Federal per diem rises across Virginia on Oct. 1, and Williamsburg is the one place it falls

Richmond —

The ceiling on what the federal government will pay for a hotel room in Virginia goes up in nine of the state’s ten per diem localities on Oct. 1, when fiscal 2027 begins. In the tenth, Williamsburg, the off-season rate goes down.

The General Services Administration set the rates in Per Diem Bulletin FTR 27-01, dated Aug. 18. They apply to travel performed on or after Oct. 1, 2026 through Sept. 30, 2027. The standard rate that covers most of the country rises from $110 to $113 a night. The meals and incidental expenses rate does not move at all: the tiers stay at $68 to $92 and the standard stays at $68, where it has been.

For a Virginia hotel that sells rooms to government travelers, this is the number that decides whether a booking happens. For a restaurant near a federal facility, the M&IE figure that did not move is the more important one.

What changes, locality by locality

Locality	FY2026	FY2027	Change
Northern Virginia, March to June	$276	$295	+$19
Northern Virginia, October and September	$275	$287	+$12
Northern Virginia, July and August	$183	$192	+$9
Northern Virginia, November to February	$196	$203	+$7
Wallops Island, July and August	$248	$262	+$14
Lynchburg	$115	$124	+$9
Charlottesville	$136	$142	+$6
Loudoun	$115	$121	+$6
Roanoke	$119	$125	+$6
Virginia Beach, base	$124	$129	+$5
Blacksburg	$122	$126	+$4
Richmond	$157	$161	+$4
Virginia Beach, June to August	$210	$212	+$2
Wallops Island, base	$131	$132	+$1
Williamsburg and York, peak	$134	$135	+$1
Williamsburg and York, off season	$115	$113	−$2
Standard rate, everywhere else	$110	$113	+$3

The “Northern Virginia” rows are GSA’s District of Columbia locality, which covers the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax and the counties of Arlington and Fairfax. Loudoun County is not in it. Loudoun is its own locality at $121, less than half the Northern Virginia spring rate, which is the sort of line that decides where an agency books a two-day meeting.

Lynchburg is the largest percentage gain in the state at 7.8%. Its rate also becomes flat: the FY2026 schedule dropped Lynchburg to $110 in June and July, and that summer dip is gone.

The Williamsburg decrease is not a drafting error. From October through February the Williamsburg and York locality now sits at $113, which is exactly the national standard rate. Its March-to-August rate rises a dollar to $135, and the peak season is a month longer than it was.

Where the money actually goes

Virginia has 95 counties, 38 independent cities and 188 incorporated towns, and most of them levy a lodging tax on top of the sales tax. Under federal rules the traveler is made whole either way: 41 CFR § 301-11.16 reimburses lodging taxes separately, as a miscellaneous expense, outside the per diem cap. The per diem is a ceiling on the room rate before tax.

That matters to operators in two directions. A hotel quoting a government rate must be at or under per diem on the room itself, and the tax stack does not eat into the quote. But the total the government pays for a room night is not the per diem, and it varies by jurisdiction even where the per diem is identical.

The table below applies each locality’s own lodging and sales tax rates — taken from our tax map, read out of each jurisdiction’s ordinance — to the FY2027 base per diem for that locality.

Locality	Base per diem	Lodging tax	Sales tax	Tax on the room	Government pays
Fairfax city	$203	13.5%	6%	$39.59	$242.59
Alexandria	$203	9.5% + $1.25	6%	$32.72	$235.72
Fairfax County	$203	9%	6%	$30.45	$233.45
Falls Church	$203	9%	6%	$30.45	$233.45
Arlington County	$203	8.25%	6%	$28.93	$231.93
Richmond	$161	8%	6%	$22.54	$183.54
Charlottesville	$142	9%	5.3%	$20.31	$162.31
Virginia Beach	$129	9% + $2	6%	$21.35	$150.35
Wallops Island (Accomack)	$132	5%	5.3%	$13.60	$145.60
Roanoke city	$125	8%	5.3%	$16.63	$141.63
Blacksburg	$126	7%	5.3%	$15.50	$141.50
Lynchburg	$124	6.5% + $1	5.3%	$15.63	$139.63
Loudoun County	$121	8%	6%	$16.94	$137.94
Williamsburg	$113	7% + $2	7%	$17.82	$130.82
York and James City counties	$113	5% + $2	7%	$15.56	$128.56

Five jurisdictions share the same $203 Northern Virginia per diem and charge between $28.93 and $39.59 in tax on it. Fairfax city’s 13.5% lodging tax is the highest rate in the Commonwealth, and it makes a room there cost the government $10.66 a night more than the identical room across the line in Fairfax County.

Two caveats on that table, and they matter. It assumes the tax is charged, and whether it is charged depends on who pays, not on who sleeps in the room.

For Virginia’s sales tax, 23VAC10-210-690 is explicit: an exemption exists only where the federal government is the payer of record, on a centrally billed account or an official purchase order. Where “an employee pays for meals and lodgings with personal funds, a personal credit card or a credit card provided by the government, the bill for which is sent directly to the employee,” the regulation says “no exemption is available.” The Tax Commissioner upheld an assessment on exactly that fact pattern in Ruling 20-129, where a federal employee ID was offered in place of proof of federal payment.

Local transient occupancy tax is a separate question with a separate answer, because § 58.1-3819 does not mention government travelers at all. The only exemption in the statute is for stays of 30 or more consecutive days. Everything else is local ordinance, and the ordinances differ: Fairfax County exempts rentals made to the federal government, while Alexandria’s exemption reaches rooms paid directly by federal, state or city government. A front desk that treats an individually billed travel card as an exemption certificate is creating an assessment, not avoiding one.

The meal rate has not moved

Virginia’s M&IE tiers for FY2027 are unchanged from FY2026: $92 in the Northern Virginia locality, $80 in Richmond, Charlottesville, Loudoun and Williamsburg and York, $74 in Roanoke and Virginia Beach, and $68 in Blacksburg, Lynchburg, Wallops Island and everywhere on the standard rate.

What that buys, per GSA’s published breakdown:

M&IE total	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Incidentals	First and last day
$68	$16	$19	$28	$5	$51.00
$74	$18	$20	$31	$5	$55.50
$80	$20	$22	$33	$5	$60.00
$92	$23	$26	$38	$5	$69.00

Unlike lodging tax, meal tax and tip come out of that number. The federal definition of the meals component at 41 CFR § 300-3.1 covers “breakfast, lunch, dinner and related tips and taxes.” A $28 dinner allowance in a jurisdiction with a 6% meals tax and a 20% tip is closer to $22 of food. In Alexandria, where the meals tax stacks on the sales tax, it is less than that.

The first and last day of a trip pay 75% of the full rate, which is why a two-night trip does not fund six full meals.

How GSA arrives at the number, and why an operator can push on it

The rates are not a survey of what hotels charge. GSA has based lodging per diem on average daily rate data less 5% since fiscal 2005, typically using the trailing April-through-March period, with properties selected for geography, fire-safe certification and price tier. Seasons are set from three years of data and applied where a sustained period differs from the rest of the year by at least 15%.

Two consequences follow. A market whose ADR rose sharply after March 2026 will see that show up in FY2028, not this one. And a locality that believes its rate is wrong can say so: GSA runs a process for reviewing individual localities, and the seasonal structure is data-driven rather than fixed.

It is also worth being clear about what the rate is not. A hotel is not required to accept it. GSA’s own guidance says so plainly: “Hotels are not required to honor the federal per diem rates. It is each property’s business decision whether or not to offer the rate.” The per diem caps what the government reimburses its employee. It does not cap what a hotel may charge.

FedRooms, the governmentwide lodging program, is likewise optional. It guarantees a rate at or below per diem, a 4 p.m. day-of-arrival cancellation domestically, and no early-departure or resort fees, in exchange for a 2.25% participation fee in 2026. A new extended-stay tier for trips beyond 30 nights was added this year. Interest forms for the 2027-2028 program period open in January and February 2027, which is the actionable date for a Virginia property weighing whether the government segment is worth the terms.

The context an operator should hold alongside the increase

A higher ceiling is worth less when fewer people are traveling under it.

Virginia had about 169,900 civilian federal jobs in July 2026, roughly 4% of the state’s nonfarm employment, and the direction of travel has been down: BLS data analyzed by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism showed a net loss of 23,500 federal civilian jobs in Virginia through November 2025, undoing several years of accumulated growth. Executive Order 14222, signed in February 2025, remains in force and requires written justification for federally funded travel to conferences and other non-essential purposes, logged in an agency system.

Hotel operators reported the effect through 2025. Publicly, IHG put government travel roughly 20% below the prior year and Marriott about 15% down, and Washington-area RevPAR fell year over year through the autumn. Those are company and analyst figures rather than official statistics, but they point the same way.

One deadline is worth marking. The continuing resolution signed Sept. 2 funds the government through Dec. 11, 2026, so the start of the new per diem year on Oct. 1 does not carry a shutdown risk. December does. A property that takes a large share of government business should be looking at that date, not this one.

What to do before Oct. 1

• Update government rate codes and any per diem-linked rate plans in the property management system for the Oct. 1 change, including the seasonal steps in Northern Virginia, Virginia Beach, Wallops Island and Williamsburg.
• Check the Williamsburg and York off-season rate specifically. It falls to $113, and a rate plan built on last year’s $115 will price out of the segment.
• Confirm the front desk knows the difference between a centrally billed account and an individually billed travel card, and what documentation each one requires before tax is removed.
• Look at what the tax stack does to the total. Two properties at the same per diem in Fairfax city and Fairfax County present the government with bills that differ by more than $10 a night.
• For restaurants near a federal facility, remember the meal rate did not move for a second year while food costs did. The $28 dinner tier has to absorb tax and tip.