Your first out-of-state inquiry is exciting and immediately complicated. You’ve been working locally, where travel is a short drive and a line item you barely think about. Now you’re looking at flights, hotels, rental cars, and days away from your home studio for a project in a different time zone. How do you price all of that?
The Interior Design Community took on this question from a designer based in Pennsylvania who’d been approached about a new-build project in Arizona. The responses from designers who routinely work out of state, some internationally, gave a clear picture of how experienced designers structure travel billing.
The Core Framework: Two Rate Levels and One Expense Pass-Through
The approach most experienced designers use for out-of-state work has three components: a travel time rate (typically lower than your standard hourly rate), a day rate for on-site work, and a direct pass-through of all actual expenses. Getting clarity on each before the project begins is essential, and it belongs in the contract.
“We charge $125/hour for drive time related to the project. If it’s a drivable distance (three hours or less), we charge that rate for our time in transit and then our regular hourly rate while meeting with the client/contractor. If the job requires us to fly, we charge a flat fee daily rate while we are on location, that rate is the equivalent of eight hours at our hourly rate, and a flat fee of half that for travel days to and from. I have a separate contract for out-of-state projects that spell out these details.”
@cookdesignhouse
That structure is clean and easy to explain to a client: travel days (flying to and from) at half your daily rate, on-site work days at your full daily rate (equivalent to eight hours at your hourly rate), and drive time at a designated travel rate, then your standard hourly once you’re with the client.
“I charge a slightly lower rate portal to portal, from the minute I leave my house to the minute I get to the job site or hotel, and then a day rate while I’m there. If I get to the job site at 2:00pm and work till 6:00, that’s hourly. If I’m there for three days, I just charge a day rate for three days, equivalent to about eight hours.”
@lsi_workshop
The “portal to portal” language is worth adopting. It defines exactly when billing starts and stops, which prevents any ambiguity about whether the drive to the airport counts.
Why a Lower Rate for Travel Time Makes Sense
Several designers charge a reduced rate for travel time, often called an admin rate or a transit rate, rather than their full design rate. The reasoning is practical: travel time is less productive than active design work, and charging a lower rate keeps the cost more palatable for clients while still compensating you fairly for the hours.
If you already use a tiered billing structure where admin and coordination work carries a lower hourly, using that same rate for travel time is consistent and easy to explain. If you’ve never built out a tiered structure, a transit rate of 50 to 60 percent of your full design hourly is a reasonable starting point. At $200 per hour for design work, a $100 to $125 travel rate is a range most clients accept without friction once it’s framed clearly in the agreement.
For driving, the transit rate typically starts from the moment you leave your home or office. For flights, the approach varies. Some designers bill the transit rate for the full flight duration. Others cap travel billing at a set number of hours regardless of actual flight time. Either approach works, as long as it’s documented before the project begins. What you want to avoid is determining the rate after the first invoice goes out.
What to Pass Through Directly
All actual expenses should be billed to the client at cost. This is standard practice and should be spelled out explicitly in your agreement.
“We charge a flat day rate for each team member. All our purchases throughout the day are reimbursable, drinks/food, as are travel expenses: accommodations, flights, rentals, rideshares.”
@studioeidosdesign
A per diem for meals, a fixed daily allowance for food and incidentals, is a clean alternative to itemized meal receipts and is common in project-based travel billing. It keeps accounting simple and removes the friction of submitting individual food receipts.
One question that comes up often: who books the travel? Most designers book everything themselves and bill it back with receipts. This gives you control over logistics, scheduling, and preferences. A smaller number of designers ask clients to book directly or pay a travel deposit upfront to cover anticipated costs. Both approaches work. For larger-ticket items like flights and hotels, it’s worth adding a brief approval step to your agreement, such as “the designer will provide a travel cost estimate prior to booking any flight or accommodation over $500.” It keeps the client informed, gives you a paper trail, and removes the element of surprise.
The typical out-of-state expense list includes flights (booked at cost, or reimbursed against receipts), hotel, rental car or rideshare, parking, a per diem for meals or itemized meal receipts, and any other direct project costs incurred while traveling. Some designers mark up travel expenses; most pass them through at cost. The cleaner approach, and the one that builds more client trust, is direct pass-through with receipts.
Plan Site Visits in Advance, and Put a Number in the Contract
One of the most important structural decisions for an out-of-state project is how many site visits the project requires and how those are managed contractually. Leave this open-ended, and costs can compound unpredictably for both you and the client.
“We make a conservative suggestion in the project proposal for how many times we would suggest visiting the site or the client, and they can decide later on if they want us to visit more.”
@lucygoldbart
This is the right structure: propose a baseline number of visits in the original scope, with clear language about how additional visits are authorized and billed. The client knows what they’re committing to, you have a defined scope, and any additions are handled as change orders.
How many visits to propose depends on the project type and phase. For a new build, a typical minimum might be four to six: an initial site visit during pre-design, one or two during the construction phase to review progress and resolve field conditions, a pre-delivery walkthrough, and the install trip. Renovations or smaller scopes may require fewer. Furnishings-only projects can sometimes be managed with a single on-site visit if most of the design work happens remotely. Proposing conservatively is smart. It keeps the initial number manageable for the client and frames any additional visits as a choice rather than something you’re charging without warning.
“A separate line item on the proposal shows travel expenditures, including hotel and a set per diem for meals. In case where multiple visits are needed, I work that out with the client as to the number of job site visits. It all gets added to the contract as an addendum, signed off by the client. Clients love the transparency as it further builds trust in the relationship.”
@carter_averbeck_interiors
The transparency note is worth taking seriously. Clients who understand the travel billing structure upfront, before the first flight is booked, rarely have objections. Clients who are surprised by a $2,000 travel expense mid-project sometimes do.
Consider a Separate Contract for Out-of-State Work
@cookdesignhouse mentioned having a separate contract for out-of-state projects. This isn’t always necessary, but it’s worth considering if you regularly take on out-of-state work.
A dedicated out-of-state agreement, or a thorough addendum to your standard contract, should cover what your local work agreement probably doesn’t. The travel billing rate structure needs to be explicit: a transit rate, a day rate for on-site work, and a rate for travel days when you’re in transit but not working on-site. These are potentially three different numbers, and clients benefit from seeing them clearly before signing.
State-specific licensing requirements belong in this conversation, too. Some states require designers to hold a license or register as a foreign business entity to perform services there. The requirements vary by state and by the nature of the work. If the project involves construction administration or permit documents, the bar is higher than for a furnishings-only scope. A quick check with a professional association or a local attorney in the destination state is worth the time before you commit.
If you’re adding out-of-state work to your existing contract rather than creating a new one, a signed addendum that covers the travel rate structure, per diem, visit count, and approval process for expenses works just as well.
One More Thing: Licensing and Tax Considerations
A cross-state project can raise questions your local projects never did. Some states have licensing or registration requirements for designers working on projects in that state, particularly for projects that involve construction documentation. It’s worth a quick check with a relevant professional association or a local attorney in the destination state before you begin.
On the tax side, income earned from out-of-state projects may affect state tax filings, depending on the states involved and the amount of work done on-site. This is worth a conversation with your accountant before your first out-of-state project, not after. IRS guidance on business travel deductions is also relevant for understanding what you can deduct for client-related travel on your own tax return.
The Simple Version
If you want a clean, defensible starting structure for your first out-of-state project: travel days (flying) at half your daily rate, on-site work days at your full daily rate (eight hours equivalent at your hourly), all expenses passed through at cost with receipts, meals covered by a per diem agreed in advance, and site visits outlined as a baseline number in the proposal with additional visits handled as change orders.
Put it all in writing before you book the first flight, and both you and your client will have a clear picture of what the project actually costs.