Reviewing how to organize yourself for a successful business trip can help you to avoid becoming the subject of a travel horror story.
Everyone has a business trip that went horribly wrong at some point. When I tried to check into a hotel one day before my reservation, the receptionist informed me that they did not have a room for me that night because I was trying to check in a full day early (I wound up bunking with a very generous coworker who had an extra bed). A former coworker of mine was once held up in Russia for approximately one week as a result of an inexplicable mix-up involving airplane manifests and visas (or his lack of offering a bribe, perhaps). Recently, a friend of mine was not informed that a meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. required taking a boat to the location at 7 a.m., and as a result, she arrived two hours late.
The more you prepare, the less likely you are to experience difficulties during business travel, although problems are still possible. And if it’s been a while since your last business trip, you might not remember all that goes along with it—right down to the proper way to pack your suitcase! Before you go on your next business trip, make sure to go over these helpful hints and reminders.
1. Ensure That All Of Your Reservations Are Confirmed
Have I ever arrived at an airport with the expectation that a travel agent or a sponsor had already booked a ticket for me, only to discover that the ticket had only been reserved? And never paid for? And then, instead of going on the business trip that I had planned, I was forced to turn around, get in a taxi, and head back home. Uh, yes.
Always make sure to confirm your reservation at least forty-eight hours before you are scheduled to travel. To “confirm” something means to take additional steps to ensure that everything has been checked. When purchasing airline tickets, you should check the booking reference number that is listed under your name on the website in order to verify that your ticket has been bought and not only reserved. In order to make hotel reservations, you should phone the hotel directly and verify the dates as well as the address. Additionally, if you require any special accommodations, such as an accessible room or a refrigerator for medication, you should confirm those particulars as well. Carry out the same action with reservations for car rentals, rail tickets, and any other forms of transportation. It is a lot simpler to find solutions to difficulties two days in advance rather than in the moment.
2. Refuse to Accept Anything Less Than a Layover of Three Hours
While I was working on this post, I asked coworkers to share their most terrifying experiences they’ve had while traveling for business. An unexpectedly high percentage of them included “the airport dash,” also known as the frantic race through a congested terminal that anyone who has seen the movie “Home Alone” can clearly see in their minds.
If you are traveling for business, you should never agree to a layover of less than three hours, regardless of whether you are the one planning the schedule or whether someone else (like a travel agent) is. The recommendation was different a few years ago, but given that there have been 11% more flights canceled and delayed in comparison to the times before the pandemic, the minimum amount of time you should leave for flight delays is now three hours.
Check the layover hours for a business trip very carefully when you first get the schedule, and if you are being requested to make a connection when there is not enough time, do not give your approval for the ticket. Instead, you should request a fresh itinerary. Also, while arriving at an airport, you should arrive two hours early if it is an airport that you have used before, but you should expect to be there for three hours if it is a new airport.
3. Keep your identification up to date.
If you haven’t done much traveling in the past few years, you should verify the expiration date of your passport and any other identification documents that you have well in advance of arranging any kind of overseas trip, especially flights. Leave yourself plenty of time to renew those personal documents, as several agencies are still behind on their processing timelines after being short-staffed since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Leave yourself plenty of time to renew those personal documents.
When it comes to passports, it is recommended that you give a trusted individual a photocopy of the identification page of your passport in black and white. This is true regardless of the type of trip you will be doing. You are able to save a digital copy for yourself as long as you store it in a safe location. For instance, putting a copy on a cloud service that offers encryption is acceptable, but adding a password protection to it is an even greater measure of security. In the unfortunate event that your passport is misplaced or stolen, you will be able to access the information on that page, which will allow the embassy or consulate that is closest to you to more quickly cancel the lost or stolen passport and issue you a new emergency passport.
4. Make Sure Your Information Technology Team Knows the Requirements
What equipment do you need to bring with you in order to be connected to the various business servers and systems even while you are away from home? If you haven’t gone out of the country in a while, there’s a good chance that the IT department at your company has tightened up its policies. Do you require a specialized virtual private network connection? Will your device automatically disconnect from any Wi-Fi network that it considers to be unsafe? Before you go, make sure you check in with your IT team. Asking for the contact information of someone who can assist you in the event that you are unable to access your email, Slack, or any of the other communication channels that your team use is also not a bad idea.
5. Always keep some change on you for tips.
Did you know that it is customary to leave a gratuity for the hotel’s cleaning crew when you check out? People who have never learned this rule about tipping come up in conversation with me all the time. Tipping is not a common practice in all parts of the world; nevertheless, in the United States and Canada, guests are expected to leave a gratuity of at least a few dollars for each day of their stay at a hotel. It may not be expected in other nations, but it is certainly appreciated wherever it is given. Leaving some cash in the room when you check out is quite acceptable. If there is any stationery available, please jot down “Thank you!” on a scrap of paper. The employees are aware of its purpose.
If you need to check your bags at a hotel, you might also find that you need cash to tip the bellhop at the hotel. What happens if you have to drive yourself to a business meeting, but there is only valet parking available? You should stop by an automated teller machine (ATM) that issues tiny amounts on request or drop by the office of your local bank to pick up some singles and fives if you don’t typically carry cash with you.
6. Make Sure to Label All of Your Devices and Chargers
If you are going to a huge business meeting or a conference, there is a considerable likelihood that a lot of other people will have the same chargers and cables as you do. This is especially true if the event is a conference. So label yours. Nobody ever looks back on the purchase of a label maker with regret. Create some labels with your name on them and stick them on your USB bricks, chargers, and anything else you don’t want to misplace.
7. Be sure to back up your files and other essential information before going offline.
The ability to store Google Docs offline and download online pages and articles to read at a later time is something that a lot of people are aware of when they travel. You should also save offline copies of your itinerary and schedule if you are going on a business trip. It is quite handy to be able to rapidly retrieve information on your phone or laptop, such as a confirmation number or the place of your next appointment, without necessarily needing to be connected to Wi-Fi or a data connection. There are some excellent travel apps, such as TripIt and TripCase, that can compile your complete travel itinerary and timetable for you. However, if you would rather just put the details into a Word document or a note-taking app, that is perfectly acceptable.
When I have a few minutes to kill, such as when I am waiting to board a flight, for example, I will look up relevant information and snap screenshots on my phone. In this method, the information will be preserved in my photographs, and as long as my phone is charged, I will be able to access it.
8. Obtain Payment Receipts
I have spent my entire adult life looking for a clever and efficient method that will help me remember to always get a receipt while I am traveling for business purposes. Because I’ve had a system in place for quite some time now for using scanning applications and being paperless, I’m really excellent at digitizing receipts once I’ve collected them. The most difficult aspect is making sure you don’t forget to request a receipt whenever you make a purchase. I’ve experimented with a variety of strategies, such as having a small envelope specifically for receipts next to my wallet. This way, when I reach into my handbag, I notice the envelope, and it reminds me to ask for a receipt by prompting my brain to recall the phrase. But this method is obsolete in light of the widespread availability of contactless payment through mobile phone. If you do decide to pay using your phone, you will at least have the option to print the record of the transaction that is kept in the wallet on your phone. Even though it’s not an official receipt, this should suffice in a pinch.
The majority of companies will allow you to submit a travel expense report even if you do not have a receipt for each and every one of your travel expenses, as long as the total amount of those expenses does not exceed a particular threshold figure. It is always preferable to have a receipt, but if you are missing one or two of them, all you need to do is inquire about the possibility of submitting the expenses without the receipts.
9. Bring along a spare battery.
In this day and age of modern conveniences, it is a royal pain to experience any kind of difficulty, whether it be a delayed trip, a halted train, a jammed elevator, or anything else. If you have a backup battery, often known as a portable charger or power bank, you will be able to charge an exhausted device if you have it on hand. Be sure to include a battery that has a port that is compatible with the charging cables you already have, whether they be USB or USB-C. As a result, you won’t ever have to go a single second without having a fully charged watch, phone, eReader, tablet, wireless earbuds, or anything else that needs to be charged.
10. For Trips That Are Extremely Important Or Stressful: Put the Important Information on Paper.
What would you do if you were away from home when your electronic equipment stopped working or somebody stole them? Or perhaps there was a power outage that left you cut off for a whole day or even longer? Do you have any idea where you were, what you should do, who you should call, or how you can get back home? In addition to the digital files you have, you should also have important information written down and stored away in case you ever need to refer to it in an emergency.
The vast majority of people believe that printing addresses, phone numbers, flight schedules, and so on for each and every trip is excessive; nonetheless, you might choose to do so for the trips that are the most important or the most stressful. For instance, I’ve had to relocate several times for the sake of my partner’s career, which technically qualifies as business travel. Also, we have certain domesticated animals. It is important to me that I have a copy of every piece of paperwork when we relocate, and I always make sure to save a triplicate of everything. Try going into a foreign nation with live animals without having the proper documentation. There are situations in which you don’t want to leave anything to chance, and when that happens, you should make sure that you have printed copies of the important information you need.