10 Business Travel Cities With Big Expenses

Like Bellevue, Plano charges this much because it can. The city is the corporate headquarters for dozens of companies including Alliance Data Systems(ADS) , Dr Pepper Snapple Group(DPS) , Ericsson(SNE) , Frito-Lay(PEP) , JC Penney(JCP) , Rent-A-Center(RCII) and Cinemark Theaters(CNK) . It has a higher tab than either Houston or nearby Dallas, which are among Concur's top 10 business travel destinations, mostly because it knows how to milk out-of-towners. Its average entertainment ($97) and hotel ($82) costs are the lowest on this list, but getting to them from the airport ($44) or via rental car ($259) will set travelers back more than it would in New York, San Francisco, D.C. or Chicago.

5. Garden City, N.Y.
Average travel spending minus airfare: $568.29

So you need to send an employee to New York for a conference but don't want to spend New York prices to get them there. If you're guessing putting that employee 18 and a half miles from Manhattan on Long Island and letting him or her drive into town each day will cut costs, you may as well guess that there won't be traffic on the Long Island Expressway. Garden City may look like the Roosevelt Field Mall and a whole lot of nothing, but there's a reason this town has five Long Island Railroad stations. It knows exactly how close it is to "the city" and just how much folks will pay for a discount. Sure, the average $94.47 cost of a hotel room is less than half the price of a room in New York City, but the $64 cost of getting to and from the airport is almost double that from Manhattan. Want to rent a car or have dinner? Garden City's $197 car rentals are $43 higher than their city cousins, while the $73 average Long Island meal bill makes Manhattan's $67 tab look downright suburban by comparison.

4. Boston
Average travel spending minus airfare: $572.81