Multiple Ivy League Professors Stayed at a High-End East Coast Hotel—Then Front Desk Staff Noticed a Disturbing Pattern
Shutterstock
College is expensive, and going to an Ivy League school is even more expensive.
If you were accepted to an Ivy League school, where would you think your tuition money was going? Perhaps to pay the salaries of the professors on staff and administration as well as the upkeep of the school?
That’s probably part of it, but after reading the following story, you’ll probably realize that these universities waste a disturbing amount of money on frivolous things, and a big part of the problem is dishonest professors.
Keep reading for the whole story.
If you went to University and are wondering where your tuition money went…
So I’m one of the concierges at a very high level hotel in a major east coast U.S. city. We’re talking 400+ a night even on the slower weeks.
Like anyone working the desk at a high end place I have tons of stories about the ballers, frauds, and wannabes that generally raise hell.
This time, I want to give a few examples of some genuinely insane things I’ve seen from those who are traveling on behalf of their esteemed higher education institutions.
Here’s the first example.
We had an assistant from a professor from one of the Ivy League universities reach out to us and inquire about transport for her assigned professor. With the university covering her entire expenses, they wanted to ensure the was able to make the strict timeline of meetings and speeches she had to make.
No problem, we book transport on a near hourly basis. Two airport transfers for her flights and now we get to talking about the in between.
She needs a series of 6 rides between the hotel and 4 other buildings over the 10 hours she is in the area.
But she could’ve easily walked.
These buildings are about 10 minutes walking distance between the hotel and here.
Now the transport company we have doesn’t book such short distances at a flat rate, it switches to hourly on an hour to hour basis at a rate of 200/hr.
So after much back and forth of me trying to convince this assistant that the school did not need to spend $2,000 dollars on one day of transportation for their professor because “she doesn’t like having to rely on walking in heels” they book both airport transfers and the rides for a combined total of $2,500 USD.
Try not punching your fist into your pillow imagining that one while paying your student loans online.
Here’s another example.
Back during the Christmas season last year we had a very talkative and nice professor from a state school that will remain unnamed. This was for a 5 night stay to show her kids the area.
She spoke with the whole staff and was a genuinely friendly individual. She got us some cookies, brought us all coffees in the morning, and even helped move another guests luggage when she saw them struggling.
While speaking with her one night she was a bit tipsy and let me know that she was happy the university was going to pay for the vacation.
Yikes! Talk about dishonest!
I jokingly asked her if she won the trip in a employee benefit thing or if she was gonna embezzle it.
She looked me dead in the face and told me, “Oh come on, they think I’m out here right now working with some researchers from other schools. They don’t have a clue that all of us came up with the idea of faking this whole thing so we could enjoy the holidays with the kids!”
To my knowledge this was never discovered as to this day I look up the school and don’t see a headline about it.
It’s possible this could involve a bunch of other schools considering the way she spoke about it.
Finally, one more example.
Guest comes to the desk one a day I’m covering for the agent that called off. Checking out like usual, she confirms the billing, confirms the credit card that will be billed, and book we are done.
She gets the paper copy of the bill and goes, “Oh, is there a way to remove the part of the bill that specifies the room type? I’m on a business trip and I want them to think that I had just a regular room.”
This woman was coming from an Ivy League school and was booked into one of our largest suites with a 4,500 USD final bill.
Never Miss a StorySign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Just think. These are the people educating the next generation.
In the end she asks us for whiteout and proceeds to whiteout the document and scan it to print a fresh copy with the room type removed.
Overall I think that if I am seeing these kinds of events happening across several universities within a period of a year, there may be some concern as to how these are being run.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an American who is confused about why they can’t use their American dollars at a Canadian grocery store.
Anyone else have some bad experiences with professors or other education groups?
Wow! It makes you wonder what college students are learning in school. If Ivy League schools think lying and scamming the university is no big deal, what are they teaching the students?
There weren’t actually any comments on this Reddit post, so I’ll share my own thoughts.
This behavior really is disturbing. The professors are very dishonest or lazy. Imagine being unwilling to walk 10 minutes and insisting on paying $200 for a car to transport you to your destination instead. Surely there’s a cheaper way, like Uber or a taxi instead of a prearranged car if not walking so very important.
How dishonest the professors were, lying about why they were staying at a hotel and lying about what type of hotel room they were staying in, is so very wrong. I almost wish the hotel worker had given the university a call to let them know what’s up. It’d be even more disturbing if the university didn’t care.
I’m worried the next generation is being taught to lie.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
