woodrow79

Guy Savoy in Paris at $700 for two followed by French Laundry at $400 for two. Hmmm so hungry now.

uproared

I work for one of the firms mentioned in this thread...

As a bottom level employee:

- Domestic and international in economy (fully flexible fare though, which is great for status credits).
- Preferred hotels (virtually all of them are major chain 5 star hotels)
- Per Diem of $55 per day to cover meals and incidentals. However, all hotel rates include breakfast so its really only lunch and dinner.

Manager level and above fly business for long haul, director and above fly business for long and short haul. Partner fly business for domestic, and first class for medium and long haul.

MrZhu

Mr Zhu thinks the best consulting firm travel perk would be to stop the madness. Mr Zhu has often wondered if it is really necessary for consultants to be camping out at their client in some single minded pursuit of face time. Of course he would miss seeing those over-eager throngs on Thursday night flights.

MrZhu would be glad to complete a study of best practices in this area that leverages a cutting edge knowledge base to identify and benchmark leading edge best practices that will deliver value added results through leveraged synergies that unlock value while creating sustainable competitive advantage in a shifting global atmosphere characterized by fragmented media patterns and revolutionary threats to established business models.

For a small retainer of course.

P.S. Mr Zhu can simply not be held accountable if his study requires future studies which in turn lead to future studies.

jmpeace501

lol. nice try, Mr Zhu! Reminds me of the Consultant & Shepherd joke....

xj47

MrZhu reveals his secret consultant past by being all too accurate.

Jalinth

A firm I worked at had this policy as well (no real choice). But what they did here was push the booking responsibility to the agency/government. So if they couldn't get us the government rate at their hotels, they absorbed the cost. Generally we offerred another rate at another hotel as an alternative. Apparently this arrangement did pass scrutiny of the auditors and showed we were trying to be cost conscious. What we found was in the high season, our alternate rates were generally better as we had long standing deals with a chain of 3 and 4 star hotels. In the off and generally for shoulder season the government rates were generally cheaper and available (which is the big kicker. A few hotels seem to have as many "cheap" rooms as airlines have upgrade seats.). Of course, I was simply stuck at the main office and got my once per year flight. No travelling for me.

BearX220

Interesting thread. I am president/partner of a small consultancy. Our two basic rules: incur no charge that you'd be embarrassed to have the client know about... and respect the client's travel-spending culture, unless asked to share hotel rooms (absolutely not; non-negotiable) or travel on weekends just to save money (less of an issue than it used to be, with Saturday night stay rules disappearing).

Also:

** Book your fave airline unless there's such a fare premium that you couldn't look the client in the eye.

** Clients are asked whether they'd prefer us to book lowest-fare tickets, then absorb change fees if they alter project schedules... or refundable higher-fare tickets. They always pick option A.

** Never book F travel unless it's absolutely the last option. If you can upgrade with elite status/miles, go for it.

** Avoid top-of-the-line hotels that might lead to the perception we're living it up on the client's dime. (Conscientious money-stewarding is part of our brand position, and travel policy plays into it.) We'll take a Courtyard over a full-service Marriott.

** No per diem for meals; we rack up actuals. Alcohol is OK, but $300 dinners are not.

** Rental cars always OK except in NYC; they save time. But travelers on the same itin are expected to share.

** Limited personal purchases for the road (shaving cream, mags, etc.) are fine. Personal entertainment on the road (ballgames, movies) is not.

We show all actuals to the client on request. There is no hiding behind opaque travel policies. As long as our clients see we're spending responsibly, a couple of drinks with dinner is no problem.

gosha83

man...reading this makes me jealous! i used to work for one of the largest non-profits in the US and their travel policy was a joke, relative to how much people had to travel. max per diem was $25/day, even in NYC, but you were encouraged to not hit the total amount! same with airfare and hotels. hotels had to be booked through priceline, unless it was impossible to do so.

i know work for one of the largest ad agencies with a much more liberal travel policy.

tingalex

Would anyone want to revive this thread? I'd love to hear about some of the general travel policies of the major consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.). Has anything changed since the economic downturn?

thegoderic

I am in the UK arm of one of the big 4 global firms and our travel policy changed about a year ago.

We have a policy that varies on class of travel with grade, and until last year, partners and directors couls still travel business class for short haul flights.

We're now onto short haul economy for all and something like manager and above to travel business for long haul (>5 hours), all of which is a reasonable compromise between cost and impact on individuals, given the sort of schedules we run. (I recently did a one day trip from UK to Middle East and one of my partners did a trip to Australia for a half day meeting).

The policy is implemented with a good degree of common sense. A couple of my team had to travel to the Middle East recently and all Business seats were gone, so we put them in BA F, which actually only cost a few hundred pounds more, but was the sensible thing to do as they needed to function effectively after an overnight flight and early morning arrival.

GregWTravels

My experience has been that over the past 5 years, clients have tended to be stricter with expenses and expense policy. Back in the early-to-mid-2000s, an overall cap on expenses of around 20% of the project cost seemed reasonable. Then that dropped to 15%. Then companies started to audit expenses, and insist on applying their own travel policies to consultants travel.

nikhizzle

I'm not a consultant, but I have worked for a couple of the major technology companies. They usually have policies like:

- fly business long haul, otherwise coach
- generous per diems depending on the city (normally way more than I need)
- rental car as neeeded
- above all be sensible, and whatever reasonable items you spend on will be reimbursed

TataTata07

I'm a PT US Govt Employee (House of Rep Shared Staff Member) While my travel is only 4 to 6 times a year (not counting trips to DC) compared with my other job. It is all Intl with one Domestic maybe.

Full-Fare Economy for everything; book through GSA. Usually fares are about the same as discount economy but all UA.

Hotels were closest to where we needed to be with reason, usually Hiltons & Marriott and everything below.

Car is up to you if you want, no NYC though unless GSA approves and NO Car Intl unless State Dept approves. If you didn't take a car, you had a taxi and public transportation diem.

Meals Diem was set again by GSA for US and State Dept for Int, http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101518 and http://aoprals.state.gov/content.asp...184&menu_id=78 if anybody wants a look

doctor15

I work for one of the firms mentioned, and our travel policy has not changed much as far as I have noticed:

Airfare: lowest price coach direct flight between the most convenient airports within one hour of desired departure/arrival (this is a lot more generous of a policy then it sounds!). I believe business class is allowed for 8+ hour flights, but am not sure.

Hotels: 4* such as Westin/Marriott/Hyatt. W/Ritz/etc would be considered too extravagant unless the corporate rate matches the previously mentioned hotels

Rental Car: Mid-size Anytime hotels/work site is not on convenient/safe subway lines (such as downtown DC/NY/Boston). Lower ranks share 2 per car.

Per-Diems: $35-$50/day, enough to cover meals and a drink or two at the end of the day.

Other expenses such as extravagant celebration dinners, bar outings, etc depend on the client, but have definitely been reduced.

Non-client related travel has definitely been cut back when possible.

jpatokal

Holy crap, some of those rates are insanely generous. US$406/night for lodging plus US$161/day for meals and incidentals in Singapore?!

http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_...untryCode=1141

They're a little less generous in Iraq though...

http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_...untryCode=1157