GSA Per Diem When Staying With Friends or Family: What You Actually Get
You are on orders to a city where your brother lives, and the spare room is free. The question that follows every federal traveler at some point: what is the GSA per diem rate when staying with friends or family? The short answer is that there is no special rate. The lodging half of your per diem drops to what you spent, which is zero, and the meals half keeps paying out like nothing changed.
What is the GSA per diem rate when staying with friends or family?
The Federal Travel Regulation is explicit on this one. When you obtain lodging from friends or relatives, with or without charge, no part of the per diem allowance is allowed for lodging unless the host actually incurred additional costs in accommodating you. If the host did incur additional costs, the extra amount you substantiate, as determined reasonable by the agency, may be allowed as a lodging expense.
Read that carefully, because the two halves of the sentence do different work. The first half kills the idea that the standard $113 lodging rate (FY2027 CONUS) is yours to keep when you slept on a couch for free. It is not a stipend; it is a reimbursement ceiling. Zero cost means zero reimbursement. The second half is the narrow exception: if your host paid more because you were there, an extra utility bill, a cleaning fee for the guest room, that documented amount can be claimed. A cut of the host's rent or a round number you made up cannot.
Your M&IE is untouched. Meals and incidental expenses are paid at the full locality rate regardless of where you sleep. If the locality rate is $68, you get $68 a day for food and incidentals, minus the standard deductions if the conference fed you, and at 75 percent on your first and last travel days.
A worked 5-day example
Take a five-day trip to a standard CONUS locality: $113 lodging, $68 M&IE, staying free at your sister's place, no provided meals, no host costs to claim.
Lodging: $0 for all five nights. M&IE: day one and day five at 75 percent ($51 each), days two through four at the full $68 ($204). Total M&IE: $306. That is the whole voucher. Compare it with the hotel version of the same trip, where five nights of lodging at the $113 cap would have added up to $565 on top of the same $306. The couch saved the government $565 and cost you nothing. That is the deal the FTR is describing, and it is a good one for everyone except your sister's electric bill.
The per-diem-in-lieu-of-lodging wrinkle
You may hear about a flat extra payment for staying with relatives, sometimes around $10 a night. That is not a GSA rate. Some agencies and universities pay a small "per diem in lieu of lodging" amount under their own policies when a traveler stays with friends or family and incurs no lodging cost. It varies by organization, it is not in the FTR as a standard entitlement, and you should check your agency's travel policy before assuming it applies to you. If your agency does not have one, the FTR rule above is the whole answer.
One more boundary worth knowing: this rule covers friends and relatives. Government quarters are a separate category with their own fee rules, and commercial lodging you actually paid for is claimed normally up to the locality cap. The friends-and-family rule exists precisely because the cost is usually zero, and the regulation is written to match reality rather than to hand out a bonus for having relatives near your TDY station.
So file the voucher with lodging at zero, M&IE at the full locality rate, and if your host genuinely spent extra money because you were there, document it and claim it. That is the complete, audit-proof version of this trip.
Traveling on orders?
Look up the current GSA lodging and M&IE rates for your destination before you file the voucher.
Look Up Per Diem RatesFrequently asked questions
What is the GSA per diem rate when staying with friends or family?
There is no flat rate. Under the Federal Travel Regulation, no lodging reimbursement is allowed when you stay with friends or relatives unless the host incurred additional costs to accommodate you. You still receive the full M&IE allowance for meals and incidentals.
Can I keep the lodging per diem if I stay with family for free?
No. Claiming lodging reimbursement for a cost you did not incur is a false claim. The lodging portion of per diem reimburses actual expense up to the locality cap; zero cost means zero reimbursement.
What if my host incurred extra costs because I stayed over?
Additional costs your host actually incurred and you substantiate, such as extra utility charges or cleaning fees, may be allowed as a lodging expense. General estimates or a share of the host's rent do not qualify.
Do I still get M&IE when staying with friends or family?
Yes. Meals and incidental expenses are paid at the full locality rate regardless of where you sleep, subject to the usual deductions if meals are provided and the 75 percent rule on the first and last travel days.
Do I need receipts when staying with family?
M&IE never requires receipts. If you are claiming substantiated extra costs your host incurred, keep documentation of what the host paid, since the approving official must determine the costs were reasonable and additional.
One federal-travel tip a week, no fluff: Subscribe to the newsletter.