You are in good hands with FEMA. I'm from the Government and here to help you.

[AngelinaCatHub]

[relief13035]

I will clarify, as I am the Hotelier of the bunch:

In each hotel/motel room in every state, it is required by law to have a Rate Card posted with the innkeepers laws of the state. Many hotels post this card on the back of the door or the inside of the clothes closet. The rates that you see on those cards are always EXTREME. The reason for this is that if the innkeeper ever charges you more than the highest rate, you can sue.

For example: let's say my hotel's highest charged rate was $259 (that being in my peak time (wishful thinking)). I would post on my rate card that my highest was $459, since I know that I would never get that rate.

In order to receive payments from FEMA, the hotel must be FEMA approved and be in the system and have a number. FEMA has a cap room rate based on the state and it is against the law to gouge and the hotel could be in BIG trouble.

Even though I am in CA, we had Katrina people staying in my hotel. The most I was allowed to charge was my regular published rack rate plus additional $10 for any extra people in the rooms. The maximum we were allowed from FEMA was $109/night.

If the hotel you were staying at charged you the equivelant of $57/night, I highly doubt that FEMA would authorize $400 per night. If that hotel DID charge that to FEMA they should be ashamed of themselves.

[JRScott]

I work in the hotel business too

What do you think I do at this time of night while running the boards, Night Auditing only takes so long

The Rack rate is the highest rate you can ever expect to pay at a hotel. They jack this up so high that when you get any other rate you think hey I got a deal......

However the government is notorious for poor negotiating. They could indeed be overpaying at those hotels, however usually many hotels offer a very low government rate (We don't recognize government rates here where I work at, they want rates 20-30 dollars cheaper than the cheapest other rate which is unreasonable...).

Seems like when I worked for Marriott back in the late 90s the gov rate was usually around 49-59 dollars depending on hotel. So as relief says it is highly doubtful they'd pay 400 dollars a night, in fact the government would never authorize that I don't believe from my dealings with them.

[relief13035]

Hey JR - isn't the hotel business a riot??? We could tell stories that would amaze most of you!

The GOV per diem rate in my area of California is only $97 right now.

[JRScott]

Yeah