Some cities including New York are outside the standard reimbursement areas. Feds traveling to New York City will receive a lodging per diem that ranges from $164 to $291, depending on the time of year.
GSA to Increase Lodging Reimbursements for Feds This Fall
Slight bump in per diem rates will take effect Oct. 1.
The General Services Administration announced Friday that it will increase its travel per diem rates for federal employees in fiscal 2018.
Feds traveling on official business will see an increase in lodging per diems from $91 to $93 starting Oct. 1. This marks the third year in a row that the agency raised the rate, and the second consecutive $2 increase.
For the second year in a row, the daily rate for meals and incidentals will remain flat with a standard rate of $51 and a high end of $74.
The standard rate covers around 2,600 counties in the continental United States, while 332 areas qualify for higher reimbursements because they are considered more expensive.
For instance, federal employees traveling to New York City will receive a lodging per diem that ranges from $164 to $291, depending on the time of year, while reimbursement for meals and incidentals will be $74. And in San Francisco, lodging reimbursement ranges from $222 to $302 depending on when an employee travels there, and the meals and incidentals per diem will be $74.
GSA reclassified 14 areas that were previously non-standard areas as places that will be subject to the standard rate beginning on Oct. 1. Those places are Redding, Calif.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Bonner’s Ferry/Sandpoint, Idaho; Dickinson/Beulah, N.D.; Watertown, N.Y.; Youngstown, Ohio; Enid, Okla.; Mechanicsburg, Penn.; Scranton, Penn.; Laredo, Texas; McAllen, Texas; Pearsall, Texas; San Angelo, Texas; and Gillette, Wyo.
There were no new non-standard areas following this year’s evaluation of prices.
The agency determined special rates based on data gathered from the lodging industry from April 2016 through March 2017 on “mid-price range” hotel properties.
“The [Average Daily Rate] is a widely accepted lodging-industry measure based upon a property’s room rental revenue divided by the number of rooms rented as reported by the hotel property to the contractor,” GSA said in a statement.
GSA offers a state-by-state listing of its per diem rates for fiscal 2018 here.