How to Charge for Travel

You’re a photographer or other creative service provider, and you’ve got your first inquiry for a travel event. Yay! But now what? How do you charge for travel events? Let’s take a look at some best practices for how to charge for travel to keep both yourself and your client happy.

A common mistake by new business owners is underestimating how much travel costs. You get excited to photograph this event in a new, fun, cool location. You charge your normal rate … or maybe even a discounted rate because you’re excited to do it … only to find out after the fact that you either didn’t make much money, or even lost money on the event. So what’s the secret to quoting for an event that requires travel?

Set Your Limits

It’s important to start with what does “travel” mean to you? Is it anything outside a certain range of miles from your home or office? What is that limit? For me, I’ll travel up to about 90 minutes before I require a travel fee. Your limit might be different depending on the area you live in and your comfort with traveling. You should also define how far you are comfortable driving before you require air travel. Define your limits, and make sure it is clear to anyone who inquires from the very beginning. It’s a good idea to think about these limits before it comes up, so you’re not scrambling when it comes up with a potential client.

You’ll start with your normal rate. Create a line item for your standard rate if it were in your city. Then, you’ll add to it these three things:

Travel costs to and from the destination. This means the cost of driving or flying to the destination and back home.
Driving: look up the standard mileage rate. You can easily Google “2025 mileage rate”. This year it is $0.70 per mile. Then calculate the mileage fee. Technically, you are not limited to this rate. You can charge anything you like as a mileage fee. However since most people are aware of the standard mileage rate, you might get questions about why your rate is higher, so be prepared to justify it.
Flying: When you fly to a destination, estimating costs gets more complicated. My contract states that the client will be responsible for actual airfare for the number of people working the event, and I bill them separately at the time I make the reservations. You could also look up the current rate and note that as a dollar amount in the quote, but you risk being locked into an number in the contract that doesn’t cover your expenses if the rate goes up. I also recommend charging separately for the airfare because then you can be reimbursed closer to when you incur the expense, rather than tying the balance due to the final payment, which might be months later.
Hotel costs. You can ask the client to reimburse you for actual hotel costs, or ask them to pay for the hotel themselves. If the client makes the arrangements, I generally require them to book my room in their guest room block. That ensures that you’ll be close to the venue, in a quality room, and it’s generally less expensive for the couple because they get a discounted room block rate. It also prevents them from booking you in an undesirable hotel that is too far away, poor quality, or unsafe in order to save money.
A per diem rate. You can look up standard per diem rates on the GSA web site. It gives you a general idea of the rates for many cities. This amount covers reasonable meal and incidental expenses, both for full days and travel days. Again, these are national guidelines, so you are not restricted to these rates, they are just a starting point to give you an idea of the costs of being in any particular city for a day.
https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates
(Optional) Travel Fee. A travel fee is a good catch-all for miscellaneous costs of travel that aren’t accounted for through the first three items. It’s very common for people to forget about the other costs of travel. For instance, if you’re flying, there will be costs associated with traveling to and from the airport, or parking at the airport (which can be quite expensive!). There might be road tolls, rental cars, Uber rides or parking fees at the destination. Some photographers like to also add a fee for the time spent during travel, since that time can’t be used to book other work. This fee could be a standard rate, or you can create it by guessing the additional costs you’ll incur through travel.

Best Practices in Travel Pricing

Transparency is Key.
Some photographers like to put all the costs above into one big all-encompassing travel fee. However, you’ll gain trust with your client by breaking down the charges into individual line items. Just think, would you prefer to get a quote for a service and just see one big number? Or a full breakdown of what goes into calculating the fee? The more clear you can be about travel costs, the more trust you’ll build with your client.
Make your own reservations.
I used to allow clients to make my reservations, but I quickly stopped doing that. I’ve had clients try to book me on flights with multiple connections when a direct flight is available, try to book a hotel for me that was across town in a terrible neighborhood, or book me into the dreaded middle seat, all to save a few dollars. Make sure that you stay in control of your travel experience by making the reservations yourself. Or, if you do allow the client to make the reservations, make sure that you require your approval on any flights, seats, hotel, or other arrangements.
Spell out everything clearly in your contract.
The contract should include all fees, when they are due, what each party is responsible for, as well as your policies in case additional unexpected costs are incurred.
Avoid nickel-and-diming your clients.
There is a fine line between being transparent about costs and making your clients feel like you’re being petty. I try as much as possible to anticipate all potential costs at the proposal stage, so that I’m not constantly adding more to the bottom line. While I state that clients are responsible for all travel-related costs, if I encounter an unexpected minor parking fee, I might just eat the cost myself rather than send my client a $20 invoice after the fact.

More pricing questions? Check out my FREE pricing calculator, here.

Set Your Limits

How to Charge for Travel

You’ll start with your normal rate. Create a line item for your standard rate if it were in your city. Then, you’ll add to it these three things:

Travel costs to and from the destination. This means the cost of driving or flying to the destination and back home.
Driving: look up the standard mileage rate. You can easily Google “2025 mileage rate”. This year it is $0.70 per mile. Then calculate the mileage fee. Technically, you are not limited to this rate. You can charge anything you like as a mileage fee. However since most people are aware of the standard mileage rate, you might get questions about why your rate is higher, so be prepared to justify it.
Flying: When you fly to a destination, estimating costs gets more complicated. My contract states that the client will be responsible for actual airfare for the number of people working the event, and I bill them separately at the time I make the reservations. You could also look up the current rate and note that as a dollar amount in the quote, but you risk being locked into an number in the contract that doesn’t cover your expenses if the rate goes up. I also recommend charging separately for the airfare because then you can be reimbursed closer to when you incur the expense, rather than tying the balance due to the final payment, which might be months later.

Hotel costs. You can ask the client to reimburse you for actual hotel costs, or ask them to pay for the hotel themselves. If the client makes the arrangements, I generally require them to book my room in their guest room block. That ensures that you’ll be close to the venue, in a quality room, and it’s generally less expensive for the couple because they get a discounted room block rate. It also prevents them from booking you in an undesirable hotel that is too far away, poor quality, or unsafe in order to save money.

A per diem rate. You can look up standard per diem rates on the GSA web site. It gives you a general idea of the rates for many cities. This amount covers reasonable meal and incidental expenses, both for full days and travel days. Again, these are national guidelines, so you are not restricted to these rates, they are just a starting point to give you an idea of the costs of being in any particular city for a day.
https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates

(Optional) Travel Fee. A travel fee is a good catch-all for miscellaneous costs of travel that aren’t accounted for through the first three items. It’s very common for people to forget about the other costs of travel. For instance, if you’re flying, there will be costs associated with traveling to and from the airport, or parking at the airport (which can be quite expensive!). There might be road tolls, rental cars, Uber rides or parking fees at the destination. Some photographers like to also add a fee for the time spent during travel, since that time can’t be used to book other work. This fee could be a standard rate, or you can create it by guessing the additional costs you’ll incur through travel.

Best Practices in Travel Pricing

Transparency is Key.

Some photographers like to put all the costs above into one big all-encompassing travel fee. However, you’ll gain trust with your client by breaking down the charges into individual line items. Just think, would you prefer to get a quote for a service and just see one big number? Or a full breakdown of what goes into calculating the fee? The more clear you can be about travel costs, the more trust you’ll build with your client.

Make your own reservations.
I used to allow clients to make my reservations, but I quickly stopped doing that. I’ve had clients try to book me on flights with multiple connections when a direct flight is available, try to book a hotel for me that was across town in a terrible neighborhood, or book me into the dreaded middle seat, all to save a few dollars. Make sure that you stay in control of your travel experience by making the reservations yourself. Or, if you do allow the client to make the reservations, make sure that you require your approval on any flights, seats, hotel, or other arrangements.

Spell out everything clearly in your contract.
The contract should include all fees, when they are due, what each party is responsible for, as well as your policies in case additional unexpected costs are incurred.

Avoid nickel-and-diming your clients.

There is a fine line between being transparent about costs and making your clients feel like you’re being petty. I try as much as possible to anticipate all potential costs at the proposal stage, so that I’m not constantly adding more to the bottom line. While I state that clients are responsible for all travel-related costs, if I encounter an unexpected minor parking fee, I might just eat the cost myself rather than send my client a $20 invoice after the fact.

How to Charge for Travel

Set Your Limits