© the eyeranian

Tehran Travels Anyone?

While looking at Business Travel News' annual corporate index (don't ask, I know I read way too much, even if its junk I don't need to read but get in the mail regularly), something caught my eye. In their Top 100 International Per Diems, Tehran ranks 82. In plain English, this is the list of what you can expect to spend per day as an international business traveler in various cities around the globe. If you were assigned overseas, this is what you use to charge your employer your "per diem" money. The data comes from an outfit out of Manhattan called Organization Resources Counselors Inc. and they have calculated their numbers based on a night's accommodation for "a standard room in upscale chain hotels flying such flags as Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton and Hyatt", three average meals (no alcohol), cost of two taxi rides, laundering of one shirt, plus a newspaper, a bottle of water and a magazine.

Monte Carlo is the most expensive at $737 per day, followed by expected usual spots Paris, Tokyo and London. Dubai ranks 10th at just over $500 and Toronto occupies the 47th spot. Tehran is one of the least expensive, only more expensive than places like Port-Au-Prince (you probably want to delay that trip), Havana, Guatemala City and Kuala Lumpur.

That did not surprise me until I looked closer at numbers. According to these guys, the per diem cost of items I described above in Tehran is over $288 USD. That can't be, can it? I asked myself. Even with the "official" exchange rate of 1,745 Rials to $1 USD they have used, 504,000 Rials a day sounds rather expensive. So I dig deeper...

According to these guys, the cost of the room is $138 in Tehran. I can buy that. Every hotel in Iran displays two very different price lists; one in English and a much more reasonable one in Persian. So I can see them trying to charge the unaware business traveler the high "rack rate" of $100+ a night, while the same room can be had for a fraction of that figure. What got me though, is their cost of food: $45 for dinner, $42 for lunch and ready for this? $38 for breakfast! In fact, Tehran shoots right up the chart, being the 23rd most expensive city for food out of 100. I don't know who is charging these guys $40 for breakfast in Tehran, but even the fanciest places will only need one of these travelers a day to carry all their overhead! At $124 USD a day for food in Tehran, it's probably much cheaper to buy your own restaurant!

Now imagine all these figures if instead of going to the bank or tourist offices to exchange your money, you'd just ask the hotel concierge or the cab driver taking you to your hotel and getting close to the real value of your foreign currency! Suddenly at 8,000+ Rials for your greenbacks, paying normal rates for the hotel and eating at places not run by the bandits, your per diem costs in Tehran will not come close to that $288.

So, if you want to pocket some dough, get an overseas assignment there for like a year (more, if possible), charge them according to "annual corporate index" and you can save enough to buy a small condo in Buffalo.

Now you know anybody hiring for that position?

Posted by Pedram at March 3, 2004 11:49 PM