pudgygroundhog
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,648
Location: The Grand Canyon
Jun 25, 2014 20:18:39 GMT
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Post by pudgygroundhog on Feb 18, 2020 3:02:34 GMT
I am attending an institute at Teachers College, Columbia University. The hotel is not affiliated with the University. I think the hotel was recommended by my instructional coach – she has been to Teachers College many times before. Our reservation has the room going from $399/night to $419/night. I found it on Expedia through trivago for as low as $252/night and no more than $287/night. I also found an Airbnb with three bedrooms and good reviews close to the university for the same price as our hotel. I’m going to talk to my principal about it tomorrow… I would not Air B&B in NYC. They are mostly illegal and they end up often being scams -- they'll have a well-reviewed well-located one, but the guest will show up and find out they can't use it, or will get a last-minute email saying they have been moved to a different one (different location and lousy). Some people do have good luck, but unless you have a real live person who you know to vouch for the particular site, I personally wouldn't do it. I was going to chime in with this too! Be very careful with Air BnBs. Let us know how the talk turns out - seems like there are several issues to address. The room sharing and cheaper rooms to be had. I don't know if there are some weird rules about the booking, but it seems to me they would want to save the money. My husband ran into this several times at his old company - he found cheaper rooms that were more convenient for him while traveling, but the company had contracts or some kind of agreement and they had him stay somewhere more expensive.
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Feb 18, 2020 3:37:44 GMT
Normally there are cheaper hotel rates for conference attendees. I would check and see if there is a rate an what it is. $1900 a night? that is crazy!! It’s not actually a conference....it is an institute at Teachers College, Columbia University. So it’s not at a hotel. And the $1900 is for 4 nights. But I’ve found cheaper rates just browsing online... hmm maybe because its NYC... but we host things like this all the time for university professors and we always have a hotel with negotiated rates.. I would think Columbia would! They do amazing work at Teachers College!!
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Feb 18, 2020 3:39:41 GMT
Here's how I see it. You're at a meeting of a woman's group. It's a large group, held in an auditorium. Everyone's pretty much a stranger, though you may have seen one or two of them around town, maybe even had a conversation in line at the grocery store, at the library, etc. Anyhow, at the meeting someone brings up a new topic of conversation she would like to discuss by standing in front of the group and presenting the topic. This person mispronounces a word. Maybe she even mispronounces it twice. Would it be acceptable for someone else to then stand up during the conversation (which had stayed on topic) to blurt out nothing more than: "You mispronounced the word. It's not THIS but this." I have better manners than that. It's rude and possibly embarrassing to the person who made the mistake, but 100x more so for the person who had the bad manners to point it out like that. If someone simply cannot help but to point out grammatical or spelling errors, maybe they could just PM. Or better yet, just LET.IT.GO. A friend recently pointed out to me during conversation that I was mispronouncing a word. I looked it up. Turns out I was wrong. Now I pronounce it correctly and I’m glad I know. I can’t fathom having the mindset of I’d rather just be wrong than learn. Why not do it privately rather than call someone out publicly . It just the kinder thing to do.
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Post by mustlovecats on Feb 18, 2020 3:53:14 GMT
I also made the same mistake on May 10, 2019 at 11:03pm. You need to update your spreadsheet. Ahaha katybee that made me LOL! Seeing this thread has gone off on a bit of a tangent (as they often do here)...... I was on another message board years ago, and one of the members, who was a teacher, shared the exciting news of her promotion to 'Vice Principle'. (It wasn't a typo, she did it on several threads.) Do you know how hard it was to not correct her? I mean, it's bad enough to not know how to spell your own job title, but when that job is in education..... oh dear. She also liked watching 'Biggest Looser' on TV. However, I managed to refrain from correcting her, because I didn't want to embarrass her and I didn't want to be a dick. It is likely that I will move up to assistant principal in the next two years and I still have to think about my written communication carefully. I have a tendency to use run on sentences a lot as well as comma splices. I also have to remember how to spell “principal” by reminding myself that the principal is your pal. Sometimes we become leaders not because we have great grammar skills but because we bring other valuable things to the table, and that’s okay too. I proofread my professional communication very carefully but can’t promise I don’t sometimes make mistakes in places where it matters a lot less.
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katybee
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,448
Jun 25, 2014 23:25:39 GMT
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Post by katybee on Feb 18, 2020 4:01:31 GMT
I would not Air B&B in NYC. They are mostly illegal and they end up often being scams -- they'll have a well-reviewed well-located one, but the guest will show up and find out they can't use it, or will get a last-minute email saying they have been moved to a different one (different location and lousy). Some people do have good luck, but unless you have a real live person who you know to vouch for the particular site, I personally wouldn't do it. I was going to chime in with this too! Be very careful with Air BnBs. Let us know how the talk turns out - seems like there are several issues to address. The room sharing and cheaper rooms to be had. I don't know if there are some weird rules about the booking, but it seems to me they would want to save the money. My husband ran into this several times at his old company - he found cheaper rooms that were more convenient for him while traveling, but the company had contracts or some kind of agreement and they had him stay somewhere more expensive. My principal was off campus today, but her admin seemed to think this is what the case is—we hold contracts with vendors and we can only use those vendors. We deal with it all the time. We are only allowed to order supplies and materials from our approved vendors, even if we can find them cheaper somewhere else.
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Post by canadianscrappergirl on Feb 18, 2020 4:38:39 GMT
Yeah that would be a no go! I don't even share a room on my scrapbooking retreats. I like my own space and don't want to share a toilet or a shower or tv LOL
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schizo319
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,030
Jun 28, 2014 0:26:58 GMT
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Post by schizo319 on Feb 18, 2020 13:10:20 GMT
I *hate* sharing a bed, I won't even share a bed with my own mother (she snores SO loud!). I'd be fine in a suite situation or even "dorm room" or hostel type accommodations where I had share a bathroom - I'm way low maintenance - but I need my own space to sleep. I hope you're able to work something out with your principal. I despise the whole "preferred vendor" thing. That is such a waste of tax dollars (I work as a government contractor, we have the same stipulations - have to buy binders from the preferred vendor for 8.99 when we could get them for less than half that at Office Depot). It's infuriating that it's okay to guilt you into uncomfortable situations "for the children", yet they can't be bothered to bypass their vendors to save money "for the children". UGH! WTF? So what if anyone is a lesbian? ? For a lesbian in a committed relationship, sharing a bed with another woman would probably be uncomfortable/inappropriate? As a hetero woman, I know I would be horrified to be expected to share a bed with a man I wasn't in a relationship with - I can't even imagine that ever being expected of me - I would assume the same would hold true of same sex partners. (ETA: I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong in my assumption if anyone wants to chime in and educate me as to why it's different for same sex couples)
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 18, 2020 14:08:59 GMT
I think it's terrible that the school district would ask three teachers to share a room like they are junior high students on a band trip. Room sharing isn't the norm in the business community and I don't think this this would be the norm in education if it weren't a female dominated profession. Even when I worked for the state and money was always an issue, I was never asked to share a room w/ another employee. We just cut down on nonessential travel when money was tight.
Unfortunately, I don't think anything will change unless teachers ban together in their districts and demand that travel policies be changed district by district.
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peaname
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,390
Aug 16, 2014 23:15:53 GMT
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Post by peaname on Feb 18, 2020 14:13:12 GMT
For a lesbian in a committed relationship it would be inappropriate/uncomfortable because it would be inappropriate/uncomfortable for anyone of any gender or sexual identity to share a bed with a stranger of any other gender or sexual identity. It doesn’t become any less uncomfortable when the bed is shared with someone you are not attracted to!
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Post by workingclassdog on Feb 18, 2020 14:42:46 GMT
The only time I shared a room with someone was my boss. She was paying my way with her own money. We were pretty close so it wasn't really a big deal and we definitely had two beds. That is about as close as I have come to have to sharing a room. Thankfully we both were snorers so we knew that going in. lol
My job now with the State (and on a budget).. I had to go to another city for a month for training. I was really nervous that sharing a room was going to be the norm. It wasn't. Only time people had to share if there wasn't enough rooms available for trainees. I don't think it has ever happened though. And that is sharing a ROOM not beds. I am fairly certain sharing a bed would be not be a thing to do.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Feb 18, 2020 14:56:54 GMT
She made the same spelling error on another thread, so it wasn’t just a typo. Wouldn’t you want someone to tell you? She’s a professional and this makes her look rather unprofessional. I don’t understand getting offended when someone points out an error. Why not choose to learn from it? The person who corrected her wasn’t snarky or bitchy in the least. I also made the same mistake on May 10, 2019 at 11:03pm. You need to update your spreadsheet. LOL. I have to be careful when I’m posting on my iPad because for some reason there are several words that were spelled incorrectly at one point and somehow got saved that way. So now when I go to write those words correctly it autocorrects to the wrong spelling! It’s so insanely frustrating! Not sure if that’s the case here, but just thought I’d point it out that sometimes technology isn’t our friend.
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Post by Merge on Feb 18, 2020 16:28:12 GMT
I was going to chime in with this too! Be very careful with Air BnBs. Let us know how the talk turns out - seems like there are several issues to address. The room sharing and cheaper rooms to be had. I don't know if there are some weird rules about the booking, but it seems to me they would want to save the money. My husband ran into this several times at his old company - he found cheaper rooms that were more convenient for him while traveling, but the company had contracts or some kind of agreement and they had him stay somewhere more expensive. My principal was off campus today, but her admin seemed to think this is what the case is—we hold contracts with vendors and we can only use those vendors. We deal with it all the time. We are only allowed to order supplies and materials from our approved vendors, even if we can find them cheaper somewhere else. The cynic in me always wonders who's getting the kickbacks from these "preferred vendor" contracts.
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Post by FuzzyMutt on Feb 18, 2020 16:35:42 GMT
I also made the same mistake on May 10, 2019 at 11:03pm. You need to update your spreadsheet. LOL. I have to be careful when I’m posting on my iPad because for some reason there are several words that were spelled incorrectly at one point and somehow got saved that way. So now when I go to write those words correctly it autocorrects to the wrong spelling! It’s so insanely frustrating! Not sure if that’s the case here, but just thought I’d point it out that sometimes technology isn’t our friend. Yesterday I was texting my son "So proud of you!" Nope. Autocorrect to the rescue! "So rat poop you!" Not sure how in the world it is more likely to have "rat poop" in that sentence, rather than proud.
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PrettyInPeank
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,691
Jun 25, 2014 21:31:58 GMT
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Post by PrettyInPeank on Feb 18, 2020 16:42:43 GMT
My principal was off campus today, but her admin seemed to think this is what the case is—we hold contracts with vendors and we can only use those vendors. We deal with it all the time. We are only allowed to order supplies and materials from our approved vendors, even if we can find them cheaper somewhere else. The cynic in me always wonders who's getting the kickbacks from these "preferred vendor" contracts. Exactly. Along that same vein, that’s what I’m wondering here. Hilton has a great reward program. You can actually choose the same room at a different rate to get more “points” that you can redeem for reduced or free stays. I would absolutely find out if someone’s personal Hilton Honors reward account was linked to this reservation.
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Post by MichyM on Feb 18, 2020 16:43:43 GMT
LOL. I have to be careful when I’m posting on my iPad because for some reason there are several words that were spelled incorrectly at one point and somehow got saved that way. So now when I go to write those words correctly it autocorrects to the wrong spelling! It’s so insanely frustrating! Not sure if that’s the case here, but just thought I’d point it out that sometimes technology isn’t our friend. Yesterday I was texting my son "So proud of you!" Nope. Autocorrect to the rescue! "So rat poop you!" Not sure how in the world it is more likely to have "rat poop" in that sentence, rather than proud. Right?!? Auto correct comes up with the weirdest and most random stuff sometimes!
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katybee
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,448
Jun 25, 2014 23:25:39 GMT
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Post by katybee on Feb 18, 2020 22:38:18 GMT
Well...I found out today that it’s probably going to be FOUR of us sharing a room. One is a coworker/friend I’ve known for a long time, so at least there’s that. I was also able to meet my other roommates at a training today, and they’re very nice. None of us like the situation, but at least we can all laugh about it. Honestly, in my 17 years of teaching, I’ve never had the opportunity to travel for something like this or heard of anyone else being able to (MAYBE in state, but never to NYC). So as much as I want to be the change, I’m gonna suck it up and go. I am very excited about the institute, itself.
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Post by papersilly on Feb 18, 2020 22:59:11 GMT
share with a stranger? hell no. i couldn't do it. i can't even share with extended family much less strangers. nope. no way. i'd find another hotel or not go.
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Post by Merge on Feb 19, 2020 13:41:48 GMT
Well...I found out today that it’s probably going to be FOUR of us sharing a room. One is a coworker/friend I’ve known for a long time, so at least there’s that. I was also able to meet my other roommates at a training today, and they’re very nice. None of us like the situation, but at least we can all laugh about it. Honestly, in my 17 years of teaching, I’ve never had the opportunity to travel for something like this or heard of anyone else being able to (MAYBE in state, but never to NYC). So as much as I want to be the change, I’m gonna suck it up and go. I am very excited about the institute, itself. I'm so happy for you that you get to do this exciting thing. I hope the room sharing situation turns out better than you expect and that you have a wonderful time. Let us know how it goes!
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Post by peanutterbutter on Feb 19, 2020 13:48:39 GMT
So I'm just going to throw in my two cents worth that is highly unprofessional of them to expect that you would share a room never mind the bed with strangers. H I hope you have a fabulous time and a great learning opportunity because it sounds like you're looking forward to it.
If you could figure out some way to take an air mattress or have one delivered to the hotel for you via Amazon Prime or something it might be worth it, they're pretty inexpensive. My friends and I actually do this for a scrapbooking retreat, we can put four to a room but they are double beds, and while we all like each other we don't like each other enough to share a bed LOL, so a couple of us take air mattresses, and the hotel gives us extra linens.
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moodyblue
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,254
Location: Western Illinois
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Feb 19, 2020 13:50:13 GMT
With four people in the room, they should pay for a second room. Two to a room is much more reasonable.
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Post by mikklynn on Feb 19, 2020 14:17:24 GMT
Well...I found out today that it’s probably going to be FOUR of us sharing a room. One is a coworker/friend I’ve known for a long time, so at least there’s that. I was also able to meet my other roommates at a training today, and they’re very nice. None of us like the situation, but at least we can all laugh about it. Honestly, in my 17 years of teaching, I’ve never had the opportunity to travel for something like this or heard of anyone else being able to (MAYBE in state, but never to NYC). So as much as I want to be the change, I’m gonna suck it up and go. I am very excited about the institute, itself. I am happy you excited about the opportunity. But 4 adults to a room is BULLSHIT. It is completely wrong and unprofessional. There is no way anyone in any other profession would be expected to do this. I can't imagine any 4 men would tolerate it.
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,798
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on Feb 19, 2020 14:21:50 GMT
Well...I found out today that it’s probably going to be FOUR of us sharing a room. One is a coworker/friend I’ve known for a long time, so at least there’s that. I was also able to meet my other roommates at a training today, and they’re very nice. None of us like the situation, but at least we can all laugh about it. Honestly, in my 17 years of teaching, I’ve never had the opportunity to travel for something like this or heard of anyone else being able to (MAYBE in state, but never to NYC). So as much as I want to be the change, I’m gonna suck it up and go. I am very excited about the institute, itself. I hear you and am glad you’re ok with the situation but I would still rattle cages! How many beds?
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Post by kitkath on Feb 19, 2020 14:32:04 GMT
They need to at least get a second room. Sharing a bed is totally inappropriate for coworkers. All 4 of you should put up a fuss and get it changed.
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katybee
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,448
Jun 25, 2014 23:25:39 GMT
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Post by katybee on Feb 28, 2020 22:49:36 GMT
Update in OP.
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Post by tamiq on Feb 29, 2020 11:13:53 GMT
That's an awesome update!
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maryannscraps
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,791
Aug 28, 2017 12:51:28 GMT
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Post by maryannscraps on Feb 29, 2020 12:38:20 GMT
Great update! Don't feel guilty for dealing with this in a professional way. Single rooms are the norm for pretty much any professional trip.
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Post by mikklynn on Feb 29, 2020 12:48:20 GMT
Great update! There is no reason to feel guilty. This is what you should expect when you travel for employee development.
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Post by lucyg on Feb 29, 2020 15:44:21 GMT
Love your update. Don’t you think someone else probably complained, and the district buckled?
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,684
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Feb 29, 2020 15:55:23 GMT
So glad someone else complained and/or the district came to their senses. Now you can relax and enjoy yourself (and likely learn more than if you were sleep deprived/stressed).
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 6, 2024 21:21:54 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2020 15:56:46 GMT
Okay, that is so odd going from 4 in a room and bed sharing to a private room and a king sized bed! Glad you a no longer sharing a room. I do wonder if the whole coronavirus scare freed up a lot of rooms at discounted prices.
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