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Miscellaneous Monday: Your most odd Business Trip experience

Fun Man Andy

Have you ever had a really bizarre business trip experience?

An odd experience that made you go “WTF!?” or even “Oh no, not again!” or perhaps “Is this Fa Realz!??” " aria-label="flushed emoji" data-stringify-type="emoji" data-stringify-emoji="" border="0" />" aria-label="open mouth emoji" data-stringify-type="emoji" data-stringify-emoji="" border="0" />

That’s the topic of this week’s Miscellaneous Monday…
I came up with it early this morning as I found myself travelling to Madrid for the 5th time in my career, and yet, once again, it’ll be:

Fly In Hotel Meetings Event Hotel Fly Out

I have never had the chance, nor really forced myself, to extend the stay and truly enjoy this magical Spanish capital.
(Tonto! )

It really does make me go:
“What on earth is with me and this beautiful city that I never get to enjoy it!??”

This is by far not likely the most bizarre experience out there, though.
So, what’s your odd experience(s) when on the biz travelz?

Image: enjoying eavesdropping on a group and their guide as I go from taxi to hotel...

Comments

Summer Hogan_q8imea

I have a story! When I worked for McKesson, me and a group of ladies were working on a large initiative and had to go visit numerous pharmaceutical companies. We took a 5 day trip to go visit 3 of them. We flew to Philadelphia and met with Bell pharmaceuticals, then drove to Morristown, NJ to visit Navartis pharmaceuticals and then went to Maimi to visit Teva Pharmaceuticals. When we arrived at Bell, everything went as planned and they even had an elaborate lunch setup for us. But here's where the story gets interesting. When we arrived at Navartis, despite the weeks and weeks of planning we did with them in advance for this visit, no one had any idea we were coming and they were shocked that we were there. They had to call some folks in from their day off to visit with us and TBH, the visit was a waste of time and money. That has to be the strangest thing that has ever happened to me on a work trip! Sliver lining though, we got to experience some great places and while we were in NJ we took the train into Manhattan for a great dinner and we got to see Times Square!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

I've got two stories, but one of them I wasn't the travellor.

I did a project with a company in Germany, and I was flying to and from Munich to do a sort of "one week on site, two at home" style thing. Our admins arranged all the flights, and put me in the hotel nearest our office and the client site, all I had to do was turn up. So I'd got used to getting from Munich airport to the office or hotel. On my last trip though...

The person in the seat next to me was a human-sized cuddly donkey
When we landed, I was totally lost, the airport was different, and I had a horrid feeling I'd managed to get on to the wrong plane somehow. Turns out this was because our admins had used Lufthansa who use a different terminal to all the others I'd used

The one not really about me: I was working for a company that has several offices around the Moorgate area, and we had three people flying in from the US to join us for a week. We'd told them how to get to the office, but they didn't show up when we expected them. We eventually sent someone to the station to look out for them, but still nothing.

So my boss rang one of them. They said they'd only just got off the train and were on the concourse looking for our colleague. Ben started giving them directions to where our colleague was standing, but they were stumped on most of the landmarks, not able to see them. I asked if they could describe their surroundings and was able to work out the problem really quickly. I lived in Liverpool for many years and I recognised Liverpool Lime Street station from what they said. Shame the office is just outside Liverpool Street station in London, 200 miles away...

Dave Rosenlund (Trundl)

I have many, but the one that really stands out...

I once was a last-minute addition to my employer's "booth staff" for a very large trade show in Las Vegas. At the time, it was the kind of show that practically took over the whole city and all of its hotels for the week of the show.

The company travel dept had trouble finding a hotel room for me but finally did and everyone, most especially me, was relieved I wouldn't be couch surfing in someone else's room that week.

When I arrived and asked the information desk how to get to my "airport hotel" I was told to, "take a taxi — it's on the other side of the airport, / you can't walk there from here."

Well, my airport hotel did abut a runway, but that was the only (noisy) thing that was airport about it.

I further knew I was in trouble when I walked into the hotel lobby and there was soft porn playing on the lobby TV and the room rates were listed by the hour. I was handed a presumably clean set of sheets and directed to my room, "outside and around to the back of the hotel."

Upon climbing the stairs to the second floor and arriving at my door, one could easily see that the door had been forcefully opened numerous times. And if that wasn't scary enough, the room had a gaping, uncovered hole in the wall where the A/C unit used to be.

That was the last straw for me. I promptly unchecked myself out -- they wanted to charge me for the minimum 15 mins. but I flatly refused for obvious reasons -- and I happily couch surfaced with some other colleagues all week.

-dave

Fun Man Andy

WoW ! ! These stories have left me absolutely jaw dropping..... 🤯 👏

John Funk

I was in Seattle for my combine training, certification class, and got bumped from where I was supposed to stay. The city was pretty booked with other stuff going on, so I ended up in a hotel in a somewhat sketchy part of town, but close enough to walk to the training. There was a liquor store next door and a weed dispensary business across the street. The walk to the training building was interesting at times.

On the back of the door of my room was a framed note that quoted a local law ordinance saying it was illegal to assault hotel staff persons. It also said the room had a panic button that the cleaning persons could push if they were attacked. Strangest thing I’ve ever read in a hotel room. I kept a picture of the note on my phone for a few years.

Andy Gladstone

I travelled from NYC to Santa Barbara California for training on a new software system in November 2004. The trip started out fine, flying in to LAX and planning on renting a car to go from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. When I went to the rental desk at LAX they told me that my license was expired (it was, but I had renewed online and had not received the updated document in the mail yet) and could not rent me a vehicle. I was 105 miles from my destination, at night, in an unknown city. The rental agent offered to help me get to a place that would rent me a vehicle, because 'he had a friend that could help me'. I should have been more wary, but I was desperate and jumped in his car. He took me a few blocks away to Rent-A-Wreck. They had no problem renting me a beat up old Toyota Corolla that had more cigarette burns in the upholstery than any car belongs having. I got in the car and drove the 105 miles with the windows open (so I could breathe), arriving in Santa Barbara after midnight. Gone were my dreams of tooling around Santa Barbara in a convertible. Instead I tried as hard as I could not to be seen with the car the entire week I was there.

But hey, as my father always told me - all it needed was 4 wheels, so who was I to complain?

Summer Hogan_q8imea

Wow @Dave Rosenlund _Trundl_ - that is quite a story! Scary and yucky! I would have done the same thing!

Dave Rosenlund (Trundl)

Yikes! Your sketchy hotel story beats mine for sure, @John Funk

Tommy Augustine_u4x60v

I traveled on a business trip to a conference, and I did not know the hosting company was celebrating its 10th anniversary. They THREW DOWN at the anniversary party in Silicon Valley. They had Beer pong using volley balls and trash cans, dancers, a band & DJ. It was like a VIP Club!

Teodora V _Warsaw Dynamics_

I usually try to avoid any possible nonsense, but no matter how hard I plan and hide, there is always something to surprise me.

So I am traveling to my first-ever conference overseas with my brand new team. At that moment in time, my longest plane travel was no more than 3 hours. So I'm feeling a bit low the entire travel, had a few lightheaded moments but tried to keep myself together, breathe deep and wait patiently to arrive.

HOWEVER (yes, this must be in all caps here), I survived the conference, performed well, spent time with the team, and I was more than ready to go back home.

30 minutes after boarding my 14-hour flight I felt slightly sick. 30 minutes more and this turned into a massive disruption of my brain, body and gut, and it made me spend the next 10 hours throwing up (I would spare you any more details about that). At first, I thought it was pretty embarrassing, but at the end of the trip, I was lucky to be standing on my feet.

I found out I have vestibular issues that fire after a few hours of flying time, and now I never ever forget to take my meds before traveling. The good outcome of this story is that my new team quickly become my second family. You can't ignore someone you helped throwing up for 10 hours straight

John Funk

It’s never fun getting sick while you’re traveling. Glad you figured out what it was so you can help mitigate that!

Dave Rosenlund (Trundl)

Yikes, @Teodora V _Warsaw Dynamics_!

Omar Mohamed Fathi

yszz!!!

Juan Carlos Vera

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