Issue: Federal Per Diem Rates

To All Accommodation Industry Leaders:

Visit Jacksonville is organizing a letter writing campaign to appeal the 2010- 2011 federal per diem rates for Jacksonville and Amelia Island, which were set at $82 beginning Oct. 1, 2010.  As one of the only areas in Florida without seasonal rates, we are asking for your action to help us in this quest to establish seasonality for the Duval and Nassau Counties (NOTE: St. Johns and Clay counties are not listed in this rate). 

It is imperative that the General Service Administration (GSA), which set the federal per diem rate, hears from government meeting planners.  You can assist by contacting your government meeting planners to ask for their support.  As we all know, a lack of seasonality will cause government meeting planners to be turned away by hotels who can book a better rate during our high season.

An appeal must be made via letter from members of the federal government meetings and travel community.  We have prepared a template letter for meeting planners to mail to GSA making the process as straightforward as possible, while being cognizant of their time.

Action Plan:

At this time, we are requesting that each of our affected partner hotels follow these steps:

• Customize a letter to your government meeting planner clients, which addresses all of the appeal requirements listed below.
• Send the letter to your database of government meeting planners asking for their support with the template we have provided for them to customize.

Letters Must Contain:

• Brief discussion as to why the current per diem rate ($82) is inadequate for meetings and groups in our area
• Suggestion on holding the current rate of $88 for another year, while asking for seasonal rate options similar to almost every other Florida county based on our high seasons
• Estimated number of group room nights the meeting planner’s business represents
• The government agency’s purpose of conducting meetings in Jacksonville and Amelia Island
• Estimated number of times the requesting agency has had to authorize actual expenses to allow attendees to find adequate lodging in Jacksonville and Amelia Island, if available
• Description of the Jacksonville location in question including dates, county and zip codes
• Description of the hotels in the area the planning agency wants GSA to be aware of including name, address, telephone number
• Description of other federal agencies that travel to Jacksonville and whether they agree to the review, if available.

Letters should be sent to: 

Director, Travel Management Policy (MTT)
General Services Administration
1800 F Street, NW
Room G-219
Washington, DC  20405
and via e-mail: travelpolicy@gsa.gov

For an example letter click here.

If you are not already maintaining a list of government planners, Visit Jacksonville recommends that you compile a database of potential lost business due to the decrease in the per diem rate.  This may assist our future efforts to appeal the per diem rate.

We appreciate your support in this process and, hopefully, our collaboration will help the industry receive more adequate government per diem rates for next year.

Sincerely,

Mya M. Surrency
Interim President & CEO