Hotels

A number of hotel discounts are available to Penn State travelers. It is strongly recommended that you make your reservations through Travel Services Online, Travel Services, or one of our contract travel agencies to ensure the lowest rate.

Penn State employees, students, and alumni can also realize significant savings by staying in Club Quarters™ when traveling for business or pleasure. Club Quarters are private, full-service hotels for the exclusive use of employees and guests of Club Quarters member organizations like Penn State, and offer club-like facilities at the lowest possible prices. Reservations can be made through the Club Quarters Web site. (Password: PSU)

In many cases, Penn State employees traveling on business will be eligible for a special government rate. Many hotels offer government rates to all University employees regardless of source of funding. However, some hotels, such as Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton, and possibly others, only offer their government rates to government employees or cost-reimbursable contractors traveling on federal grants or contracts. Please refer to the list of hotel chains that offer the government rate regardless of funding to determine if you are entitled to the government rate at the hotel you have chosen.

When selecting a hotel, government rates should be compared to any other corporate rates available. In many instances you will find the government rate to be the lower rate. There are times hotels will offer promotional rates that can be lower than the guaranteed corporate rate.

If you are traveling to a conference where the hotel is offering a conference rate, the room must be booked directly with the hotel to get the conference rate. Conference rates cannot be booked online.

Any ID stickers that are required are available in Travel Services and should be affixed to a credit card or the back of a business card that can be produced when checking into the hotel.

Other discounts are available at:

• Hotels adjacent to Penn State campuses


• Hotels adjacent to Big Ten universities


• Hotels that offer chainwide discounting

To obtain the discounted rates mentioned above, you must make your reservations through Travel Services Online, Travel Services, or one of our contract travel agencies.

Marriott Hotel Government Rate Policy

Marriott Hotels has changed its policy regarding those who are entitled to book the government rate at their family of brands, which includes, Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, Renaissance, Townplace Suites, and Springhill Suites. This change occurred in 2007 but was never communicated directly to us.  Only U.S. and Canadian Federal Government employees, active duty U.S. and Canadian military personnel, and employees of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC's) will be eligible for Federal Government per diem rates at Marriott brands throughout North America.  State and Local Government employees will be eligible for State and Local Govrnment per diem rates.  Cost Reimbursable Contractors (CRCs) will not be eligible for Marriott's government rates.  Penn State is viewed as a CRC.

Travelers booking a government rate will be required to provide one of the following forms of ID at time of reservation and/or check-in.

For Federal Government Per Diem Rates:

•    Federally issued personnel badge or ID card (with official travel order document in hand)
•    Common Access Card (CAC Card)
•    SmartPay Credit Card
•    Active military personnel badge or ID card (with official travel order document in hand)
•    FFRDC identification card (with official travel order document in hand)
•    Travel orders
• ]  Canadian government or military issued ID or credit card

For State and Local Government Per Diem Rates:

•    State or Local government issued personnel badge or ID card (with official travel order document in hand)
•    Travel orders on original state or local government letterhead

No other forms of ID will be accepted.

Choice Hotels Policy Change

Choice Hotels' family of brands which includes Quality Inns, Comfort Inns, Clarion Collection, Comfort Suites, Econo Lodge Hotels, Cambria Suites, Rodeway Inns, Sleep Inns, Mainstay Suites, Flag Hotels and Suburban Hotels, has also changed it's government rate policy and is no longer extending their government per diem rate to Cost Reimbursable Contractors (CRCs).

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Purchasing Airline Tickets with a Purchasing Card

If your department has migrated to the Employee Reimbursement System you are eligible to purchase travel with your purchasing card. However, even if you previously used your purchasing card for airline tickets, before you can now use the purchasing card for travel you must take the purchasing card test and sign the document acknowledging your responsibility for the charges on the card to have your purchasing card limits established. This process can take up to a week to be updated in the PNC system before the card can be used for travel. If you have not re-taken the test and signed the document, you can no longer use the purchasing card for travel. Please be certain you have established your purchasing card for travel before booking on Travelport with the purchasing card. Should you book after hours and the card is not valid, the ticket will not issue and you run the risk of loosing a fare.

Club Quarters

As a reminder to our travelers, Penn State has a volume requirement to meet at the various Club Quarters properties where we receive discounted rates. Because we did not meet our volume committment at the property in Chicago, our rates in Chicago have increased $20/night. The new rates are being posted on the Travel Services website. Please consider Club Quarters when possible for your travel needs. They offer Penn State a very competitive rate in cities where demand and pricing are high. However, if we do not support our agreement with Club Quarters, we are at risk of loosing these very compeitive corporate rates.

GLOBAL TRAVEL NEWS