Four rooms for twelve weeks at $95 a night is about $32,000 before tax, for a crew working two states from home. Here’s how to get those rooms at a rate you’d be happy to put on the job cost report.
Start when the job is awarded
Start looking for hotels when you win the job, not the week before mobilization. Three to four weeks of lead time gets you real negotiation. A few days still works, but you’ll have fewer rooms to choose from.
Ask every hotel near the site, in writing
Calling the closest hotel and taking its rate is how crews overpay. Send the same written request to every hotel within a reasonable drive, including the independent motels that aren’t on booking sites. Hotels quote lower when they know they’re competing and the request is specific.
Put these in the request:
- The rooms, the check-in and check-out dates, and how many room nights in total
- A rate cap, usually the GSA lodging per diem for that ZIP code, before taxes
- Non-smoking rooms, one bed per worker if that’s your policy
- Parking for full-size pickups, and trailers if you have them
- Guest laundry on site
- Breakfast by 5:30 am, or grab-and-go
- A kitchenette, or at least a microwave and fridge
- Direct billing to the company
- Room changes as the crew rotates, with 24 hours’ notice
- Who will manage your account at the hotel
Know the per diem before you ask
The GSA publishes lodging per diem rates by ZIP code at gsa.gov/perdiem. Even on private work, it’s the number hotels expect a crew to anchor on. On federal work your lodging is reimbursed against it, so a rate over the cap comes out of your margin.
Ask about long-stay tax
In many states, a guest who stays more than 30 consecutive days is exempt from some or all hotel occupancy tax. The rules vary by state and city, and sometimes the exemption only applies when the same company pays for the same room. Ask each hotel how it handles long stays. On a twelve-week job the tax can be worth more than a few dollars off the rate.
Compare the whole bid, not just the rate
A hotel that’s $6 cheaper but 15 miles farther from the site costs you about an hour of drive time per worker per day. Line the bids up side by side: rate, total for the job, distance to the site, parking, breakfast time, laundry, and kitchenette. Then pick.
Once the first round of quotes is in, tell the hotels where they stand. Most will come down for a long block, especially in the off season.
Or send us the job
That’s exactly what we do. You send the site address, the rooms and the dates. We send the request to every hotel near the site, they bid against each other, and you get the best two or three side by side. It costs your company nothing; the hotel you pick pays our fee. Watch a sample bid, or send us a job.