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Everyone has a business travel horror story. One time the hotel receptionist was trying to check in all day before it was booked and he said they didn’t have a room that night (I hooked it up with a very generous colleague who had an extra bed). A former colleague has been stuck in Russia for a week due to an inexplicable mix-up involving plane tickets and visas (or the lack of bribery, perhaps). Recently, a friend of mine was not told that a 9 am meeting had to take a 7 am ferry to the venue and she arrived two hours late.
Business travel can and does go wrong, although the more prepared you are, the less likely you are to stumble. And if you haven’t traveled for work in a while, you might not remember everything from the right way to packing your bag! Here are some tips and reminders to review before your next business trip.
1. Check all your reservations
Did I show up at the airport only to find that a ticket I thought was booked by a travel agent or sponsor was booked? And never paid? And then I should have turned around and got in a cab and gone home instead of going on my business trip? Oh, yes.
Always confirm your reservation at least 48 hours before you travel. “Verify” means go the extra step to make sure everything is checked. For airline tickets, look up the booking reference number online with your name to confirm that your ticket has not only been purchased. For hotel reservations, call the hotel directly and reconfirm the dates and address; Check these details if you need special accommodations, such as an accessible room or a medicine cabinet. Do the same for car rentals, train tickets, and other forms of travel. It is much easier to fix problems two days before than on the spot.
2. Do not sit for less than 3 hours
While working on this article, I asked colleagues to share their business travel horror stories. Their catchy number, “The Airport Dash,” involves a breathless run through the crowded terminal that anyone has seen. Home alone He can draw clearly.
When booking business travel, whether you or someone else (such as a travel agent) is making the travel arrangements, do not stay for less than three hours. The advice was different a few years ago, but now 11% more flights are canceled and delayed.(Opens in a new window) Compared to the pre-epidemic period, three hours is the minimum.
When you first get your itinerary for a business trip, check your schedule closely and don’t let the ticket pass if you’re asked to contact someone who doesn’t have enough time. Request a new itinerary instead. And when you arrive at the airport, arrive two hours early if you know the airport and plan for three hours if not.
3. Renew your ID
If you haven’t traveled much in the past few years, check the expiration date on your passport and other forms of identification before booking air travel or any international travel. Leave plenty of time to renew these personal documents, as some agencies have been busy since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For passports, it’s always a good idea to leave a trusted person with a black and white photocopy of your ID page, no matter what trip you’re taking. You can also keep a digital copy for yourself as long as you keep it in a safe place. For example, it is okay to store a copy on a cloud service that uses encryption, and it is better to protect it with a password. If your passport is lost or stolen, you can access the details of that page, which will help the nearest embassy or consulate cancel the old one and issue you a new emergency passport quickly.
4. Check with your IT team for requirements
What do you need to connect to the servers and systems you use for work on the go? If you haven’t traveled in a while, chances are your company’s IT team has tightened its policies. Looking for a unique VPN connection? Does your machine auto-boot any Wi-Fi that it determines is not secure? Check with your IT team before you travel. It also doesn’t hurt to ask for the phone number of someone who can help you if you’re locked out of email, Slack, or any other communication tool your team uses.
5. Keep small bills for tips
Did you know you should tip the cleaning staff when you check out? I meet people all the time who have never learned this rule of thumb. While tipping is not a universal custom, in the US and Canada you should at least tip the hotel staff a few dollars for each stay. In other countries, it might not be expected, but it’s always appreciated. Simply leave some cash in the room when you check out. If it doesn’t move, say, “Thank you!” Write on a piece of paper. The staff knows why.
If you need to check your luggage, you may need money to ring the hotel bell. Or what if you show up at a car trade show where parking is only valet? If you don’t carry cash often, you should swing by an ATM that dispenses small bills on demand or drop it off at your local bank branch.Single and five children.
(Credit: Jill Duffy)
6. Label your chargers and devices
If you’re attending a conference or large business meeting, there’s a good chance that many people have the same chargers and cables as you. So give your account. No one regrets having a tagger. Make some labels with your name and label your chargers, USB sticks and anything else you don’t want to lose.
7. Save offline files and important information
Most people know that they can save Google Docs offline and download web pages and articles to read later when traveling. For business trips, you should save offline copies of your itinerary and schedule. Being able to access a confirmation number or the address of the next meeting on your phone or laptop quickly and without the need for a Wi-Fi or data connection is very useful. There are great travel apps like TripIt and TripCase that can compile and organize your entire itinerary for you, although it’s totally fine if you prefer to save the details to a Word doc or note-taking app.
Sometimes when I have a few minutes to spare, like when I’m waiting to board a flight, I open important information and take a screenshot on my phone. This way the data is saved in my photos and I can unlock it until my phone is full.
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8. Collect receipts
I’ve been searching all my adult life for a smart and efficient way to always remember to get a receipt when I’m on a business trip. I’m good at digitizing receipts once I collect them because I’ve had a long process of scanning applications and going paperless. The most difficult thing is to remember to ask for a receipt during the purchase. I have tried different strategies; For example, I put my small receipt next to my purse when I look at the envelope and say, “May I have a receipt, please?” It jogs my memory. But this is now ineffective as contactless payment via phone is common. If you use your phone for payments, you can at least print a transaction log stored in your phone wallet. Not an exact receipt, but a close second.
(Credit: PCMag)
Many organizations will allow you to file an expense report if the cost is under a certain dollar amount, even if you don’t have a receipt for every trip. Having receipts is always ideal, but if one or two are missing, just ask if you can enter the expenses without them.
(Credit: Anker)
9. Pack a backup battery
In this age of convenience, delayed flights, stalled trains, stuck elevators, and what have you. Having a backup battery, also known as a portable charger or power bank, on hand can help revive a depleted device. Make sure you bring a battery with a port that matches your USB or USB-C charging cables. That way, you’ll never go a moment without a watch, phone, eReader, tablet, wireless headphones, or anything else that requires charging.
10. For highly important or stressful trips: print key information on paper
What would you do if you were away from home and your devices were damaged or stolen? Or was it a blackout that interrupted you for a whole day or more? Do you know where you’ve been, what to do, who to call or how to get home? If you are very careful, you will have key information for such an event on paper in addition to your digital copies.
Many people think that printing addresses, phone numbers, flight schedules, etc. for every trip is overkill, but you can do it for the most important or stressful ones. For example, I have been overseas a few times for my partner’s work, which is like a business trip. And we have pets. When we move, it’s important to me to make sure every little piece of paper is kept in triplicate. Try traveling abroad with animals. There are times when you don’t want to leave anything to chance, and that’s when you need to print copies of key information.
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For more work-related tips, check out our 20 tips for working from home and how to create a better work-life balance.
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