Magazine

How Much to Pay for a Place to Stay

December 1, 2001

or fiscal 2002, per diem rates increased in 22 percent of U.S. locations; 68 percent remained the same and 10 percent declined, according to GSA, which sets the rates. The cities with the biggest hikes are Edison, N.J.; Lewes, Del.; Traverse City, Mich.; Big Sky, Mont.; Nantucket, Mass.; Kennebunk, Maine; and Atlantic City, N.J. Rates in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area will be higher Jan. 15 through Feb. 28 because of the Winter Olympics. With a lodging rate of $215 during the seasonal peak, Ocean City, N.J., has the highest rate of all 627 domestic locations. Vail, Colo., comes in second at $200, topping even Manhattan, which is at $198. This year, rates went up in 29 cities, including Yuma, Ariz.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Ontario, Barstow, Victorville, San Mateo and Redwood City, Calif., because of feedback from federal employees. Travelers can submit complaints about areas where they have trouble finding rooms at per diem to GSA via its "No Vacancy" Web site. Five cities, including three in Indiana and one each in Tennessee and South Carolina, dropped to the standard continental United States rate. The standard rate-$55 for lodging and $30 for meals and incidentals-applies in all cities not specifically listed. The standard rate is reviewed and revised every three years and last changed when it went from $50 to $55 in fiscal 2000.

After announcing the new rates in August, GSA boosted rates in late September for four Virginia locations. Travelers going to Hopewell, Petersburg, Prince George and Dinwiddie County, Va., now can spend $77 a night on lodging and $30 on meals and incidental expenses. The agency also announced a last-minute hike for Hannibal, Mo., upping its lodging rate to $57.

Wooing Feds

Several hotel and motel companies are trying to entice federal travelers with new programs. Candlewood Suites is guaranteeing active duty service members and civilian workers on official travel a room at or below per diem at its 94 locations in the continental United States, if reservations are made online.

Westin, Sheraton and Four Points-all owned by Starwood Hotels-are offering last-room availability, at or below per diem, to federal travelers at their domestic locations through the end of March. Choice Hotels, parent company of Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion, Sleep Inn, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn and MainStay Suites is doing the same, as is Cendant, which owns Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada, Travelodge and Wingate.

One reason hotels are jumping on the federal traveler bandwagon is competition sparked by the Federal Premier Lodging Program, which contracts with certain hotels for a guaranteed number of rooms at or below per diem. GSA has been working to get the program off the ground in cities where federal workers have the most trouble finding rooms.

After a test in Boston last year, contracts recently were set up in Chicago and Denver. GSA expects to make awards in New York, Washington (including Northern Virginia and nearby Maryland), Seattle, Baltimore and Portland, Ore., by the end of this year. GSA plans to have contracts in all of the top 77 federal travel destinations by March 2002, says Tim Burke, travel management policy director. Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul were just added to the list of cities that will have such programs. Until the contracts are final, per diem rates for those locations will remain at 2001 levels; the contract rate will become the new per diem lodging rate. "The Federal Premier Lodging Program gives federal travelers better assurance they will get a room at the appropriate time and place," says GSA's Bill Rivers. Federal Executive Boards in each city are telling GSA where hotels are needed and helping evaluate the contracts and the properties. "These properties are more geared to the business traveler" than the more remote places federal travelers have been forced to use, says Rivers.

For information on 2002 per diem rates and the Federal Premier Lodging Program, or to report trouble finding a hotel at per diem, go to www.policyworks.gov/org/main/mt/homepage/mtt/perdiem/travel.shtml.

-Tanya N. Ballard and Brian Friel contributed to this report

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