When creating travel policy applications for companies, we use several sources to benchmark rates and per diems in order to create a policy that will be valuable and used.
Business Travel News just released their Corporate Travel Index for 2014. It puts emphasis on the daily cost of doing business in 200 cities world wide. This information will help you when creating your travel policy and deciding per deims for cities around the world. Here is a sample, taken from the Index, of what the daily costs of business travel is in various cities:
1- San Francisco: Hotel – $275.06, Car – $52.83, Food – $116.75 = Total – $444.66/day, Change 0.6%*
2- New York: Hotel – $244.24, Car – $78.83, Food – $119.52 = Total – $442.68/day, Change -4.8%*
3- Boston: Hotel – $255.90, Car – $51.70, Food – $105.43 = Total – $413.03/day, Change -3.5%*
4- Washington D.C.: Hotel – $249.36, Car – $44.69, Food – $104.93 = Total – $398.98/day, Change -1.1%*
5- Los Angeles: Hotel – $249.24, Car – $48.13, Food – $96.56 = Total – $393.93/day, Change -1.1%*
17- Denver: Hotel – $194.50, Car – $50.41, Food – $84.69 = Total – $329.60/day, Change 5.7%*
20- Minneapolis: Hotel – $181.62, Car – $51.79, Food – $93.75 = Total – $326.76/day, Change 0.8%*
30- Las Vegas: Hotel – $156.03, Car – $48.97, Food – $97.09 = Total – $302.09/day, Change 4.5%*
55- Birmingham: Hotel – $143.34, Car – $48.70, Food – $84.95 = Total – $276.99/day, Change 2.2%*
58- Salt Lake City: Hotel – $138.32, Car – $52.12, Food – $84.58 = Total – $275.02/day, Change 1.9%*
100- Shreveport: Hotel – $113.00, Car – $41.47, Food – $78.73 = Total – $233.20/day, Change -1.8%*
Most expensive international cities (hotel and food):
1- Caracas: Total $611/day, Change 28.0%*
2- Geneva: $547/day, Change 1.5%*
3- Stockholm: $528/day, Change 2.7%*
4- Stavanger: $524/day, Change 1.5%*
5- Hong Kong: $523/day, Change 0.1%*
30- Osaka-Kobe: $414/day, Change -16.3%*
40- Athens: $384/day, Change 3.3%*
50- Calgary: $356/day, Change -0.8%*
100- Cape Town: $195/day, Change -11.0%
Most expensive U.S. city for food is Honolulu at $128/day. Least expensive? Oklahoma City at $69.53/day.
Are you having trouble creating a travel policy or would you like ideas and suggestions on how to better manage your policy? Please contact a Christopherson Account Manager. We are here to help make your travel program the best it can be.
*Year over year change.
The 2014 edition of the Business Travel News Corporate Travel Index is based on actual prices paid in 2013 by corporate clients of BCD Travel, provided to BTN by BCD’s Advito consulting arm, as well as research conducted by the BTN Group and Chicago based consulting firm Mercer Inc., a subsidiary of Marsh and McLennan Cos. Christopherson Business Travel is an affiliate of BCD Travel.
