{"id":600,"date":"2012-07-16T22:15:55","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T22:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/blog\/?p=600"},"modified":"2012-07-16T22:15:55","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T22:15:55","slug":"new-per-diem-setting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/","title":{"rendered":"New Per Diem Setting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-602\" title=\"per-diem-hotels\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/hl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/per-diem-hotels1.bmp\" \/>In the last decade or so, the General Services Administration (GSA) has spent thousands of man hours and tens of thousands of tax payer dollars reforming the way that it sets federal per diem rates for lodging.\u00a0 And in recent years, there has been increasing contentment and acceptance of the practice because, above all things, whether or not hotels are satisfied with their established rates, the system was fair.\u00a0<!--more-->Currently, GSA solicits room rate data through an independent research firm and uses the information to calculate average daily rates for specific geographic areas.\u00a0 They seek to eliminate the extremes \u2013 ridding the luxury segment and economy segments and using the mean of hotel rates in the mid price range.\u00a0 They are also deliberate about using business travel days \u2013 Sunday through Thursday.\u00a0\u00a0 Once a mean has been calculated, GSA reduces this number by 5%, and rounds to establish the per diem for the fiscal year.\u00a0 While flaws will forever exist, and debates will always rage, there is no arguing that this system is inherently reasonable.\u00a0 The foremost flaw now is the definition of what comprises a geographic area rather than that limited-service hotels are deflating the rates.<\/p>\n<p>But under the proposed new system, GSA may include only lower hotel rates in the mid-price range when calculating their means in an effort to intentionally reduce rates and thus reduce government spending on travel.\u00a0 This manipulation of data is an embarrassment to the process of government, and a complete contradiction of the intent of GSA\u2019s lengthy study of last decade.\u00a0 The American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association is already asking the industry to send letters of protest about this idea to their local legislators.<\/p>\n<p>What does this mean in layman\u2019s terms?\u00a0 If new, lower rates go into effect based on skewed data, it will mean the government traveler will be less likely to glean lodging in the very spot he or she requires.\u00a0 Hotels in the city center, which are nearest to federal buildings and installations, will no longer be able to accept the government rate, forcing travelers into the periphery and necessitating their use of additional transportation means.\u00a0 These additional fees and travel headaches will be at a cost to the tax payer, both in dollars and in time, offsetting any perceived savings with the lodging.<\/p>\n<p>Meeting planners and third parties also stand to be adversely affected.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t so much about collecting smaller commissions, although smaller they may be \u2013 it\u2019s about spending more time trying to find lodging suitable for the government traveler.\u00a0 And time is money \u2013 meeting planners will double the time they spend on site selection meaning less time on critical logistics and meeting content.\u00a0 Harder yet, government groups will likely be relegated to fitting only holes and will be nearly impossible to book with the lead time they wish.\u00a0 Hotels will not be inclined to layer in government business far in advance when they can hold out for the association or corporate group not bound by the irrational restrictions GSA imposes with their twisted data.<\/p>\n<p>Within the current guidelines, GSA models per diems on what the market is bearing.\u00a0 Under the proposed rule change, GSA seeks to shape the market based on its initiative to cut costs.\u00a0 No good has ever come of letting government dictate the market \u2013 GSA should be the last agency to set socialist precedents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the last decade or so, the General Services Administration (GSA) has spent thousands of man hours and tens of thousands of tax payer dollars reforming the way that it sets federal per diem rates for lodging.\u00a0 And in recent years, there has been increasing contentment and acceptance of the practice because, above all things, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Per Diem Setting - hotel-lobbyists.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Per Diem Setting - hotel-lobbyists.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the last decade or so, the General Services Administration (GSA) has spent thousands of man hours and tens of thousands of tax payer dollars reforming the way that it sets federal per diem rates for lodging.\u00a0 And in recent years, there has been increasing contentment and acceptance of the practice because, above all things, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"hotel-lobbyists.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-16T22:15:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/hl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/per-diem-hotels1.bmp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/\",\"name\":\"New Per Diem Setting - hotel-lobbyists.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-16T22:15:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-16T22:15:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7337468c442591eaef3e875984ccc733\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Per Diem Setting\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/\",\"name\":\"hotel-lobbyists.com\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7337468c442591eaef3e875984ccc733\",\"name\":\"Administrator\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7d38732f1c54ea3b013155241790b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7d38732f1c54ea3b013155241790b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Administrator\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/author\/administrator\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Per Diem Setting - hotel-lobbyists.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Per Diem Setting - hotel-lobbyists.com","og_description":"In the last decade or so, the General Services Administration (GSA) has spent thousands of man hours and tens of thousands of tax payer dollars reforming the way that it sets federal per diem rates for lodging.\u00a0 And in recent years, there has been increasing contentment and acceptance of the practice because, above all things, [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/","og_site_name":"hotel-lobbyists.com","article_published_time":"2012-07-16T22:15:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/hl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/per-diem-hotels1.bmp"}],"author":"Administrator","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Administrator","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/","url":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/","name":"New Per Diem Setting - hotel-lobbyists.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-16T22:15:55+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-16T22:15:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7337468c442591eaef3e875984ccc733"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/16\/new-per-diem-setting\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Per Diem Setting"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/","name":"hotel-lobbyists.com","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7337468c442591eaef3e875984ccc733","name":"Administrator","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7d38732f1c54ea3b013155241790b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7d38732f1c54ea3b013155241790b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Administrator"},"url":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/author\/administrator\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}