Methodology

The 2015 Corporate Travel Index, Business Travel News' 31st annual effort to assemble business travel per diems for 200 cities around the world, features some new methods for compiling the lists of most expensive U.S. and non-U.S. cities for daily business travel costs.

[Please click here to view the digital edition of the 2015 Corporate Travel Index, featuring all per diem listings, downloadable as a pdf.]

For this edition of the Index BTN worked for the first time with New York University's School of Professional Studies to determine dining costs for 200 cities worldwide. Under the tutelage of professor Donna Quadri and project mentor Lynn Minnaert, nine NYU students in an Advanced Research Seminar in October and November 2014 called hundreds of restaurants throughout the world to determine menu pricing and other miscellaneous costs.

As a result of the change in data-collection methods for dining and miscellaneous cost data, BTN in this edition of the Corporate Travel Index provides year-over-year percentage changes in cost only for the hotel and car rental costs data provided by Advito. Those interested in dining and miscellaneous costs in prior years can find the 2014 Corporate Travel Index here.

METHODOLOGY

The 2015 edition of the Business Travel News Corporate Travel Index is based on actual prices paid in 2014 by corporate clients of BCD Travel, provided to BTN by BCD's Advito consulting arm, as well as research conducted by The BTN Group and the New York University School of Professional Studies.

U.S. Corporate Travel Index

Total U.S. per diems are compiled by adding the average hotel, car and food costs listed on subsequent pages.

Hotel: The U.S. hotel cost charts display average upper upscale, upscale and midscale hotel rates paid by BCD Travel corporate clients from January to November 2014, in addition to an overall average daily rate. That overall rate is calculated by averaging rates from the three listed tiers as well as luxury and economy tiers. Average hotel costs include 2014 sales and occupancy taxes and surcharges based on information collected from each city's convention and visitors' bureau, chamber of commerce or other public data. Advito did not update the 2013 data published in last year's Corporate Travel Index.

The "ADR change" column reflects only the year-over-year change between the 2014 ADR data and the 2013 data. The "total change" column incorporates 2014 and 2013 sales and occupancy taxes and surcharges, verified separately by BTN for each year.

Car rental: The car rental costs listed are averages for each city based on actual rates paid by BCD Travel corporate clients from January to November 2014 for compact, intermediate and full-size rentals and include taxes and surcharges, also calculated by Advito. Advito did not update the 2013 data published in last year's Corporate Travel Index. The "rate change" column reflects only the year-over-year change between the 2014 average rate data and the 2013 data. The "overall change" column incorporates tax and surcharge data for the past two years, as provided by Advito.

Food: For the dining costs, the NYU team in October and November 2014 called hundreds of U.S. restaurants to determine pricing. The researchers surveyed 12 restaurants in each city with annual gross domestic products of more than $95 billion and six restaurants each in other U.S. cities.

In large and small U.S. cities alike, researchers contacted chain restaurants and independent establishments for lunch and dinner pricing, while incorporating hotel restaurant pricing for breakfast.

Researchers for breakfast pricing in large cities surveyed three chain, six independent and three hotel restaurants; in smaller cities, they contacted three chain, two independent and one hotel restaurant. For lunch and dinner pricing, researchers for large cities surveyed six chain and six independent restaurants, while for small-city data they surveyed three chain and three independent restaurants.

Chain restaurants used include Denny's, International House of Pancakes and Starbucks for breakfast; Chili's, Applebee's, Panera Bread, Olive Garden and local chains for lunch; and LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden and local chains for dinner.

Researchers used TripAdvisor to locate popular independent restaurants and hotel restaurants for surveying.

Researchers sought and tabulated pricing for a breakfast of two eggs, meat, toast, orange juice and coffee; a lunch of soup, a hamburger or chicken sandwich, a slice of pie and a soft drink; and a dinner of soup, filet steak, a glass of red wine, dessert and a cup of coffee. Starbucks does not offer all those precise menu items; researchers instead sought pricing for a breakfast sandwich including egg and meat, a tall filter coffee and an orange juice.

The listed costs do not include tax but do include a 15 percent gratuity.

Americas, EMEA & Asia/Pacific Corporate Travel Index

As with U.S. Corporate Travel Index data, per diems for the 100 listed cities outside the United States are based on prices paid in 2014 by corporate clients of BCD Travel, provided to BTN by BCD's Advito consulting arm, as well as research conducted by the NYU School of Professional Studies. The roster of cities included in the Corporate Travel Index did not change from last year's edition. Exchange rates from Dec. 2, 2014, were used for all data.

Hotel: Advito provided to BTN average upscale daily hotel rates paid by BCD Travel corporate clients from January to November 2014. Rates do not include taxes. Advito did not update the 2013 data published in last year's Corporate Travel Index. The "change" column reflects the year-over-year change only in the upscale daily hotel rates. Those changes were not calculated using constant U.S. dollars; instead, local prices were converted to U.S. dollars using exchange rates from Dec. 2, 2014, and measured against last year's Corporate Travel Index hotel rates, which used exchange rates from Oct. 4, 2013.

Miscellaneous: NYU researchers for each city determined the costs of two taxi fares (one from the main airport to the city center, one from the main train or bus station to the city center); a newspaper (The New York Times or The Economist where available, another major international publication otherwise); and a bottle of water (33 centiliter Evian water or its equivalent) at the airport.

Food: NYU researchers conducted similar research into restaurants outside the United States as they did for U.S. locations, with some differences. Non-U.S. cities were classified as large or small based on population, with 1.5 million inhabitants as the dividing line.

In large cities, 12 hotel, six chain and six independent restaurants were surveyed for breakfast and lunch pricing, while 12 independent restaurants were surveyed for dinner pricing. In small cities, six hotel, three chain and three independent restaurants were surveyed for breakfast and lunch pricing, while six independent restaurants were surveyed for dinner pricing.

Researchers sought and tabulated pricing for a continental hotel breakfast; a lunch of a sandwich, salad and a non-alcoholic drink; and a dinner of a fish, chicken or beef entree, a salad and a non-alcoholic drink.

Non-U.S. food prices include neither gratuity nor tax.

BTN thanks BCD Travel, Advito and the New York University School of Professional Studies for their assistance in developing this project.