Steven was transferred to Atlanta and took his wife and kids to look for potential new homes.  Smith rented two hotel suits while in the area where the cost of both rooms was less than the maximum lodging per diem for a couple on a house-hunting trip to the area.  In his appeal, Steven said the two suites were necessary because both he and his wife snored and neither can sleep in the same room requiring the two separate rooms and that to pay for both would not harm the government since the costs of both were less than the maximum lodging per diem.  The Board was not persuaded that federal travelers are expected to “exercise the same care in incurring expenses that a prudent person would exercise in traveling on personal business” (FTR 301-2.3).  According to the Board, a reasonable person would not have rented more than one suite as lodging from a married couple even if their snoring was so disruptive they needed separate rooms (Steven Smith, GSBCA 16908(RELO).

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