Government per diem

Why is that some hotels charge a rate which they call
"government rate" when they are not even in the
ball park of what government per diem is? I run into
this ALL the time. Why is it that these hotels can
pretty much set their "government rate" to whatever
they jolly well want to? I think it stinks!! I
guess they count on those folks and travel agents
who don't pay attention to current per diem and
paying it just because it says "government rate".
I work with many government contractors and we run
into this abuse by hotels ALL the time.

The other sneaky thing I see is that some hotels will
honor the government rate on the weekends, but not
during the middle of the business week. Is this there of
sort of complying??? What a joke!! These contractors or
the companies they work for, have to eat that extra
cost which the government division they are working
for will NOT absorb.

Also, many hotel chains don't allow contractors to
stay at the government rate, because they're not
"official government employees". They have a separate
"government contractor rate". I hate to say this,
but I find that the contractors are what keep our
government in check. These folks are almost always
engineers, the brilliant of the brilliant and if
these hotels only had a clue. The hotel business
amazes me at their disregard for these traveller's.