Originally Posted by
WHBM
These rates have been discussed here on FT before, but to give one example of why you would NOT use a US organisation (with a US organisation's sense of geography), stand at the front door of London Heathrow Terminal 5. The Sheraton to your half-right is in the London Borough of Hillingdon, and thus gets the London rate of USD 499 a day, whereas the comparable Marriott (with similar rates) to your left, equally served by the Heathrow Hoppa hotel bus shuttle, a bit further west along the A4 road, falls into "Other" (because it is over the boundary in Berkshire, with a Slough postal address and postcode on the receipt) and only allows half this amount, USD 255 a day.
Even Liverpool reimburses more. Liverpool !
I still go back to the fact that the main reason private companies use it is to get themselves out of the business of determining the rates. They can go in to their clients and say "we use the GSA rates, which everybody knows are a little on the frugal side." Takes the discussion of specific per diem rates out of the conversation and allows the negotiations to move on to meatier topics.
They aren't perfect, and I'm sure they're somewhat better for domestic U.S. cities than the rest of the world, but they serve the main purpose that a private company needs them to serve.
It then falls upon us, the travelers, to book that Sheraton instead of the Marriott.
