I’ve always been annoyed by the process of finding hotels at per diem rates in DC. I’ve only had to do it a few times, as I started out as a local hire (where you get no per diem) and I bought a house in DC in conjunction with long-term training. While waiting to close on the house, we needed to find a per-diem hotel that allowed pets, which significantly narrowed the field (I highly recommend staying at a Kimpton hotel if traveling with pets). Now, I’m heading back for a three-day training at FSI and I wanted a place to stay. While all the major chains allow you to choose the Government/Military rate after you’ve settled on a property, if their rate is unavailable or higher than per diem, you have to go all the way back to the search results. It would be easy enough for all the hotel chains to simply put the option on the search page, but instead all built “special” search pages which I’ve collected here:

• Hilton
• Marriott
• Choice Hotels
• Intercontinental Hotels
• Best Western

Wyndham offers the discount as well, but not in the DC area so I’m not including them. I prefer Hilton and Marriott, mostly on the strength of their rewards programs. You can always check FedRooms.com or the list of Hotels at Per Diem, but neither is inclusive and both sites will return all hotels that offer the rate – whether the rate is available for your specified travel dates or not. Kind of defeats the purpose, no? 

There are several transfer allowances that you might be eligible for when you’re heading off to post, but I’m going to focus on the two (and a half) allowances that are most used and most versatile: the Advance of Pay allowance (aka interest-free loan) and the Foreign Transfer Allowance (FTA or free money). These can save you a ton of money as you spend thousands getting overseas, or can give you a little extra cash if you play your cards right. See how after the jump.

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I was a local hire and then went to post, where all of my travel vouchers were handled by FSNs. Imagine my horror when I had to navigate the voucher system all by my lonesome upon coming back to FSI for long-term language training. I would have killed to have this info before, so to prevent homicide I give you the following how-to: Read more on this Article!