Well, the VP visited Europe recently.\u00a0 It was a 5 night trip.\u00a0 He spent one night in London, and one night in Paris.<\/p>\n
He stayed at very nice hotels \u2013 the Hyatt Regency in London, and the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand in Paris.\u00a0 I won\u2019t begrudge him that; after all, he is the VP of the United States.\u00a0 And he did have to send an advance party, and bring security, staff, etc . . . .<\/p>\n
But perhaps whoever booked his rooms needs to work on their negotiating skills.<\/p>\n
Hotel cost for the VP\u2019s London stay:\u00a0 $459,388.65<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The sole-source contract was awarded non-competitively, and was for 136 rooms \u2013 and a total of 893 room-nights.\u00a0 Average cost per room was somewhat over $510 per night.<\/p>\n And the hotel cost for the VP\u2019s stay in Paris?\u00a0 A cool $585,000.50<\/strong><\/em>.<\/a>\u00a0 Not as many details are available here, so it\u2019s unclear precisely what the nightly cost per room really was.\u00a0 But if the number of room-nights is the same, that works out to around $650 per night.<\/p>\n The above contracts appear to be for lodging only \u2013 no staff salaries, fuel, etc . . . .<\/p>\n Yeah, you\u2019re reading that correctly.\u00a0 That\u2019s apparently over $1,044,000 for lodging alone<\/em><\/span> to support the VP staying one night in London and one night in Paris.<\/p>\n In case anyone\u2019s wondering:\u00a0 the normal maximum authorized overseas lodging rate<\/a> for US government travelers in London is $301 per night.\u00a0 For Paris, $379 the normal maximum authorized is per night.\u00a0 Exceptions exceeding this amount require special authorization.<\/p>\n Obviously, this is a case where an exception was authorized.\u00a0 And yeah, the VP doesn\u2019t just walk in and get a room for the night; security considerations nix that.<\/p>\n But it seems to me that you should be able to negotiate a nightly rate at least somewhere close to the maximum authorized for Federal travelers when booking a block of 130+ rooms including the POTUS or VP \u2013 like maybe within $50 or $100 per night, anyway.\u00a0 Here, in each case it looks like the rate negotiated was at least $200 per night per room over that.<\/p>\n And 136<\/span> rooms?\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n But hey:\u00a0 it\u2019s the for the VP of the United States, so it\u2019s cool. \u00a0And it\u2019s only money, right?<\/p>\n Yeah, that last bit is kinda my point.\u00a0 It\u2019s the US taxpayer\u2019s money<\/i><\/span>.\u00a0 Over $1 million for lodging alone<\/em> so the VP can spend two nights overseas just seems a bit much.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS:\u00a0 it looks like the VP got around in style while he was in Paris, too.\u00a0 His limo bill for the stay appears to have been $321,665<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n He’s got nothing on his boss, though.\u00a0 According to the same article, when the POTUS visited Cannes in November 2011 for the Cannes Film Festival the limo bill there was estimated to cost\u00a0$731,938<\/em><\/strong> – with a “not to exceed” limit of $1,400,000<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n That visit to Cannes by the POTUS lasted approximately 36 hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"