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Hotels

Northwestern offers discounted rates for hotels across the country.

Discounted rates are available to travelers who book lodging through one of Northwestern's travel agencies, or who book certain local hotels directly. Each travel agency has access to their own discounted rates at specific hotels as well as to Northwestern's negotiated hotel rates.

For a list of all hotels with negotiated rates and hotel contact information, please visit the Hotel Rates page.

Know Before Booking

  • Northwestern's Travel and Entertainment Policy specifies that travelers must book standard accommodations in reasonably priced, commercial-class hotels and motels. For reference and for planning purposes, Business Travel News publishes a Corporate Travel Index Calculator, showing the average negotiated hotel rates for domestic and international locations. This list is for reference and can be used as a planning tool for Northwestern travelers. These rates may differ from those available to Northwestern faculty and staff.
  • Northwestern travelers will need to adhere to the following guidelines for per diem and hotel rates that will be used to enforce the Travel and Entertainment Policy:
  • Northwestern travelers may be asked to provide a personal credit card for any hotel incidentals when checking in, regardless of whether or not the hotel room is directly billed to a department/unit chart string or invoiced directly to the department/unit.

Local Hotels

Northwestern also offers discounted rates at many hotels near the Evanston and Chicago campus. Northwestern also offers discounted extended stay rates for visiting professors or other guests of Northwestern. Please see the Guest Travel page for more information on guest travel.

All short-term hotels with negotiated rates accept direct billing upon request to Northwestern departments/units on behalf of their guests to ensure guests do not have to provide payment. Guests may need to provide a personal credit card to the hotel for personal, incidental charges.

Book a Local Hotel Through an Agency

All of Northwestern's local hotels with negotiated rates, except extended stay hotels, can be booked and billed to a department/unit chart string through Key Travel. These negotiated rate hotels will be tagged within Key Travel as "Northwestern Preferred Rate".

For extended stay hotels, please content the hotel directly.

When booking a preferred local hotel through Key Travel, be sure to select the rate that indicates it's a "Northwestern Preferred Rate" to take advantage of negotiated perks like discounted rates, waived facility fees, better cancellation dates and more.

For more information on booking hotels through Key Travel, please visit the Key Travel Booking Tips and FAQs. For a detailed comparison of these agencies' services and fees, please visit the Travel Agencies page.

Access to Egencia is now closed for new bookings. If you have any questions regarding Egencia, please contact travel@northwestern.edu.

Key Travel

Travel 100 Group

Ask for Steve Roeser, Karen Begley and Tom Gunn.

Book a Local Hotel Directly (Direct Billing)

The preferred method of booking local hotels is through one of our travel agencies, but all local hotels with negotiated rates, including extended stay hotels, accept requests for direct billing (via invoice) to University departments/units by contacting the hotel directly. ;Please make sure to request the Northwestern University rate when making reservations.

If you require direct billing for a hotel that is not on the negotiated hotel rates list, contact Procurement and Payment Services (PPS) for assistance. PPS will submit all appropriate paperwork to the hotel.

Nonconventional Lodging (Airbnb, VRBO)

When an employee rents a room, apartment, house, or other lodging on a long-term basis (e.g., weekly, monthly), such as Airbnb, Vrbo, the following expenses may be considered part of the lodging cost.

Accommodations and costs should be comparable to traditional lodging.

Lodging cost may include:

  • the rental cost for a furnished dwelling; if unfurnished, the rental cost of the dwelling and the rental cost of appropriate and necessary furniture and appliances (e.g., stove, refrigerator, chairs, tables, bed, sofa, television and/or vacuum cleaner)
  • cost of connecting/disconnecting and using utilities
  • cost of reasonable maid fees and cleaning charges
  • monthly telephone use fee (does not include installation and long-distance calls)
  • cost of special user fees (e.g., cable TV or Internet charges) if ordinarily included in the price of a hotel/motel room in the respective area

Policies

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