I am responsible for hiring many people that travel for my company on a per project basis. My company in thier wisdom wants to impose a flat $40 per diem rate for everyone in every city. I think that seems low (especially in New York or Los Angeles). I was curious for the people who travel on per diem, what is your per diem rate and what is included (food, laundry, phone, gratuity, etc).

Thanks for your help.

When I was in consulting, that was standard. Supposed to cover meals only. I always had my project manager waive that or I would not go on the project. Reasonable "actuals" is how I played, with guidelines that were supposed to keep you in the $40 limit ($5,$10,$25). But who in the heck can eat dinner in NYC or SF for $25?

We follow the Federal rate schedule for meals which is found at:
http://www.dtic.mil/perdiem/pdrform.html

Great replies above!

But this topic should have been posted in the General TravelTalk forum.

Just for future reference.

jsm, The company I work for has the following daily "guidelines" which are generally not adhered to, to the dollar:

Breakfast $15.00
Lunch $25.00
Dinner $50.00

These are considered �guidelines� as it is known that dining in New York, Chicago or San Francisco is not the same as dining at a smaller city. The company is rather lenient and I have paid more than $125.00 pp for dinner (no drinks) and was able to expense it also.

As for other costs, �reasonable� is the term they use in using laundry services, gratuities and telephones at a hotel or during ones travel. I tend to charge about $50-$75 per a one week business trip for the use of laundry services at hotels but significantly less use of the phone since I use a company calling card. The company also pays up to $25 for health club fees, per day in either a hotel or off site gym.

Understanding that hotel rates can be quite expensive in cities such as New York, the most expensive room I submitted on my T&E was for over $400.00 per night for one week. I pay an average of $250.00 per night at most hotels I have stayed at, however, I have also stayed at hotels that have much more reasonable rates.


[This message has been edited by raffy (edited 02-18-2001).]

I work for a cheap ... company so this is by no means what I consider cool.....

We get $30 per day ($8, $9, $13). Our flight has to leave before 7am to get the $8 for breakfast and we have to get back after 8pm to get the $13 for dinner.

We can only spend $100 (incl. taxes!!!!) for hotels.....sucks for me since I travel to Boston and New York a lot. Lot of night spent in the woods of New Hampshire to get a decent place to stay!

JSM,

I would tell you Punki's website suggestion is the "safest".

We all know the government is not exactly extravagent, so those rates appear to be within reason.

William

It seems that Raffy's company is the best one to work for. (Not that I would object to working for Punki.) At my old employer, they would not pay the health club fee at the hotel. But they would pay for a $75 dinner that would eventually kill you. Go figure. The project manager told me to make up receipts to get my health club covered. (Breakfast was free at the hotel, but now I understood why everyone had b'fast receipts.) One client put us a per diem...$35 in Kansas. That included laundry and meals. We all had phone cards. $35 for be was no problem. The town had a WalMart and the hotel had a microwave and a fridge. The "boys" I worked with had a harder time making ends meet. It seems the 'men's club' in town had a cover charge and the food was not cheap. The entertainment did not have a cover. I never could figure out why they never invited me to dinner.

I appologize about putting thi sin the wrong category, I am new still learning.

For my travel, I am on an expense account, so I can spend as much as I want on food and drinks, but I can't go to the health club. Seems kinda odd. They do cover phone calls (I have a calling card as well), laundry, gratuities, even the mini bar. No movies. So I guess I have it pretty good.

Punki's link was fun and very informative. I can see now why it takes a few million bureaucrats to run things when such a coimplex table needs to exist just for per diems.

I just clicked on Florida to give me a overall view.

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/cpdrates.pl

Highest for this time of year is $211 at Key West, Monroe. DLSIZE ... just don't do a business trip down that way is all I can suggest, unless you move jobs first!

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~ Glen ~

The per diem for foreign locations can be found at http://www.state.gov/www/perdiems/index.htm

Tokyo and Lagos are right up there....

Very sad Uncle Sam encouraging tax avoidance.

All(Government) travelers are advised to ..... seek information on the possible avoidance of taxes or their refund upon return to the United States or their post of assignment.



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~ Glen ~

Tax Avoidance, yes. Tax Evasion, no!

All the guys in the cell told me they were the same thing?

I would be looking for a company who actually gave a s$#t about its employees' travel.. I mean you don't need to go overboard, but where the hell can you eat dinner, other than fast-food for US$13.00??