I work for a big investment bank in London who often send people abroad on business trips and therefore has a preffered list of hotels around the globe. Recently, a friend of mine told me that I can get the company to book the hotels at the places I will be visting later this year. Talking to a colleague of mine who travels a lot he suggested the same thing ! He said that I should get the secretary to make the reservations for me. " All it does it to get the corporate deal". Looking at the corporate rates they look about 1/3 less than the normal prices. However, I don't feel comfortable walking up to our secretary asking her to book a hotel for me. Obviously, she would have to go through the onsite travel agency we have within the bank, but I 'm not sure whether employees are meant to use this kind of "facility". I just wanted to hear other people's opinion on this. Is this something people regularly do ? I will of course check with the travel agency in the bank first l, but in the meantime I wanted to hear your opinions on this. As my friend put it, "This is one of benefits of working in the bank. After all everybody does it !"
Whether you can use company resources(secretary) for personal travel is corporate policy. I have been rebuffed once working for a certain employer, that was contacting the on-site corporate travel agent directly. On the other hand, some company encourages you to use the travel service even for personal travel.
however, to get corporate rates, you often only have to "ask for" it when making the reservation, usually by phone, unless it's a really special low, long term rate.
I have never been asked to provide ID during check-in/out to validate eligibility. Not to mention "ID" means your business card.