relangford

Wow! Just, wow! You worked for a very generous company (can I assume they are still in business?). For government employees, you might get a few travel comp time hours (which do not convert to dollars, but disappear after a time if not used) for travel on non-duty days.

invisible

Huh? $500 Asia is if you stay in 5* hotels in Singapore and Tokyo.

In our travel policy (85K people global company) has restriction of $250 per night even if you stay in Tokyo and Singapore. Which I'd say is quite reasonable. And nobody yet died from staying at Hilton Garden Inn which could be found for $120 even in Chicago.

ffsim

Following much of the advice posted in this thread, we steered clear of setting any clearly-defined monetary limits for hotels. We simply said "hotel selection should be reasonably priced for the destination. Sheraton, Hilton and Marriott-type hotels are typically sufficiently clean and safe for most destinations."

AlanInDC

Strongly recommend the per diem for meals. Ours is $50 (we're a nonprofit). However, that's the default. One can get reimbursement beyond that with receipts for particular reasons. Need to work into the evening, order room service and pay $45 for burger and fries; we pay for that.

Recommend against dollar limits for hotels. I make regular trips to major U.S. cities. In NYC, I've paid in the low 200s for a full service Marriott and in the low 400s for Fairfield Inn. For us, our range is Courtyard/Hilton Garden Inn to full service Marriotts/Hiltons/etc (but not JW Marriott, Ritz Carlton etc), depending on price. The time when the Fairfield Inn was $414 a night in NYC, the full service Marriott was almost $600 (both without taxes), I stayed at an independent property for $250.

youreadyfreddie

This.

nkedel

And in Tokyo or Singapore, $250 should be able to get you quite a nice place unless you end up there at the peak of the Cherry Blossoms or for the Grand Prix.

Tokyo also has the advantage that their standards at the low-end of the market are way higher than ours; a non-starred business hotel like an APA or Sunroute will be a tiny room and have no services to speak of, but in my experience it will be decently appointed and spotlessly clean.

WHBM

Here's what I would do. Tell them you trust them to be "appropriate". And leave them to it. They know all the expense claims and the timesheets will come back to the office and be reviewed by the management anyway. It's good to develop professional people by trust. When they come back, if there's anything a bit over the top pay it but have a quiet word.
No. The HR team have probably never done much travel on business, and "policies" written by know-nothings, whether for travel or other areas of the business, end up with stupidities way beyond what you would believe. You wouldn't get HR to design your products, why should they determine fine detail of the staff travel which they also have no knowledge of. Get the senior management to set the style, they have done it and have long experience.

Do you pay minibar costs ? Probably not. Do you pay minibar costs where the employee is 12 hours out of home timezone, having travelled all weekend, and wakes up in the room at 2 am local time desperately thirsty ? That's what the experience tells you happens.

Reminds me of long ago at a major corporate where one of the guys had their expenses bounced by the accounts clerk because it had "visa fees", and they were told they didn't pay late payment charges on credit cards . Like I said, administered by know-nothings.

jrl767

<this>**n, n very large

although it's not so much that those reviewing or administrating "know nothing" as it is that, rather than stopping to think for a moment about the real intent of the policy language, they reactively use the most literal and most simplistic interpretation possible

nkedel

One thing HR can be useful for in these situations is translating the intent of a policy set by others into the appropriate formal language. Of course, that requires both an intelligent HR team, a willingness NOT to interfere with the actual policy on the HR team's side, and a willingness to iterate on creating the policy on both sides.

underpressure

If you are covering all of their expenses on their first visit to that country I think a day off per 2 weekend days they are out of country is reasonable. And cover all of their expenses, museums/cabs/sporting events, etc

As far as hotels go, let them pick their own but give them a class of hotel (Hampton/DoubleTree/Hilton/Conrad) for guidance.

I would keep it real simple with regard to meals, 100% breakfast/ 100% Lunch/ and 100% Dinner with 2 beverages of their choice.

Remind them of the cost of incidentals (Cokes/Coffee) can be really expensive in Japan for example.

I would coach them about foreign transfer fees and suggest they use ATM's for any cash, tell them to keep their receipts and cover any withdrawal fees. The hardest thing to teach them is expense reports are not to make money and should be used to minimize their losses.

Daedalus214

In the USA, the General Service Administration (GSA) has a website and an APP for Per Diem rates ( http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/10...aign=shortcuts). For overseas travel, the Department of State has a Per Diem website (http://aoprals.state.gov/content.asp...184&menu_id=78). We try to adhere, within reason, to the dollar figures quoted for the applicable cities. Of course, this does not cover client dinners or other forms of client entertainment. We are a small company and have a few rules-of-thumb:

1. After a business trip, one does not have arrive at the office for twelve hours after arriving home. So, if you get home at midnight come in at noon the next day. If you arrive at 4:00am, see you at 8:00am the following day.

2. Treat the company's money as your own; everyone wants a bonus at year's end.

3. Invariably throughout the year people require a few extra days to deal with family emergencies, etc... When this happens, remember that the employee gave up a few extra weekend days for company travel.

4. We encourage people to spend an extra day, at company expense, at a foreign destination to soak up the culture and deal with jet lag.

5. If the company is sending (salaried) employees on business trips over a weekend and did not explain that this was part of their job duties and expected of them, then the company is at fault and should be more lenient regarding OT, compensated time, etc... If the company did explain this to the employee, then the employee should not complain or expect additional compensation.

Duke787

It seems like the OP has already settled on a general "policy" but as a consultant who is definitely more on the junior side I though I'd chime in - though I've been 100% domestic during my time at this firm so I can't speak to international policies (which are pretty similar AFAIK apart from allowing business class fares).

Our policy is pretty straightforward - we're salaried and traveling on the weekend or after hours does not provide any overtime.

That being said, if we have to travel on the weekend (I had to do this a fair amount when I was traveling to LA and had Monday morning meetings), our hotel and food was always covered for that day within reasonable standards (if I'm taking a 7pm flight to LA, my breakfast and lunch in DC are not covered but my dinner before the flight is - likewise if I take a 12pm flight, lunch would be covered in DC and dinner once I got to LA). Food varies depending on the client - some clients reimburse for actuals up to the per diem value and some just reimburse for the full per diem leaving employees to spend as much or as little of their per diem every week (and keeping / paying for any difference).

We also as a general rule have the option to either stay at our client site for the weekend and have hotel / food covered, fly someone out to the client side (but food / hotel is not covered), or fly home.

It works pretty well - and most managers / directors / etc. try their best to avoid sending people out over the weekend. We also have a policy that provides us a bonus if we're on the road for a certain number of days each quarter - so when we have to go out a night early, that extra night adds to our total for the quarter. Redeyes also count towards that total so those of us who do a lot of West Coast travel get a bump for being forced to take redeyes home on Thursday night.

It works well enough - nothing is perfect but overall it's not a bad deal and having my meals paid for when I have to travel on the odd Sunday generally is enough to keep me happy for having to fly out on a Sunday (though in fairness - I'm a 20-something single guy so it's not like I'm having to leave a family behind to fly out on a Sunday)

Often1

HR is an important aspect of this. Many countries and jurisdictions have specific limitations and, for instance, would require overtime for employees with compensation below a certain level, prohibit per diem for tax reasons and so forth.

The key is to use your HR people as advisors and not decision-makers.

Giving junior employees discretion is a great way to evaluate them. It appears that if someone in your company goes over by $100, the company will survive. If that's the case, just take a look at the travel vouchers from a management perspective.

Someone who sticks to the spirit of what you have laid down is someone you can trust with more responsibility. People who nickel & dime you and worse, actually defraud you, will do it to you in more serious situations.

darthbimmer

A few of us recommended involving HR to design policy around overtime, comp time, etc. for travel hours. That is an appropriate and necessary place to consult HR as they are best prepared to deal with matters of employment law in your jurisdiction. Beyond this narrow scope, however, I agree with WHBM: Do not ask HR to decide your travel policy. You'll invariably wind up with penny-wise, pound-foolish policies.

Boraxo

My Fortune 100 company provides zero overtime for travel on nights, weekends, whenever (for salaried employees). That's the policy. However you can ask for a "travel recovery day" if you are flying 14+ hours. Most people don't do so.

Are you expecting them to work on the flight and the weekends? If so then maybe you should grant them extra days off unless overtime is a routine part of the job. If you are paying by the hour then I don't think you have a choice.

I think your salaried employees should suck it up, particularly if they are not traveling every week. If it was frequenty then maybe you should revisit the policy to be fair, but for a few trips a year it doesn't seem like a huge sacrifice. Particularly if they get the weekends off and have the opportunity for a little tourism (i.e. visiting Tokyo not Sudan). You should also permit people to travel a day or 2 early. For example if they have meetings on Monday, let them leave Thursday, cross-the dateline, and then they have the weekend to acclimate and use as free time rather than "working" on the weekend by flying.

As for travel policy, per diems work better for single country travel than for international where costs vary greatly. However you can provide guidance to employees on what is reasonable. Can they stay in Four Seasons, or should they aim for Hilton or Sheraton? $50-100 per person for a basic dinner in Tokyo is reasonable, but in Bangkok it might be $25-50. Or you could spend 2x as much on a business dinner in a nice restaurant. Just provide guideliness and tell them you trust them to use good judgment as if they were spending their own money.

Finally you should seriously consider business class for any TPAC or TATL flights. The price is usually reasonable if purchased well in advance, and your employees will be far more productive. They will also be less likely to complain about overtime. And do not nickle and dime on room service, internet or laundry charges. Traveling is a PITA, the last thing you want is people worrying about clean clothes rather than client service. If you have an employee who is ordering a bottle of vodka and 3 PPV movies every night then maybe they shouldn't be working for you...