Meals & Lodging

General Rules

Only single occupancy rates can be claimed for one employee. If two or more employees share lodging, all occupants should be listed on receipt. 

Excess meal and lodging expenses for one day may not be carried forward or backward to another day.

Expenses incurred the day before official business begins or the day after official business ends are reimbursable. Expenses incurred more than one day before official business begins or more than one day after official business ends are reimbursable only if the expenses are incurred to qualify for a discount airfare and results in a savings to the University.

Meal expenses are not reimbursable without an overnight stay.

Voucher Requirements:

1. For in-state and out-of-state travel, when claiming meal per diems, receipts are not required.
2. Lodging receipts submitted to substantiate claims for out-of-state lodging should be from a hotel, motel, or similar commercial establishment.
3. When lodging is shared, the original receipt is submitted with the travel voucher of the individual incurring the expense. A copy of the receipt must be attached to all other travel vouchers sharing the lodging. All travel vouchers must reference each other.

Group Travel

Groups of two or more traveling together on the same dates to the same destination may submit a local funds voucher for lodging expenses.

Voucher Requirements:

1. To pre-pay lodging expenses submit a local funds voucher with room confirmations attached including the applicable taxes, to the Travel Office no later than three working days prior to departure date.
2. RTA must be approved and on file in the Travel Office.

Hotel Occupancy Tax Exemption

Employees of The University or Texas are exempt from Texas state hotel occupancy taxes. A traveler must present the hotel with a completed exemption certificate. If a hotel refuses to honor the certificate, the traveler will be reimbursed for the tax. The state comptroller should be notified of the hotel's refusal by submitting a vendor feedback/incident form found at (http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/12-302.pdf.).

University employees are not exempt from county or municipal hotel occupancy taxes. The Texas Hotel Occupancy Tax Exemption Certificate can be found in the Public Folders of Microsoft Outlook UTSA Forms Travel Office section.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/12-302.pdf

If actual lodging expenses exceed allowable expenses, hotel occupancy tax reimbursement is limited to the tax attributable to the allowed lodging expenses. EX: Travel on state funds within Texas is limited to lodging expenses of $85 per day. If actual lodging expenses are $90 and local occupancy taxes are $4.50, the reimbursable tax is $4.00. This is calculated as follows:

Prohibited reimbursements

An employee may not be reimbursed for meals or lodging expenses incurred within the employee's designated headquarters. An employee may be reimbursed if the expenses are mandatory and connected with training, a seminar, or a conference.

Meal and lodging expenses may not be reimbursed for any days the employee is absent from duty for personal reasons. Personal reasons include, but are not limited to, illness, a family emergency, breakdown or a motor vehicle, and any occurrence not connected with official duties.

Local Accounts may reimburse tips and gratuities incurred on actual meal receipts during travel for official business not exceed 15%. The tip or gratuity is separate from the meal and should be itemized in the miscellaneous section of the voucher.  Tips and gratuities cannot be reimbursed when claiming meal per diem only when claiming actual receipts.

Overnight travel in Texas

State accounts are limited to $36 per day for meals with or without receipts and lodging expenses not to exceed $85 per day (room rate only not including taxes).

Local accounts are limited to a combination of meal and lodging expenses not to exceed $180 per day. Meals are limited to $36.00 per day with or without actual receipts and lodging expenses not to exceed $150.00 per day (room rate only not including taxes). Lodging expenses exceeding the $150.00 per day limit must have justification letter attached to the RTA.

The provisions above are subject to the terms, provisions and conditions of the particular gifts, grants, or funds involved.

Overnight travel outside of Texas within the Continental U.S.

State accounts reimbursement rates are limited by the federal travel regulations. The maximum meals and lodging rates for travel outside Texas may be found in DEFINE using the GG1 command.

Locality limits are based on key cities within a state. When traveling to a city not listed, the limit is based on the county in which the city is located. For cities and counties for which specific rates are not listed, the median rate should be calculated using the Instructions for Calculating Median Rates.

When traveling out-of-state, the meal expense reimbursement rate may be reduced and a corresponding amount used to increase the lodging reimbursement rate. However, lodging expense may not be reduced to increase the meal reimbursement rate.

Local accounts are limited to a combination of meal and lodging expenses not to exceed $250 per day. Meal expense with or without receipts for each locality cannot exceed the amount found in DEFINE using the GG1 command. The combination of meal and lodging expenses exceeding the $250.00 limit must have justification written in the *NOTES* section of the payment voucher (VP5/VP2).

Lodging with Omni Hotel Chains

A member of the UT Board of Regents is the president and owner of a company that owns the Omni Hotel chain. Effective March 16, 2006, to comply with conflict of interest laws, U.T. System institutions are no longer contracting for group, meeting, or conference accommodations or other services, including direct billing for individual accommodations, with any Omni Hotel property regardless of the location.

The Watermark Hotel and the La Mansion Del Rio Hotel in San Antonio are a part of the Omni Hotel chain and are subject to the conflict of interest restrictions noted above.

What this means to UTSA:

1. Staff, faculty, students, and guests traveling on official university business may not stay at an Omni Hotel unless the hotel has published a state rate on the Texas Building and Procurement Commission (TBPC) website.

(http://hotel.tbpc.state.tx.us/hotel_directory/dirindex.cfm

a)                  Currently, neither the La Mansion del Rio nor Watermark Hotel offers a published state rate via the TBPC. Therefore, UTSA employees and guests are prohibited from staying at these hotels.

b)                  When a specific Omni hotel offers a published TBPC state rate, UTSA employees and guests may stay at the hotel; however, direct billing of individual room charges (or other services) is prohibited. The traveler must pay for the room charges themselves, and file for reimbursement upon completion of their stay.

2. UTSA is prohibited from contracting with the La Mansion del Rio, the Watermark and all other Omni Hotels for group, meetings or conference arrangements.

Foreign Travel to include U.S. possessions, Hawaii and Alaska

Reimbursements for meals and lodging are limited to actual receipts not to exceed $350 per day.

There is no per diem for foreign travel.

Voucher Requirements:

1. If travel is to a foreign country, expenses must be converted to U.S. dollars. The voucher must specify the exchange rate used (applicable to the travel date).
2. Receipt must specify definition of expense.

Foreign receipts should note the exchange rates and source of rates being used. Attach documentation. You may use www.oanda.com/converter/classic for this purpose.

Documentation Required for Foreign Travel Request

(this is not required by the Travel Mgmt Office-please check with your Deans office or Division head to see if required)

• Statement from traveler as to how the trip will benefit UTSA students
• Brief daily itinerary for extent of authorized absence
• If presenting a paper, one of the following is required:
• Letter of invitation
• Copy of program with the speaker's name in print
• If attending a conference, provide a copy of the conference brochure

Grants & Federal Per Diem Rates

Some granting agencies will allow travelers to be reimbursed at Federal meal per diem rates. Please note that such reimbursements must be supported by a statement in writing from the grantor. These vouchers will also be submitted to the UTSA Grants & Contracts office for review and approval before final approval is granted by the Travel Management Office.

International SOS

International travelers, you have a friend watching over you! International SOS provides UT System travelers and expatriates with worldwide quality medical care and emergency assistance services 24 hours per day.  Although this service does not take the place of your health insurance, in the case of an emergency it does provide medical assistance, security and travel assistance, managed and administered by International SOS. International SOS is the world's largest medical and security assistance company, with more than 3,000 professionals in 24-hour Alarm Centers, international clinics and remote-site medical facilities across five continents. International SOS is the leader in their field, ready to help you with all of your medical and security needs.

Some of the program benefits include:

           Emergency evacuation

           Medically-supervised repatriation

           Repatriation of mortal remains

           Return home of minor children

           Medical and dental referrals

           Outpatient medical expense guarantee and payment

           Legal referrals

           Lost document advice

           Security evacuation assistance

           Access to security crisis center

This service presently is provided free of charge to UTSA international travelers.

For complete information regarding this service, which is free to the UTSA employed traveler, please log on to:

http://www.internationalsos.com/private/utexas/

You may also contact your UTSA Travel Mgmt office for further information and to obtain a SOS travel card.

Conference Meals

Provided Meals Reduction - When meals are included in the registration fee of a conference or seminar, the meal allowance for that day should be reduced by the appropriate amount below.

Note: This calculation is for all locations.

• Breakfast $7.00
• Lunch $12.00
• Dinner $17.00

Note: Continental breakfasts and Happy Hour hors d'oeuvres are not considered meals for this purpose.

The Traveler is REQUIRED to maintain the conference agenda for a period of one year after the travel is completed if meal allowances were claimed.

The provisions above are subject to the terms, provisions and conditions of the particular gifts, grants, or funds involved.

In addition to the provided meals reduction, per Diem meal allowances will be reduced on the departing day and the return day as follows:

The Departure/Arrival Reduction Plan

Lease of an apartment or house

If a department anticipates that an employee will be at a duty point for at least one month, but less than one year, the expense of leasing an apartment or house may be reimbursed.

The apartment or house must be leased from a commercial establishment. The name of the employee must appear on the lease and the purpose for leasing must be the conservation of state funds. Any deposits required for the lease of a house or apartment, are the sole responsibility of the employee and are not reimbursable.

Voucher Requirements:

1. The voucher may not encompass more than one month's expenses.

2. The expense of leasing an apartment or house for the month must be listed as a lump-sum amount.

3. The voucher must itemize the meal expenses on a daily basis. A copy of the lease agreement and proof of the lease payment must be attached to the voucher.

4. When applicable, an invoice or billing statement from a furniture rental company or utility company must be attached to the voucher.

5. When applicable, proof that an application fee has been paid must be attached to the voucher.

Page Updated August 25, 2006

Page Updated September 28, 2006

Page Updated November 2, 2006

Page Updated January 5, 2007