[eduction]

The more nights the company is asking you to travel away from home, the stronger the argument for the Ritz.

You seem to think more nights makes it a weaker case.

Travel is brutal, being away from home is brutal. The reason things like the Ritz and first class airline seats exist is that there are people who need to travel a lot and one way to keep them functioning at a high level despite the relentless pace is to provide superb comfort and service.

GitLab can decide to be that kind of company or not but when business travel becomes routine and frequent for one individual it’s dishonest to pretend they should scrimp like it’s their own much rarer leisure travel.

[akhmatova]

A quick search confirms that are -plenty- of nice, boutique hotels (in downtown areas of the usual fancy cities) offering perfectly decent rooms in the under $300/night range, even on short notice. The only reason we go for the Ritz's price range ($600-$900) is to tell ourselves (or others) that we stayed at the Ritz.

The ability to distinguish between the cost-value ratios of the two categories -- and to understand that yes, even for a large, successful company, unnecessary expenses of this sort do add up -- is precisely the sensibility that GitLab[*] is looking for.

[*] Again, a hypothetical GitLab - the Ritz-Carlton example comes from the blogpost author, and not from GitLab.

[pempem]

Corporate spend also occurs at rate unavailable to the end user.

The only reason you tell someone you stayed at the Ritz is because you haven't stayed there often.

[nibbleshifter]

Yep, if the trips > 3 days, then facilities like fitness (a gym, etc) really become requirements as opposed to "nice to haves" at a hotel.