This tool combines federal lodging data, HouseRight's actual travel history, and a curated event database. Here's what's behind each number you see.
🏨 Lodging Tier (3/4/5)
GSA FY2026 Per Diem Rates — federal lodging caps for 486 NSA cities, with 94 metro-area aliases. Tier 3 = at-or-below city's annual average; Tier 4 = up to +10%; Tier 5 = above +10%. Refreshes annually each October.
🚗 Drive Flag
Fires whenever an entered origin is within ~300 mi straight-line of the destination (~360 mi driving, ~6 hr at highway speed). Encourages driving over flying when economically sensible. Always runs when origins are entered, regardless of stage.
⚠ Event Surge Warnings
Curated event database covering major conventions, sports events, music festivals, and holidays through end-2027. AVL-relevant shows (InfoComm, NAB, CEDIA) flagged. Use the "Recheck via web search" button to verify for events not in our list (especially for niche/regional events).
💵 HouseRight Historical Fare
Delta corporate travel data, Jan 2024 – May 2026 — 787 joined trips, $376K total spend. Shows pooled destination averages for our top 26 cities (~78% of trips), plus origin-specific breakdowns when crew origins are entered and we have ≥3 trips for that route.
📅 Stage Detection
Auto-detect based on days between today and proposed date. Bid stage (180d+): event/lodging focus, origins hidden. Planning (90-180d): same, origins optional. Pre-deploy (30-90d): origins surface, advance booking guidance. Imminent (≤30d): full crew details recommended.
✈ Delta Hub Flag
Delta hub airports (ATL, DTW, MSP, SLC, LGA, JFK, BOS, SEA, LAX, CVG) tend to have lower fares. HouseRight data shows ~$38/ticket savings on average for hub destinations.
⏱ Advance Booking Recommendation
Based on HouseRight's actual fare-by-lead-time analysis. The 31-60 day window averages ~$475/ticket vs ~$535-$600 in the 7-30 day window. Saves ~$60/ticket across our ~350 trips/year.
🏷 Estimated Lodging Cost Delta
Calculated as (avg nightly rate × tier multiplier × stay × travelers). Tier 4 assumes +10% nightly, Tier 5 +20%. Rounded to nearest $5. A starting point for cost conversations, not a quote.
🔗 Hotel & Flight Search Buttons
Pre-filled queries to Google Hotels, Booking.com, Hotels.com, Marriott, Google Flights, and Skyscanner. We don't fetch live prices — we hand you to the booking sites.