I've worked for 2 smaller IT consulting firms (I'm indie now), and I'm a technical consultant (i.e., not sales).
For someone like me, the 2 firms I've been with are also in the "whatever the customer will pay for" camp, but they also lived in mortal fear of having to explain any possibly-questionable expenses to the customer, so they have tended to still be cheapskates and err on the side of "let's not incur that expense just in case the customer might complain". Result: Hampton Inn and Fairfield Inn class hotels...even a Courtyard might be considered extravagant.
As for travel expenses incurred on company time/dime, both firms I was with were worse than their worst customers. "Oh my God, WE have to pay for that??? Uh, maybe you can use the Supershuttle to travel the 40 miles from the airport out here to the suburbs. Oh, and don't worry about dinner after work, you can walk to the 2 nearby restaruants and then just walk back to your motel for the night, right?"
I couldn't make this up.