Using Airfare allowance for hotel

[Edotdl]

So I'm visiting multiple schools in Cali during the same trip instead of flying cross country 3 times. The total trip includes one cross country rountrip flight, one short roundtrip flight between schools, and a few nights for a hotel between interviews. However, the schools stated in the original interview invite email that the reimbursement allowance is for airfare. The total cost, including the hotel, is cheaper than if I flew to each program individually and under the combined budget of the schools. I'm still waiting on replies from the other programs, but one already responded and it seemed like they would be unwilling to help pay for the hotel. I was just wondering if anyone has experience with this or any advice.

[TakeruK]

I did something like this. One difference is that for me, these were post-acceptance visits (for the purpose of recruitment), not pre-acceptance interviews. But they were still interviews in the sense that this is your first in-person contact with potential advisors and both faculty and students use this as a chance to determine who they would want to work with.

Anyways, I was in Eastern Canada and I had two visits to schools in the Southwest: one in Arizona and one in California. They each had different restrictions on how much they would reimburse and what they would reimburse. I contacted each school separately and asked whether or not they would be able to reimburse me if I split the costs between the two schools and save both the schools and myself some money (and lots of time). I was 100% upfront with everything and both schools said "we'll do it if the other school agrees" so that worked out. The Arizona school paid for the flight to Arizona, half of the flight to California, and all expenses in Arizona (I stayed at a grad student's home). The California school paid for half of the flight from Arizona to California and the flight from California back to where I was living. They also paid for expenses in California (e.g. food).

There were two extra things I had to do to make this work out. First, I had to remove the days in between visits. So, I asked the Arizona school if I could visit a few days later (they originally scheduled a visit for me for a Thursday & Friday and I asked if I could visit instead on the following Monday & Tuesday). So I arrived in Arizona on Sunday night, did my Monday & Tuesday visit, flew to California on Wednesday, and did my California school visit on Thursday & Friday. The second thing I had to do was ask for more money from the California school. They were originally only going to reimburse up to $300 for travel, and flights from Canada are easily over $700 roundtrip. However, they normally put visiting students in a hotel. I actually had a friend who was already a grad student in the very same program, so I asked if I could get another $100 towards airfare if I stayed at my friends' place instead of the hotel. 

So, with those two changes, I was able to get everything paid for and it was win-win-win for me, the California school and the Arizona school. Submitting receipts afterwards was also an extra challenge because each school wanted me to prove that the other school is paying their half too, but both schools worked at different paces so it took a little bit extra bookkeeping. But it was worth it.

So my advice for you would be:

1. Be upfront with the schools on what you are doing.

2. Consider asking the schools to move your dates (although for an interview, this might be tougher) in order to make it work. The school might choose to reschedule in order to save money for them too. See also the note below.

3. Keep very very careful documentation of everything and be very clear in your communications, especially after the travel and you need to submit expense reports, on exactly what each school is paying for. Especially for the split expenses, you're now working with two potentially different sets of travel policies!

4. Keep every receipt, and ask for itemized receipts for everything just in case one of the schools needs it.

Final note: I would not be surprised if all of the schools refused/declined to pay for the hotel nights for the days in between visits. Even though it might save them money to do this instead of flying you cross-country round-trip, due to the source of the funding, they may not be able to pay for extra hotel nights. When dates don't match up on an audit report, some schools are not able to justify that expense for the interview weekend. Such is bureaucracy

I mean, you can and should ask. But depending on how many nights you need to stay in between the schools, you might be better off flying back and forth. You can also consider paying some nights out of pocket and make it into a mini vacation---an extra day in Los Angeles or San Francisco (either to be a tourist or to scout out potential places to live) isn't a bad idea. Remember that if your visit is a Wednesday & Thursday, and if the school is already paying for your hotel (or arranging other accommodations) then you should be covered for Tuesday night through Thursday night, typically. So, how many extra hotel nights would there be?

[Edotdl]

2 hours ago, TakeruK said:

I did something like this. One difference is that for me, these were post-acceptance visits (for the purpose of recruitment), not pre-acceptance interviews. But they were still interviews in the sense that this is your first in-person contact with potential advisors and both faculty and students use this as a chance to determine who they would want to work with.

Anyways, I was in Eastern Canada and I had two visits to schools in the Southwest: one in Arizona and one in California. They each had different restrictions on how much they would reimburse and what they would reimburse. I contacted each school separately and asked whether or not they would be able to reimburse me if I split the costs between the two schools and save both the schools and myself some money (and lots of time). I was 100% upfront with everything and both schools said "we'll do it if the other school agrees" so that worked out. The Arizona school paid for the flight to Arizona, half of the flight to California, and all expenses in Arizona (I stayed at a grad student's home). The California school paid for half of the flight from Arizona to California and the flight from California back to where I was living. They also paid for expenses in California (e.g. food).

There were two extra things I had to do to make this work out. First, I had to remove the days in between visits. So, I asked the Arizona school if I could visit a few days later (they originally scheduled a visit for me for a Thursday & Friday and I asked if I could visit instead on the following Monday & Tuesday). So I arrived in Arizona on Sunday night, did my Monday & Tuesday visit, flew to California on Wednesday, and did my California school visit on Thursday & Friday. The second thing I had to do was ask for more money from the California school. They were originally only going to reimburse up to $300 for travel, and flights from Canada are easily over $700 roundtrip. However, they normally put visiting students in a hotel. I actually had a friend who was already a grad student in the very same program, so I asked if I could get another $100 towards airfare if I stayed at my friends' place instead of the hotel. 

So, with those two changes, I was able to get everything paid for and it was win-win-win for me, the California school and the Arizona school. Submitting receipts afterwards was also an extra challenge because each school wanted me to prove that the other school is paying their half too, but both schools worked at different paces so it took a little bit extra bookkeeping. But it was worth it.

So my advice for you would be:

1. Be upfront with the schools on what you are doing.

2. Consider asking the schools to move your dates (although for an interview, this might be tougher) in order to make it work. The school might choose to reschedule in order to save money for them too. See also the note below.

3. Keep very very careful documentation of everything and be very clear in your communications, especially after the travel and you need to submit expense reports, on exactly what each school is paying for. Especially for the split expenses, you're now working with two potentially different sets of travel policies!

4. Keep every receipt, and ask for itemized receipts for everything just in case one of the schools needs it.

Final note: I would not be surprised if all of the schools refused/declined to pay for the hotel nights for the days in between visits. Even though it might save them money to do this instead of flying you cross-country round-trip, due to the source of the funding, they may not be able to pay for extra hotel nights. When dates don't match up on an audit report, some schools are not able to justify that expense for the interview weekend. Such is bureaucracy

I mean, you can and should ask. But depending on how many nights you need to stay in between the schools, you might be better off flying back and forth. You can also consider paying some nights out of pocket and make it into a mini vacation---an extra day in Los Angeles or San Francisco (either to be a tourist or to scout out potential places to live) isn't a bad idea. Remember that if your visit is a Wednesday & Thursday, and if the school is already paying for your hotel (or arranging other accommodations) then you should be covered for Tuesday night through Thursday night, typically. So, how many extra hotel nights would there be?

Thanks so much for the detailed response. It would be three extra nights, Sun-Tues (2/14-16). However, since this is also overlaps with Presidents' Day, I'm not sure how much success I will have in moving the interviews (I've checked and all the schools are closed 2/15). I thought it wouldn't be a problem at first since it would save them money, but now that you brought it up, the bureaucratic reason makes sense. If it comes down to it though, I'll probably just pay out of pocket.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Edotdl

[Eigen]

 Some schools (mine included) also budget travel differently than lodging- they might have money for airfare, but not be able to pay that towards lodging. Just something to keep in mind. 

Just ask, worse you can do is have them turn you down!