(Washington, D.C., September 12, 2008) - The announcement of the Fiscal Year 2009 federal per diem rates that take effect October 1, 2008, is good news for most AH&LA members.  About 400 locations will have higher per diem rates than the national standard CONUS rate, which is $70 for lodging.  That standard CONUS per diem rate is unchanged from fiscal year 2008.

However, AH&LA is very concerned that the per diem rate in some locations is scheduled to go down or will fail to keep up with the current market, which could negatively impact members in those areas.

Although federal per diem rates cannot formally be appealed by business representatives, the federal government’s General Services Administration (GSA) does have the ability to review and modify the rates. Accordingly, AH&LA is advising lodging employees who believe their localities may be undervalued in the FY2009 per diem rate schedule with these helpful suggestions:

Work with federal government agency contacts in your community. If a property has a relationship with travel managers or others in federal government agencies, these contacts should contact GSA directly and ask for a per diem review of their community. GSA has stated it wants to know when a community has become too costly to support federal business and/or meetings. Under section 301-11.26 of the Code of Federal Regulations (41 CFR 301), Federal agencies are the only official entity with standing to appeal a per diem rate.

In order for GSA to conduct a review of an area’s per diem rate during the current fiscal year, a Federal agency travel manager or equivalent grade and title must submit a signed letter on agency letterhead stating that the per diem rate is inadequate.  The request should contain the ZIP code area under question; the lodging property name, address, and nightly rate, and the name, address, ZIP code, and rates of properties that will not honor the federal per diem rate; and the number of times actual expenses were used or when federal travelers had to use another lodging property to stay within the maximum per diem rate.

All valid requests should be postmarked no later than December 31, 2008.  GSA has stated that all requests received after that date will be evaluated for the 2010 fiscal year.  These letters should be sent to:  Per Diem Team Leader, Travel Management Policy (MTT), General Services Administration, 1800 F Street N.W., Room G-219, Washington, D.C. 20405.

You may give them a copy of this Advisory if it will help them with their request.

Gather local statistical data that will demonstrate your argument for higher rates.  To support your argument for higher rates, providing data showing all rates in the community are higher than the per diem may help prove your argument that federal business is actually a loss for your business. Particularly helpful to your argument will be any independent data such as Star Data Reports (distributed by Smith Travel Research,  www.smithtravelresearch.com ) which can be shared with GSA.

Contact GSA directly.  Contacting GSA directly may help, although an appeal of a per diem rate may only be officially requested by a federal agency. The GSA contact in charge of the per diem program is:

Mr. Patrick McConnell
Program Analyst
General Services Administration
Office of Governmentwide Policy
Travel and Transportation Management Policy Division
Washington, DC 20405
Email:  patrick.mcconnell@gsa.gov

State government per diem rates are different.  If state per diem rates are higher than federal rates, this information may be helpful to GSA if they decide to re-evaluate their figures for your area.

Information about locations of properties in relation to federal facilities may be helpful for GSA. For instance, if a number of new and lower priced lodging properties are built in an area or county, these may negatively affect per diem rates. However, it may be possible to demonstrate to GSA that these new properties are very inconvenient to federal travelers who would be visiting a facility on the other end of the county.

Use your own company resources to gather information.  If applicable, contact your company national sales representatives at your chain for their input. These people have contacts with travel managers within federal agencies and are familiar with federal travel policies.

Use the Internet to discover more information to bolster your claim.  Search the Internet for information about current and historical per diem rates, the Federal Premier Lodging Program, e-mail notices, Federal Register announcements, and other information that will help you justify your argument for a higher local rate. GSA's per diem Webpage is  www.gsa.gov/perdiem .

Let AH&LA help you.  AH&LA can assist in these efforts and for help in understanding the federal process.  Our lobbyists know the Washington process and can help you through any frustrations you may encounter with bureaucratic procedures.

GSA plans to review the standard rate every three years. The last adjustment was for fiscal year 2008, which increased the lodging rate that had been in effect since 2005.

For more information about the FY2009 federal per diem rates, see AH&LA's August 8, 2008 Governmental Affairs Advisory, “2009 Per Diem Rates Announced”.  Or you may contact Kevin Maher, AH&LA vice president of governmental affairs at (202) 289-3147 or by email at  kmaher@ahla.com  for more assistance.