Expensive

Funny things, expenses. The BBC, in the UK, tries to tread a middle line in hotel star-rating. This is exposed in the quarterly report on senior managers expenses, and they know it.  But abroad... 

In this quarter last year, Irene Asare, HR Director in News, managed stays in the Villa Rosa Kempinski, Nairobi, 5* (The perfect fusion of European luxury and Kenyan hospitality),  The Wheatbaker 5* ("Lagos's most Iconic hotel. The amazing art-supporting boutique hotel has fashioned the “art of hospitality” for over a decade.") and the Shangri-La Eros, New Delhi, 5* ("Cultured modern luxury in the evergreen Lutyens' Delhi"). 

Jonathan Munro, now Global Director, was also at the Shangri La, but back in the UK, his hotel tastes are more modest, featuring the Gem Fitzrovia, the Holiday Inn, Regent's Park and the Radisson Red, Glasgow.  

Meanwhile BBC News finance chief Claude Sarfo, based in Droitwich, has claimed 17 taxi fares using a previously unknown expenses rationale: "faster than the Tube".