The U.S. General Services Administration has raised standard
allowable per diem rates for federal travelers in the 2025 fiscal year by $12,
largely due to the first increase in meal and incidental costs in several
years., GSA announced on Friday.
The GSA’s standard lodging rate for the 2025 fiscal year,
which begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2025, is $110, up $3 from the
current rate of $107. That is a smaller increase than last
year’s $9 increase in the standard lodging allowance for the current fiscal
year from the 2023 fiscal year.
The rate, which applies to federal government travelers as
well as those traveling on government-contracted business, applies to
everywhere in the U.S. not designated as a “non-standard area,” which
have per diems higher than the standard rate. For the 2025 fiscal year, GSA has
cut the number of non-standard areas to 296 from the 302 in the current fiscal
year. Locations newly designated as standard areas for the 2025 fiscal year
include Ft. Wayne, Ind.; Canton, Ohio; Mentor, Ohio; East Greenwich and Warwick,
R.I.; Waco, Texas; and Wisconsin Dells, Wis.
The GSA’s standard meals and incidentals allowance for the
2025 fiscal year is $68, an increase of $9 from the current rate of $59. It’s
the first increase in the rate since they were revised for the 2022 fiscal
year, according to the GSA. The range of meals and incidental cost per diems
for non-standard areas also increased for the 2025 fiscal year to $68 to $92,
an increase from the current range of $59 to $79, the GSA reported.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association estimates the
per diem increase will translate to $100 million in additional revenue to the
hotel industry.
“These increases are an important victory for AHLA,
which has made fair per diem rates a perennial federal advocacy priority on
behalf of our members,” AHLA interim president and CEO Kevin Carey said in
a statement. “Government travel is a vital source of revenue for hotels,
and it’s critically important that the federal government’s per diem rates
reflect market conditions and take into account the economic realities hotels
are facing, including the lingering effects of inflation and the nationwide
workforce shortage.”
The GSA typically bases its lodging allowance on average
daily rate data for the previous 12 months, adjusting it down by 5 percent to
get the allowances, according to AHLA.
