Budget hotel costs for a business trip.
A business travel budget has one multiplicative component and one additive one. Lodging is the room rate grossed up for occupancy and city tax, which is frequently 12 to 18 percent and in some cities considerably more — and crucially it is often quoted separately from the negotiated corporate rate, so budgeting at the rate alone understates lodging by that whole percentage. Meals and incidentals are then a flat daily figure per traveller. Separating the tax component makes it visible for reclaim purposes, since occupancy taxes are sometimes recoverable for business travel where the room rate itself is not.
Lodging per traveller
Lodging = room rate x (1 + occupancy tax%) x nights
Trip total
Total = (lodging + (per diem + incidentals) x nights) x travellers
Because corporate negotiated rates are almost always quoted before tax, and occupancy plus city and tourism taxes commonly add 12 to 18 percent — more in some major cities. Budgeting at the quoted rate produces a predictable overspend, and the tax line is also what a finance team needs for reclaim.
Yes, because that is how they accrue. Parking, hotel wifi, airport transfers and laundry are per-day costs that scale with trip length rather than one-off items. A flat daily allowance is both easier to forecast and easier to audit than itemising them.