Booking Guest Hotel Accommodations

All requests to have hotel accommodations booked on behalf of an IEOR guest should be made using this Google Form. All faculty have received this form, but share the link with them if they do not have it saved locally. The form has to be filled out while the requestor is logged in under their Columbia UNI / LionMail.

Once the requestor submits the form, it will automatically link to the IEOR Expense Tracking Log under the "Hotel Response Info Tab." You will use this information to make the hotel booking via Concur. Highlight the request you are booking as shown below to ensure the appropriate information is collected in the booking

Go to the Columbia Travel & Expense page and Login to Concur.

Click the "Travel" tile

Choose the "Travel" subsection

Choose "Booking for a guest"

Click the bed icon

Fill in the "Check-in Date" and "Check-out Date" fields

Enter "10027" in the zip code field as shown below.

Click the red "Search" button, then click the blue "Choose" button that appears to finalize the search

Note that we choose among three hotels: aloft Harlem, The Lucerne, and Hotel Belleclaire. While any room with a green check mark is considered to be within Columbia University travel policy, you should aim to choose the lowest cost accommodation among these three hotels (with an exception for approved guest requests).

Fill out the fields as shown below. Note the "Provide hotel room preferences" section. Since we want these bookings charged to the corporate card, note in this section that the guest's card should not be charged by the hotel. As of 2/27/2024, we're not sure if this actually prevents the hotel from charging the guest, but assume it does until you find out otherwise. For all three of these hotels, if the guest's card is charged, you will need to call the hotel and ask to have an authorization form sent to IEOR. This form will allow you to add the IEOR corporate card info so that the hotel can credit the guest's card and charge the IEOR corporate card instead.

Input the IEOR corporate card info as the method of payment. Alternatively, the individual making the booking can save the corporate card to their Concur profile so that this card is available automatically when booking (as is the case shown below). Again, be mindful of the fact that, for some reason, the hotel may charge the guest's card on the day of check-out. Once the card info has been applied and once you have agreed to the policy below, click the red "Reserve Hotel and Continue" button.

You will now be brought to the screen below. No action is required here. Scroll to the bottom and click the blue "Next" button.

The "Trip Name" section will populate automatically as shown below. The "Trip Description" should list whatever is found on the Google Form under the "Reason for Hotel Request" section. IMPORTANT: The guest's email (highlighted in blue below) should be removed from the "Send a copy of the confirmation to" field (i.e., there should not be an email address in this box). Fill in the remaining fields as shown below and click the blue "Next" button.

The screen below will appear. Click the "Confirm Booking" button.

On the screen that follows, click the "Print Itinerary button. Save as a PDF to your downloads (the name of the file does not matter for now, as it will be edited later).

Open your saved file in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Click the "Edit PDF" tile on the toolbar on the right side of the page. Once you are in "edit mode," you are simply deleting all text that mentions anything related to cost. This includes any text mentioning "total estimated cost" or "hotel fees." Additionally, delete the line, "Special Instructions: Donotchargeguestscard."

Once those changes have been made, save the PDF in the file path below and with the naming convention below. The file name should be "First Last check in month.day - check out month.day Hotel Booking" 

Share the file with the requestor via email. If the requestor reached out via email after submitted the Google Form, reply to that thread as to capture all cc'd faculty/staff. Otherwise, send a new email to the requestor with the PDF attached.

Lastly, add the hotel name, Concur confirmation number, and date that the itinerary was sent to the requestor to the section highlighted below on the "Hotel Response Info" tab of the IEOR Expense Tracking Log