Accommodation

I just got an email from the web site I booked my hotel in shanghai through.

"We refer to the below booking and was advised by the hotel that you did not check-in as reserved. As we did not receive any cancellation notification from you, the hotel will charge a one night no-show penalty to your credit card."

So, someone in the hotel screwed up and didn't process my booking properly. I'm pretty sure I stayed there, I mean I wasn't sleeping on the street or anything, but the hotel seems to think otherwise. I've checked my credit card statement and nope, there's no charge from the hotel for the stay. So, looks like I'm getting 3 nights in a 5-star hotel for the price of one! :-)

(and before anyone says that's dishonest and I should 'fess up, this place had the nerve to charge me 50 quai admittance to the resident's bar and then slap a 15% service charge on an already expensive drink!)

And speaking of accommodation, for a while there it looked like I was going to be left dangling in the wind re: a place to stay for my last few nights here by my company. The boss was asking me to start filling in my expense report before I came back, and was annoyed to say the least when she saw the cost of accommodation. The problem I guess was that when I was coming over I put in my expense request based on me sharing an apartment with someone, and when I got here it turned out I was on my own in the place so the cost is double my original estimate. Also, seems that the rent on the apartment is negotiated on a monthly basis, and April is twice as expensive as Feb was - nearly a grand from April 1st to 14th as opposed to slightly over a grand from Feb 1st to 28th (the fact that one of the guys here who knows someone in the building I'm in says that the "normal" rent on those apartments is about 1/3 what we're paying measn someone is getting screwed somewhere, but it's not me so I don't care).

And here's where the fun begins. the boss was quizzing me on why it was so much, and then said "but you're only there until the 6th right?" My reply was no, I'm there until the 14th when I fly out. Turns out that because it's so much, Sun are only going to pay my rent until the 7th, as that's how long I'm over here on business on, and once I get into my vacation days I'm on my own. Nice eh? I'm off to Japan for 4 days so I'm goign to be paying my own way there nayway, but for a while it looked like I'd have to go off and find a hotel for the 2 days after I come back from Japan and before I fly out. Luckily I managed to sweet-talk the HR person here into letting me have the 2 nights in the apartment for free, so I'm ok for accommodation, no thanks to the people who pay my wages back home.