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[pronytech]

I work in a science field. I am rather junior in my department. I receive very limited travel funds. There is an upcoming conference in my field that I wish to attend. However, because of my funding situation, I would not have been able to afford both airfare and hotel- only one or the other. My mentor very generously offered to share hu's room with me (2 beds, of course) since hu has a much bigger travel budget. We have traveled together in the past under the same arrangement and it has always been fine- we're out the entire day anyway. I do quite a bit of work for said mentor, so one might say hu is my boss/supervisor. 

Recently, there has been some tension between hu and me, but we talked about it and resolved it. Everything is fine now. However, hu said that hu no longer wants to share hotel rooms because hu travels so much.  hu was willing to use some of hu's travel funds to pay for my hotel at this upcoming conference, since hu had already agreed to share a room and I had already bought my ticket. However, because the conference is coming up so soon- the hotel is completely booked.  There are not any other hotels nearby except very fancy luxury hotels that would cost twice as much as hu's hotel.  Since I've already bought my non-refundable/non-transferable airline ticket- what am I to do?  Tell hu the situation and let hu decide. Tell hu the situation and offer not to go because I do not want to be an imposition on hu (hu is important to my career, but so is this conference).  I am easy going and we have never had problems traveling together in the past- in fact, hu has said how much hu enjoyed having me around because traveling all the time can be quite lonely. ... what to do?

[yellowtractor]

Ouch--this is a very tricky situation.

If it were me, I would explain the situation to my more senior colleague and ask for his or her advice.  This may not be the best solution from a political standpoint, however.

The only alternative I can see is to find a cheaper hotel room at some distance from the conference and plan to spend money on either public transportation or a taxi.  This is what I did on the one occasion I agreed to share a room with two others (grad students, back when I was a grad student) and they both backed out and cancelled our reservation at the last minute, leaving nothing open at the conference hotel  It was annoying, but it turned out to be the best option--short of cancelling and losing my airfare--under the circumstances.

[henri]

I would highly recommend Priceline.  However, before doing so--especially if you've never used the service before--I would click through better.bidding.com.  I think it's the single most useful travel website on the internet.  States and cities are broken down, with recent winning Priceline bids.  The moderators are extremely helpful. 

Good luck!

[sagit]

Do you have any other colleagues, friends from grad school, etc., who might be going to this conference or even KNOW someone going?  Send them an email saying that you missed the deadline to get a hotel room and are now out of luck.  Ask them if they know anyone (grad student maybe?) who needs a roommate.  I have a very small travel budget (I'm faculty) and ended up sharing a room at a recent conference with 3 graduate students from another school. 

[euro_trash]

I would find a different conference.

[mdwlark]

All good suggestions so far.  You may have already tried this, but I go to mapquest.com, type "hotel" in the name line, then the zipcode of the conference hotel.  It will create a list of hotels in the area.  Some are small enough they don't appear on other hotel lists.  I do the same with the words "motel" and "Inn."    Once I found a really inexpensive inn right next door to the conference hotel.  The two back-up hotels listed in the conference website were much further away.   The conference websites and brouchures only list back-up hotels that are comparable in quality to the main conference hotel.  If you are willing to rough it (two stars instead of three or four) you might find something.

The relationship problem is much trickier.  It doesn't really sound like everything is completely smoothed over.  Sounds like it needs more work.  Good luck with that.

[pronytech]

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions.  You are right about the relationship not being completely smoothed over. I hope that is just a matter of time. Hu is actually junior faculty and I am a post-doc paid off one of hu's research grants.  When I started working with hu a year ago, hu was very laid-back and super casual in our interactions and didn't seem to be into "status" so much but now hu is accumulating "high impact" publications and I have begun to sense a bit of "I'm faculty therefore I am above staying  (or interacting) with trainees" now.  I hope I never get to be like that.

[post_doc4now]

Does the conference organization have a listserv?  You might also want to post on there asking if anyone is in need of a roommate.  It wouldn't be the worst thing to stay with a grad student or post doc who is in a similar situation.

[poll_grad]

Does the conference organization have a listserv?  You might also want to post on there asking if anyone is in need of a roommate.  It wouldn't be the worst thing to stay with a grad student or post doc who is in a similar situation.

Definitely a good suggestion.  The last conference I went to, my rooming plans changed up until the time we all got there--mainly because one person missed a flight.  You never know what's going on.

[mdwlark]

Your colleague is really foolish, because post-docs have a way of turning into junior faculty at other universities and then into senior faculty, department chairs, and research stars.  You need good collaborators and supportive colleagues across the field.  Academe is a small world.