Ethics question - what would you do in this situation?

No-brainer for me, give your employer the corrected receipt. If they called the hotel, the discounted price is probably what is in the computer, so why risk it? Not worth it.

*Why did you stay there during a remodel? No way.

You give your employer the receipt showing the amount you actually paid. Why should you get reimbursed the other half if you didn’t pay it? Why should you employer have to pay for the inconvenience they didn’t even cause? Giving them the initial receipt would be stealing and if that’s what you did, you should feel bad about it. Stealing from an employer is a horrible thing to do.

What I would have done is cancelled my reservation as soon as I saw there was remodeling being done – or at least as soon as I found out the water would be turned off for a portion of each day. I would’ve gotten my money back (if I’d paid ahead of time) and used it to check in at a different hotel. Then my employer would have to pay full price, but I wouldn’t be taking a cold shower.

Giving them the full-price check is fraud. Definitely give them the final balance.
What time did you take a shower? I want to know if the hotel should have actually reimbursed you.

Give your employer the receipt for the true amount you paid. You can explain the ordeal to him/her and if they want to pay the other amount it’s up to them.

Employer pays what you did.

You have to give your employer the half price check. I would explain what happened and why the bill is lower. Was it a chain hotel? Like a Marriott or Hilton? Maybe you can write a letter to corporate and get a night free at a hotel or some sort of coupon that you can personally use in the future.

So far, unanimous. You turn in a receipt for what was paid. That’s the agreement with your employer.

If you work for a small company and you know your employer personally, you might tell them the story and they might volunteer to pay the original receipt. Were I your employer, I’d tell you to turn in the full amount…the rest is compensation for your inconvenience.

Employer gets the real receipt (half price). You get reimbursed for that amount.

I agree with everyone else. Turn in the receipt for the amount you paid.

(Be mindful if you use a company sponsored credit card like American Express or Diners Club, because they get a copy of your charges and may reconcile against your expense claims.)

Good for you – I did send the employer the discounted one, for all the same reasons you all have said. (I was talking to a friend over the weekend who took the other point of view, which is why I asked the question here.)

To answer the question of “why did I reserve there?” – I didn’t—my assistant did and apparently the chain didn’t advise her of the construction.

@elbanditoroso Ah, makes more sense now, I didn’t think it sounded like something you’d do…lol

Maybe add that to your assistant’s booking questions in future. :)

I would turn them both in.

Yes, remit both and maybe your employer will take you to dinner for suffering a cold shower since he/she gets a discount. I would. I would have been PISSED! Cold shower 1st thing in the a.m. no way!

It was one thing to limit the water during daytime hours, but to not have access to hot water for a morning shower. Pffft! The damn hotel should have closed until the repairs were complete.

I would’ve gone to work without a shower. That’s what dry shampoo and perfume is for. :) The only time I’d ever take a cold shower is if I had a sunburn, and even then it would need to be cool, not ice cold.

Concern over job security, and just being an honest guy, I would give them the corrected receipt.

I don’t know enough about your employer to know if stealing from them is morally justifiable. But, if it is, it doesn’t sound like it’s worth the risk to get caught.

@bolwerk ^^Please share under what conditions that stealing from your employer is morally justifiable??

@Cruiser: I dunno. If they steal from you, I don’t see anything wrong with stealing back what’s rightfully yours, though I think it better to exhaust other forms of recourse before going down that road. @elbanditoroso obviously doesn’t respect his employer, if he is indeed entertaining stealing from them, but hasn’t said what if anything they did wrong whether to him or not.

@bolwerk You have now put yourself in a corner that demands one or more examples of when, why and where an employee could be justified in ripping off their employer?!? If an employer steals from you there should be ample contractual evidence of said infraction and justifiable recourse…absent that you are pretty much S.O.L. and shame on you for allowing that employment condition like that to exist in the first place.

@Cruiser: not paying you maybe? It, eh, happens.

^ ?

@bolwerk There are ample legal recourses for recovering earned wages and anything they may have stolen from you. Ripping off your employer is simply a crime no matter how you slice it.

@bolwerk, before you insult me, please read what I wrote.

@Cruiser I once worked for a man that was such a crook, that he had no respect for an employee that wouldn’t try to crook him back. It was a restaurant, and he treated the bartender (who ripped him off all day, every day), like a son…better than his own son. I worked there a couple of weeks, then went up and asked him about tax papers. He’d been in business, maybe 20 years. His reply, “Never heard of that! If you can find some blank ones someplace, bring them in, I’d like to see them.” He paid OT at regular time, but in cash. I’ll never forget the day that he came up and said that I was saving $70 by him not reporting my OT (paid at RT), and that we split the difference, $35 each. The next day I respectfully suggested that I would need a receipt for my OT pay from then on. Got my $35. Damn, I needed that job, and liked the other hourlies!

When I finally quit I turned him in for the whole ball of wax, and the government (back then) told me that they were not interested in wage infractions for businesses with under ‘X’ number of employees and the IRS told him “Gee, you need to start doing the tax thing in the future!” I ended up costing him a few hundred dollars and he’d probably been ripping his employees off for that every week.

You just brought that story to my mind as a situation were an employees could justify stealing from an employer. I never did, but I would have likely turned a blind eye if someone else with a family to feed did.

@Cruiser: I’m not terribly concerned about “crime.”

@elbanditoroso: Where did I insult you? Maybe you have a good reason for not respecting your employer, if indeed you don’t.

@bolwerk How did @elbanditoroso insult his employer? I’m missing it.

Pretty dissapointing that you are not concerned about crime.

(disappointing)

@ibstubro I have had to fire 3 employees for theft in my 18 years here. One guy was taking product, repackaging it and selling it online! HS!

@JLeslie: I don’t see where he did. What I said was, ” @elbanditoroso obviously doesn’t respect his employer, if he is indeed entertaining stealing from them, but hasn’t said what if anything they did wrong whether to him or not.”

It’s just a little hard to justify stealing with the information he already gave us. I mean, if he wanted to stick it to his employer for something they did, he could have not fought for a discount for his shitty experience, since he wasn’t going to end up being responsible for the bill anyway. His question seems to be exclusively about benefiting himself through stealing.

@bolwerk The OP didn’t entertain it. He turned in the lower amount. Someone he talked to said he should have turned in the higher amount and he wondered how other people looked at it and decided to ask fluther after the fact. He already did the right thing. You inferred the wrong thing from his question and failed to read his explanation later on in an answer he gave. Go back and read his answers as he suggested.

@JLeslie: he entertained it and then decided against it. I just don’t know why he considered it in the first place.

I would be honest with my employer and then contact the hotel’s 800 number, explain to them what happened and maybe you’ll get a free night or nights at their hotel (location of your choice, obviously). It is a chain, as you said, and chains want you to be satisfied and want you to keep negative reviews off of TripAdvisor or other review sites.