Why GSA Lodging Rates Change by Month

In resort and convention cities, GSA lodging caps move with the season — higher when hotels are expensive, lower in the off-season. Use the rate for the month you actually travel.

Examples of seasonal swings

• San Francisco's FY2026 lodging cap runs $259 most of the year, rising to $272 in the autumn.
• Ski and beach towns can swing by hundreds of dollars between peak and off-peak months.

M&IE doesn't change by month

Only lodging is seasonal; the M&IE rate for a city is fixed all year. PerDiemWise reads each night's month and applies the correct lodging cap automatically, so a trip that straddles a season change is totalled correctly.