Business travelers save by staying just outside L.A., study finds

The Los Angeles metropolitan area — including surrounding cities such as Long Beach, Santa Monica and Pasadena — was the third-most popular destination in the country for small business travelers last year.

But it is not the place for travel on a tight budget, according to a report by Concur Technologies Inc., a Redmond, Wash.-based expense-management company. The report compared thousands of business travel receipts from companies with fewer than 100 employees.

When visiting L.A. on business, it’s a bit more thrifty to stay outside the metropolitan area if possible. Concur officials found that small business travelers save about $25 per day by renting a car, booking a hotel room and dining outside of Los Angeles.

Also from the report: New York and Chicago were the most popular and most expensive cities in the U.S. for employees of small businesses to visit.

In New York, small business travelers spent an average of $235.26 for lodging, $36.01 per meal and $64.31 for daily car rental. In Chicago, such travelers spent an average of $200.26 on lodging, $29.40 per meal and $58.05 a day for car rental.

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