Travel fees question

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Archive 2009 · Travel fees question

diggitydawg510
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p.1 #1 · Travel fees question

alright y'all,

it's late, i really should be in bed. Last question before I see y'all tomorrow after i get off my day job:

Travel fee: I know others have brought it up before and i did search the forum. It's not really a destination wedding. Here's my situation:

The bride that made me Rock 'N Roll has a friend who's really interested for me to shoot her wedding. She's getting married in So Cal, and would like engagements in Tahoe. If you're not familiar, I'm in Oakland, so So Cal is at least 6 hours drive (1.5h flight) and Tahoe is about a 4 hrs drive (1hr flight). If and when she books a package, how do i determine the cost of flight and car rental, gas, food? Flights shouldn't be too expensive, same with rental car and food. So Cal, i have tons of friends there so I can crash at their pad. But Tahoe. no idea what to do for that.

holla!

Jan 13, 2009 at 08:22 AM

redal
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p.1 #2 · Travel fees question

It is a destination wedding !!

If you fly, which would be the easiest. Go business class.
If you have to stay overnight go somewhere thats close to where you need to be, comfortable and quiet.
I charge $50 for food.
I charge rental car at cost.

For the wedding
Charge for an additional day and a half, get there the day before, go to the church and the same with the reception.
I personally wouldn't crash at a friends place, to many things to distract you from preparing for the wedding the next day.

For the engagements
You need to charge enough to cover the whole day, as it will take the whole day to get there, take the photos and get back home.

Jan 13, 2009 at 10:21 AM

Saad Syed
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p.1 #3 · Travel fees question

redal wrote:
It is a destination wedding !!

If you fly, which would be the easiest. Go business class.
If you have to stay overnight go somewhere thats close to where you need to be, comfortable and quiet.
I charge $50 for food.
I charge rental car at cost.

For the wedding
Charge for an additional day and a half, get there the day before, go to the church and the same with the reception.
I personally wouldn't crash at a friends place, to many things to distract you from preparing for the wedding the next day.

For the engagements
You need to charge enough to cover the whole day, as it will take the whole day to get there, take the photos and get back home.

I'm curious as to why one would/should fly business class for a 1.5 hour flight - literally adding pointless costs for the client. I could understand if you had to fly for 4-6 hours or more, but business class for a short flight?

I do agree with getting a hotel/motel close to the venue you'll need to work at - preferably within a 10 minute drive.

Charge for rental car and charge for GPS - always good to have.

Food - I usually charge $20 a day - $10 for brunch, $10 for dinner.

Another thing I don't agree with is charging for travel time. I feel comfortable only charging for actual shooting time where the client is getting a product out of it. Charging for an extra day just so you can get there early and look around doesn't seem all that fair. Also, if the engagement session is two hours and you do two hours of shooting, why are you going to charge a full "day rate"? In the time remaining, you can sleep, jog, shop, watch movies, etc. It's not like you're working.

Jan 13, 2009 at 12:43 PM

prof_fate
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p.1 #4 · Travel fees question

You said you had a day job. If they sent you to SoCal or someplace how would it work? THey'd pay for your transportation, lodging, food and your time as well, huh?

If they asked you to go for free - "I'll pay for the flight, but not your wages for the day down and day back, ok?" would you do it?

And you need ot arrive the day before of course - there may be travel delays. And unless you want to work 8-12 hours and then leave for home at midnight you need the day after as well.

Sadd there eats cheap. My wife works for a non-profit and they'll reimburse her more than $10/meal! Go to a denny's and get a burger and drink and leave a tip - $15 is more like it for lunch and more for dinner - and remember that breakfast is the most important meal of the day! $50/ day for food is reasonable.

Jan 13, 2009 at 02:33 PM

p150
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p.1 #5 · Travel fees question

Saad Syed wrote:

I'm curious as to why one would/should fly business class for a 1.5 hour flight - literally adding pointless costs for the client. I could understand if you had to fly for 4-6 hours or more, but business class for a short flight? - Agree

I do agree with getting a hotel/motel close to the venue you'll need to work at - preferably within a 10 minute drive. - Agree

Charge for rental car and charge for GPS - always good to have. - Agree

Food - I usually charge $20 a day - $10 for brunch, $10 for dinner. - Disagree. Seriously, you shouldn't have to scrimp and eat from the dollar menu at a fast food joint just to save them a few extra dollars. I think $50 is the highest I would go, because you shouldn't try to do anything extravagant on their dime either, but anywhere from $30 to $50 makes sense to me.

Another thing I don't agree with is charging for travel time. I feel comfortable only charging for actual shooting time where the client is getting a product out of it. Charging for an extra day just so you can get there early and look around doesn't seem all that fair. Also, if the engagement session is two hours and you do two hours of shooting, why are you going to charge a full "day rate"? In the time remaining, you can sleep, jog, shop, watch movies, etc. It's not like you're working.

Completely disagree. The OP said the engagement was 4 hrs away. Which means 8 hrs. of travel unless by plane (which they should pay for). Are you seriously saying that you would give up 10 hrs. of your time to do the shoot in the location of their choosing, and you would only charge them for the actual 2 hr. shooting time? That's just silly. We offer our engagement sessions locally, and if they really want a specific out of town location, they are going to have to pay cost for us to get there including our time that it is taking us away from doing other things. The product that the client is getting out of that time is having their choice of where the pictures are taken.

As for the extra day of travel, we flew out for a wedding and, due to weather, ended up stuck in Chicago for hours. We didn't arrive in the destination city until the wee hours of the morning, then had to find the hotel and bring in all of our gear. If we hadn't built in an extra day, we would have been trying to shoot this couple's wedding after about an hour and a half of sleep. Surely we wouldn't be at the top of our game. In addition, we have flown and had luggage issues where we had to go back to the airport the next day and pick up our stuff after it finally arrived. We carry on our main essentials, but our lighting gear gets checked. Without the extra day, we would have had to "get by" with what we had. I don't know about you, but I don't want to just "get by" when shooting someone's (hopefully) once in a lifetime event. I'll even bet that if you ask the client if they would want to pay for an extra night in a hotel or risk something happening and you not be there on the wedding day, they will be more than happy to pay.

*Just to be clear: We don't charge anything specifically for the extra day we're hanging out early. They don't have to pay our rate for that day, but we do pad the travel quote some, so in a way we get some money for that day also (usually to get out and look around town a little).

Jan 13, 2009 at 04:05 PM

sboerup
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p.1 #6 · Travel fees question

I personally wouldn't fly. You are at the airport atleast 1.5 hrs beforehand, so the time spent is really negligible. Plus you have the risk of getting equipment damanged, lost, etc . . . and paying for extra bags to check. 6 hour drive is much preferrable IMO, you don't need a rental car. You could point out to the client how you are saving them money by driving and using your own vehicle, and even maybe they'll give you a premium for your meals.

The past travel weddings I had the client pay at cost for everything. I selected which flight and schedule, they paid for it (no need to bill it and incur more taxes etc). They paid for hotel, gas, car and per diem for daily meals.

Jan 13, 2009 at 04:19 PM

Saad Syed
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p.1 #7 · Travel fees question

prof and p150 - yea, I see your points; I do realize that if you have to take a day off of work to shoot a wedding, then that wage needs to be covered. Also, it's responsible to show up a day or so in advance just to make sure everything is setup and ready to go. I guess it is reasonable to charge some sort of a fee for the extra time you'll be spending getting there and getting ready, however, I still think it needs to be reasonable. A few months back or so, I was reading a thread or a blog (I forget which one) and someone was saying they charge $200/hour for their travel time, which was the same as their per hour shooting fee... that seemed a little "out there".

Everyone has a different train of thought - I want to be covered for all the overhead, fees, and expenses of traveling just like everyone else. However, I never want to make a profit off of that stuff - it's more comfortable for me that way personally.

Anyway, back to the OP - regardless of how you go about charging, one thing is a given: make sure all your expenses are paid for are you're not losing any money out of your pocket. After that, whether you want to upgrade your flights or charge extra for travel time, etc. is up to you.

Good luck with the shoot!

Jan 13, 2009 at 06:00 PM

scott shoemake
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p.1 #8 · Travel fees question

Rob...charge actual expenses as Spencer said. Make sure you cover every expense and submit an itemized report when you get home. Driving to LA ain't nothing but a thang. If you're out a day for travel, bill a per diem rate for it.

Jan 13, 2009 at 06:06 PM

David Manning
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p.1 #9 · Travel fees question

I currently charge $0.40/mile, plus $75 per night for anything greater than 90 miles. As for a "destination" wedding, you can find Per Diem Rates on the gsa.gov website. It's a really nice tool, because you can charge a commonly accepted rate for both hotels and food for your destination city. Some people just build in the travel costs in a special "destination" package.

David

Jan 13, 2009 at 06:08 PM

Sam Hassas
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p.1 #10 · Travel fees question

I didn't read any other responses.

Hassas does this:
Actually Travel cost + $300. I tell the client that actual travel cost is a round trip plane flight and 2-3 nights stay at the closest hotel to the bride/venue. I pay for my own meals. I'm usually picked up from the airport and chauffeured the day of the wedding etc. If they'd prefer to rent a vehicle for me then a vehicle is charged as well.

~Sam

Jan 13, 2009 at 06:12 PM

spink
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p.1 #11 · Travel fees question

sboerup wrote:
I personally wouldn't fly. You are at the airport atleast 1.5 hrs beforehand, so the time spent is really negligible. Plus you have the risk of getting equipment damanged, lost, etc . . . and paying for extra bags to check. 6 hour drive is much preferrable IMO, you don't need a rental car. You could point out to the client how you are saving them money by driving and using your own vehicle, and even maybe they'll give you a premium for your meals.

The past travel weddings I had the client pay at cost for everything. I selected which flight and schedule, they paid for it (no need to bill it and incur more taxes etc). They paid for hotel, gas, car and per diem for daily meals.

In addition to this, you can/should charge amortization + gas for travel time if using your vehicle, fairly standard business practice.

Jan 13, 2009 at 07:02 PM

p150
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p.1 #12 · Travel fees question

Saad Syed wrote:
A few months back or so, I was reading a thread or a blog (I forget which one) and someone was saying they charge $200/hour for their travel time, which was the same as their per hour shooting fee... that seemed a little "out there". - Oh, I'm with ya there! That's just stickin' it to 'em!

Everyone has a different train of thought - I want to be covered for all the overhead, fees, and expenses of traveling just like everyone else. However, I never want to make a profit off of that stuff - it's more comfortable for me that way personally.

Anyway, back to the OP - regardless of how you go about charging, one thing is a given: make sure all your expenses are paid for are you're not losing any money out of your pocket. After that, whether you want to upgrade your flights or charge extra for travel time, etc. is up to you. - Yeah, it's not our goal to make any real income on the travel fees, but like I said, we do pad them a little just in case. The first time we flew with our Photoflex Multikit lighting case was right after they started upping the baggage fees and we didn't know it. We had to pay a shameful amount out of pocket because this was a friend's wedding and we didn't charge any extra. Lesson learned.

- Jeff

Jan 13, 2009 at 10:46 PM

diggitydawg510
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p.1 #13 · Travel fees question

Thanks to y'all!

I'm kinda in the line of thinking as Spence and Scott. As long as my cost are covered, i'm not trying to make the extra $$$. But yeah, i'll definately need to schedule a couple vacation days just to do the shoots.

Again, thanks. more input is welcome.

Jan 14, 2009 at 01:44 AM

redal
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p.1 #14 · Travel fees question

The reason i said fly business class, is mainly for the extra baggage allowance, with some airlines if you fly coach and have excess baggage it cost more than flying business class, at least it is down here.

Jan 14, 2009 at 04:07 AM

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