine is enough even if you’re doing the same thing somewhere else but you get to pay a premium for it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Is someone actually saying that? Wanting to stay at a nice hotel is not the same as wanting to spend most of my time there.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Sure if the only conference you have been to is the global energy show.

Ya, I agree it should be a taxable benefit to the employee. They are boondoggles and you know it, people just defend it because it can be a huge perk that people don't want to lose. There are always the conference chaser employees going on four a year and being totally useless to the company on their dime.

Development, get out of here. Maybe if its an actual course.

Ya you could have done all that at home.

I could just be bitter because the past 5 companies have totally eliminated that perk except for executives (obviously) and I am jealous of the guys going to a New Orleans Heavy Oil Artificial Lift Conference complete with Bayou tours and crocodile golf excursions.

[Weitz]

So you just work at a #### company. Gotcha.

I’ve been to many conferences and have learned a lot. Not all of them are boondoggles. I make my people present learnings when they go.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Except for all those who have posted the exact opposite. Everyone has a different threshold for how much they are willing to spend on hotel stays: some view the hotel room as the last thing to spend money on for a trip, to me it's a fundamental part of the experience.

We finished with travel hockey a few years ago and I won't be going back to crappy hotel rooms anymore.

Yeah I guess I stand corrected. I had no idea people actually didn't care about staying in a dump. Just thought it was budget related.