Work out what Temporary Lodging Expense pays for the hotel between your old quarters and your new ones. TLE is a percentage of the locality per diem rate where you are staying: 65% for one person, 100% for two, then 35% more for each additional dependent aged 12 or older and 25% for each one under 12, applied to both the lodging ceiling and the meals rate. Lodging pays your actual cost up to that ceiling and no more, meals pay in full, and each day is capped at $290. A CONUS destination authorizes 21 days, splittable between your old and new duty station; a move to an OCONUS duty station authorizes 7 days at the CONUS end. Staying with friends or family pays no lodging but still pays the meals portion.
Rates last verified August 2026 against the published source tables.
The figure that matters before you book is the nightly ceiling, not the total. TLE reimburses actual lodging up to that ceiling: book below it and the difference is never paid to anyone, book above it and the excess is yours. Because the ceiling is a percentage of the locality per diem rate where you are staying, it varies by destination as well as by family size — the same family draws a different ceiling in San Antonio and in San Diego.
Meals are paid at the applicable percentage whether or not you spend them, which is why staying with friends or family still produces a claim even though the lodging portion is zero. The daily cap applies per day rather than across the whole period, so an expensive night is not offset by a cheap one.
Temporary Lodging Expense reimburses lodging and meals while you are between permanent quarters on a PCS with a CONUS end. It is authorized for up to 21 days when your new duty station is in the CONUS — including a move home from overseas, where the days are paid at the US end after you land — and up to 7 days at the CONUS end when you are heading to an overseas station. The days can be split between the old and new locations in any combination.
It pays nothing overseas. TLE is a CONUS allowance. Once you arrive at an overseas station, the allowance that takes over is TLA, which is a different regulation with different percentages and no daily cap. A member expecting TLE to follow them to Ramstein is expecting the wrong allowance.
Up to 60 days, in a housing-shortage area. A Secretarial process can extend TLE past 21 days where housing is genuinely unavailable, to a maximum of 60. The extended days are approved case by case and are not an entitlement you can plan on.
There is no separate Navy rate. JTR par. 0506 is a joint regulation and Table 5-17 is the only table there is. A sailor, a soldier, a Marine, an airman, a Guardian and a Coast Guardsman moving to the same ZIP on the same dates with the same household are paid the same TLE — the same percentage, the same locality ceiling, the same $290 daily cap and the same 21 days. A Navy instruction that sets a different number does not exist, because the number is not the Navy's to set.
What is Navy is where the voucher goes. The form is DD 1351-2, the same one every service files. The route differs: a sailor submits it through their command's pay and personnel administrator rather than walking it into an installation finance office, and MyNavy Career Center is who to chase when a filed claim has not paid. Ask before you book rather than after — how many of the 21 days your particular move is authorized is a local answer, and the regulation is the ceiling on it rather than the answer itself.
Moving aboard ends the days at the new station. TLE pays for nights actually spent in temporary lodging, so it stops the day you take up permanent quarters — and a barracks room or a rack aboard ship is permanent quarters for this purpose. Days left over are not paid out; TLE is a reimbursement of lodging you paid for, not an allowance you draw down. The old-station half works the same way in reverse: the clock starts when you vacate your quarters, not when the orders are cut.
A member with a spouse and one child under 12 draws 125% of the locality rate — 100% for the first two occupants, plus the child's increment. At the standard CONUS locality ($113 lodging, $68 meals and incidentals) that is a nightly lodging ceiling of $141.25 and $85 a day in meals.
Book a room at $130 and the day pays $215 — the room, reimbursed in full because it is under the ceiling, plus the meals figure. Ten days of that is $2,150. Book at $181.25 instead and the extra is never reimbursed to anyone: lodging is capped at the ceiling, not averaged against it.
The $290 daily cap is real. Where the percentage and the locality rate combine to more than $290 a day, the cap is what is paid. Large households in expensive localities hit it, and the calculator says when yours does.
JTR par. 0506 authorizes TLE and Table 5-17 sets the percentage: 65% for one occupant, 100% for two, then an increment for each further dependent that depends on whether they are 12 or older. The locality rates the percentage is applied to are GSA's published per diem file for the ZIP you are staying in — not the one you are moving to, which is the distinction that decides which rate to look up.
A member alone is paid 65%; a member with a spouse 100%. The percentage covers the household as a unit, so it never doubles for two rooms — book what you need, claim what the ceiling covers.
Booking under the ceiling and expecting the difference. Lodging is reimbursement of an actual cost, capped — not an allowance you keep. A room $30 under the ceiling saves the government $30, not you. Meals are the opposite: the meals figure is paid whether or not you spend it, which is why staying with friends still produces a claim.
Missing the receipts. Lodging needs an itemized receipt per stay; meals do not. A claim filed without the lodging receipts pays the meals half and nothing else, and the finance office cannot fix it after the fact.
Nights past the authorized days. TLE is limited in days as well as in dollars — 21 for a CONUS move, split between the old and new stations however you need. Night 22 is your own, at full price, however far under the daily ceiling you stayed.
Staying with friends or family. JTR §050601-B-4-c-(3) pays no lodging to a member who is not paying for lodging. The meals and incidentals part is still payable; the hotel part is not, and the calculator says so rather than quoting a ceiling nobody can claim.
An overseas station pays TLA instead. TLE is the CONUS entitlement. A move to an OCONUS station is covered by Temporary Lodging Allowance, which is computed differently, runs for far longer, and has no daily cap at all.
Receipts for every night. Unlike per diem, TLE is a reimbursement of what you actually paid, so it needs an itemized lodging receipt for each night claimed. Ask the hotel for a folio showing the room rate and taxes separately — a card statement showing one total is not enough for finance to split the lodging from the tax.
Claimed on the travel voucher. TLE goes on DD 1351-2 with the rest of the move, filed with your finance office. Claim the days at the old station and the days at the new one as one claim rather than two.
Ask before you book, not after. Your transportation office can tell you what is authorized for your particular move, and the answer occasionally differs from the general rule — a delayed pack-out or a house that falls through can extend it. That conversation is free before the stay and impossible after it.
| Who is in the lodging | Percentage of the locality rate |
|---|---|
| Member alone | 65% |
| Member + 1 dependent aged 12 or older | 100% |
| Member + 1 dependent under 12 | 100% |
| Member + 2 dependents aged 12 or older | 135% |
| Member + 1 older + 1 younger dependent | 125% |
| Member + 2 dependents under 12 | 125% |
| Member + 3 dependents (1 older, 2 younger) | 150% |
| Rule | Percentage |
|---|---|
| One occupant — the member alone, or one dependent alone | 65% |
| Two occupants — member and one dependent, or two dependents | 100% |
| Each further dependent aged 12 or older | +35% |
| Each further dependent under 12 | +25% |
| Traveler | Rate per day |
|---|---|
| Service member | $181 |
| Dependent aged 12 or older | $135.75 (75%) |
| Dependent under 12 | $90.50 (50%) |
TLE is a percentage of the locality per diem rate where you are staying, not a flat amount. One person is paid 65% of that rate; two people — a member and one dependent, or two dependents — are paid 100%. Each additional dependent aged 12 or older adds 35%, and each one under 12 adds 25%. The percentage applies to both the lodging ceiling and the meals rate, and no day may exceed $290.
A PCS to a CONUS duty station authorizes 21 days, and you may split them between your old and new stations however you need — they do not have to be consecutive. A move to an OCONUS duty station authorizes 7 days at the CONUS end, because TLA takes over on arrival overseas.
Lodging pays your actual cost up to the ceiling and no more, so a room above the ceiling costs you the difference. Meals pay in full at the applicable percentage whether or not you spend it. Staying with friends or family pays no lodging at all, but the meals portion is still payable — which is worth knowing before assuming a free couch means no claim.
TLE covers temporary lodging at a CONUS location; TLA covers it at an OCONUS one. A single move can involve both — 7 days of TLE before you leave the States and TLA once you arrive. This calculator computes the TLE side. For which allowance applies in each direction of move and how to file each one, see the TLE and TLA guide.
No. TLE is authorized by JTR par. 0506 and priced by Table 5-17, both of which are joint — they apply to every uniformed service, so the percentage, the locality ceiling, the $290 daily cap and the 21-day CONUS limit are identical whichever uniform you wear. What differs is the claim route: a sailor files DD 1351-2 through their command's pay and personnel administrator rather than at an installation finance office, and MyNavy Career Center is who to chase if a filed claim has not paid.
Not for the money. The amounts come from the Joint Travel Regulations — par. 0506 and Table 5-17 — which the Navy does not write and cannot vary. Navy guidance covers how a sailor files and who signs, not what the allowance pays, so an instruction quoting a different number of days or a different percentage is quoting a superseded figure rather than a Navy-specific one. If you have been told a number that disagrees with this page, the JTR is the document to check it against.
Itemized lodging receipts for every night claimed, your PCS orders, and a statement of the dates. Meals do not need receipts — they are paid at the rate. Claims are filed with your finance office after the lodging period, and the daily cap is applied per day rather than across the whole period, so one expensive night is not offset by a cheap one.