Lodging Reservations
Purpose
To provide guidance on obtaining lodging reservations and reimbursements for official 成人头条 travel.
Policy
This procedure is issued in accordance with 成人头条 (成人头条) Travel Policy (Handbook of Operating Procedures, Section VII, Chapter 6).
University travelers may be reimbursed for lodging expenses incurred on a day that the traveler conducts 成人头条 official travel outside of his or her designated headquarters and requires an overnight stay. The lodging expense may only be reimbursed if it is incurred at a commercial lodging establishment. The employee may only be reimbursed for his or her actual lodging expense not to exceed the maximum lodging reimbursement rate.
A commercial lodging establishment is defined as (1) A motel, hotel, inn, apartment, house or similar establishment that provides lodging to the public for pay; or (2) a person or establishment that provides lodging for pay that the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts determines to have a sufficient number of the characteristics of a commercial lodging establishment for the purposes of the , per . The term includes lodging provide by: (1) a government entity on property controlled by that entity; or (2) a religious organization on property controlled by that organization; or (3) a private educational institution on property controlled by that institution.
University travelers should make every effort to secure reservations with Anthony Travel, Concur, or directly with the commercial lodging establishment to ensure that the actual lodging expense does not exceed the maximum lodging reimbursement rate and to collect an itemized commercial lodging receipt as defined in the Lodging Reimbursements section of this guideline. Lodging booked through short term, long term or vacation rental platforms is allowed only if an itemized receipt can be provided at the time of checkout and rates are within policy. Third party reservation systems such as booking.com, Travelocity.com, Airbnb, etc. typically do not always provide an itemized commercial lodging receipt and these expenditures may not qualify for reimbursement.
Procedures
The following options are available for making lodging reservations for official 成人头条 travel which has been approved per the University Travel policy.
Lodging Reservations Paid with Direct Bill
Lodging paid with direct bill is preferred to reimbursement as it avoids the need for employees to pay for the lodging with their personal funds and request reimbursement via expense report when the travel has ended. Direct bill payments are contingent upon the vendor sending documentation to support the charges such as an invoice and accepting payment from 成人头条 directly. Some commercial lodging establishments only accept credit card payment at the time of the lodging and therefore do not accept direct bill payments. Below are the two direct bill options available.
Miner Mall direct pay form: Navigate to the Miner Mall shopping home page and select Direct Pay Form in the Forms section. Follow the instructions provided to submit the form to request payment to the commercial lodging establishment. This option must be used when issuing a direct bill pre-payment or paying the lodging before the stay begins.
Non-PO Voucher: This may only be used when the commercial lodging establishment will issue an invoice and accept payment after the stay has ended. Pre-payment or paying the lodging before the stay begins is not allowed on a non-PO voucher. Navigate to the Vouchers training page and follow the instructions to create and submit the non-PO voucher with the invoice from the commercial lodging establishment attached.
Lodging Reservations Paid with Reimbursements
Anthony Travel: The employee traveler or the department travel planner can contact the University's contracted travel agency, Anthony Travel. Updated contact information can be found on the 成人头条 Travel Service's UT System Contracted Travel Agencies website.
The payment method is reimbursement only. Anthony Travel requires the traveler's credit card when booking the lodging an the traveler must present the credit card at check-in to the commercial lodging establishment. The traveler must retain and submit the commercial lodging receipt for reimbursement on an expense report.
Students may not contact Anthony Travel directly to request reservations. The responsible 成人头条 employee (faculty, staff or department travel planner) must contact Anthony Travel.
When contacting Anthony Travel, the Travel Authorization ID must be provided.
- Employees must provide an approved PeopleSoft Travel Authorization Number
- (Ex. TA+PeopleSoft Travel Authorization ID)
- Students traveling with a responsible 成人头条 employee:
- Employees must provide the responsible employee's approved PeopleSoft Travel Authorization Number.
- A list of the students that are traveling with the responsible employee must be included with or attached to the PeopleSoft Travel Authorization.
- (Ex. TA+PeopleSoft Travel Authorization ID)
- All Student Travel processes and guidelines still need to be completed for all students traveling.
- Students traveling without a responsible 成人头条 employee general student travel:
- Employees must provide the student's approved Travel Registry Trip ID Number; 23 digits, including letters, numbers and underscores.
- (Ex. 675E_2770_1694209912839)
- Students traveling without a responsible 成人头条 employee for study abroad:
- Employees must provide the student's approved Study Abroad App ID Number; 5 numerical digits, no alpha or special characters to Anthony Travel.
- (Ex. 23273)
Concur: The employee traveler or the department travel planner can use the Concur online booking tool for domestic travel. Navigate to the Concur website. Registration is required and must be approved by the Travel Services office before official use.
- Browse available lodging options and select the rental most convenient for your travels.
- Payment method is reimbursement only. The traveler's preferred credit card can be stored in their Concur profile, otherwise the traveler will need to call the commercial lodging establishment to provide the credit card information. The traveler must retain and submit the commercial lodging receipt for reimbursement on an expense report.
The Concur online booking tool is not available for student travel reservations.
When booking in Concur, the Travel Authorization ID must be provided.
- Employees must provide an approved PeopleSoft Travel Authorization Number
- (Ex. TA+PeopleSoft Travel Authorization ID)
Lodging Reimbursements
Travelers may be reimbursed for lodging expenditures on a PeopleSoft Expense Report document with all supporting documentation attached and upon the completion of travel.
For a traveler to be reimbursed for lodging expenditures, they must provide proof that the expense was incurred. A lodging receipt issues by a commercial lodging establishment, a travel agency or a broker is acceptable and must include the following:
- The name and address of the commercial lodging establishment.
- The name of the employee.
- The single room rate.
- A daily itemization of the lodging charges
-- and -- - Proof of payment
A receipt that has been altered by any person other than the entity issuing the receipt is unacceptable. If the receipt does not include all of the above-listed items, reimbursement for some or all expenditures may be denied.
As required by the Texas Comptroller, the University adheres to the GSA per diem reimbursement rates as the method for determining maximum meal and lodging rates for all 成人头条 official travel.
- Contiguous US travel must not exceed the General Services Administration () federal per diem rates for the destination location unless lodging is in conjunction with a conference or meeting.
- Alaska, Hawaii, US Territories and Possessions (outside contiguous US) travel must not exceed the Department of Defense () per diem rates, which are referenced within the General Services Administration () unless lodging is in conjunction with a conference or meeting.
- International travel must not exceed the US Department of State () per-diem meal rates, which are also referenced within the General Services Administration () unless lodging is in conjunction with a conference or meeting.
- If the lodging rate exceeds the maximum per diem reimbursement rate as indicated above, the traveler must provide justification for the overage in the supporting documentation.
- Excess lodging expenses and associated hotel occupancy taxes may be paid from Local funds with departmental approval.
- Documentation of conference affiliation must be attached to be reimbursed at a higher rate.
The traveler will submit all receipts to the department travel planner for reimbursement. The travel planner will create an expense report in PeopleSoft and attach all supporting documentation. The document will be sent electronically to the Disbursement and Travel Services Department for final review and approval.
Hotel Occupancy Tax
Official 成人头条 travelers are exempt from Texas state hotel occupancy taxes collected by a Texas Commercial Lodging Establishment per Texas Tax Code, Section 156.102(a). A traveler must present the hotel with a completed . University employees are not exempt from county or municipal hotel occupancy taxes, and these taxes are reimbursable. An employee who fails to present a properly completed exemption certificate will not be reimbursed for Texas state hotel occupancy taxes.
Applicability
This applies to all University faculty, staff, students, and guests traveling on official 成人头条 travel/business.
Responsible Party
Comptroller
Handbook of Operating Procedures (HOP) Section 7 Chapter 6: Travel Policy
Last Updated: November 2025