According to recent surveys, just 33% of business travelers report that business trips make them feel stressed and exhausted. With long flights, living out of suitcases, and rushed schedules, it’s no wonder road warriors have a love-hate relationship with business travel.
However, your next work trip doesn’t have to feel like a death march. With a few business travel secrets, you can maximize your comfort, productivity, and savings when you hit the road for work. Read to discover simple ways to take the pain out of business travel.
Choose the Right Corporate Travel Tool
One of the first and the most crucial business travel secrets is using a corporate travel booking tool like itilite to manage employee travel. Compared to booking directly through airline and hotel websites, it offers several advantages:
- Consolidated View of Business Spend: You can see total company travel expenses with a corporate booking platform. This makes budgeting and reporting much more effortless.
- Travel Policy Compliance: The tool allows creating policies around preferred vendors, class of travel, etc. It automatically ensures bookings follow the policies.
- Traveler Safety: Corporate booking platforms provide real-time traveler tracking. The employer can locate employees in case of emergencies or last-minute itinerary changes.
- Negotiated Rates: Companies can negotiate special rates and discounts with vendors. Employees get access to cheaper flights and hotel rooms.
- Streamlined Booking: The tool makes business travel booking easier through flexible search, easy approvals workflow, and integration with calendars.
- Dedicated Support: Most corporate booking platforms provide 24×7 traveler assistance before and during trips. Employees have on-demand help for bookings, changes, cancellations, etc.
- Traveler Profiles: The platform captures all employee preferences and requirements. This enables personalized, efficient booking.
The right corporate booking technology brings structure, savings, and superior experience to business travel programs. It’s the first step towards enhancing any company’s travel.
Leverage Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs offered by airlines, hotels, and rental car agencies can significantly benefit frequent business travelers. Most programs allow you to earn points, miles, or status based on how often you travel and how much you spend. The key is maximizing these programs to get the most value.
Here are some tips for getting the most from loyalty programs:
- Consolidate your business travel to one preferred airline and hotel chain as much as possible. This will help you rack up points and status faster.
- Provide your loyalty program number every time you book a flight or hotel. Many travel agencies will only remember to add it if reminded.
- Pay attention to bonus points promotions that double or triple your earnings for a while. These can help you earn status quickly.
- Use the airline or hotel-certified credit card for all business travel expenses. This will generate the most points.
- Take advantage of status perks like late checkout, room upgrades, and airport lounge access. Don’t be afraid to ask!
- Redeem your points for maximum value. Use them for high-priced award flights and hotel rooms to get the most cents per point.
- Gift extra points to colleagues if you end up with more than you need. Most programs allow point transfers.
Focusing your business travel within one or two preferred programs with these corporate travel secrets can result in significant rewards through intelligent point redemption over time.
Book Early to Save
Unlocking the secrets of business travel can lead to substantial savings, particularly by booking flights and hotels well before your trip. Planning and securing reservations early often result in significantly lower fares and rates. Airlines and hotels typically offer their lowest prices months ahead of travel dates, with fares and rates gradually increasing as the departure date approaches. Last-minute bookings usually come with hefty premiums.
Aim to secure your flights 2-3 months before your departure date, and for hotels, aim for 1-2 months prior. Keep an eye on fares and rates regularly, and seize the opportunity to lock in favorable deals when they arise.
While corporate travel programs  often offer set discounts and preferred rates with travel partners, the most competitive and budget-friendly fares often require booking well in advance. That’s why we recommend leveraging these corporate travel secrets for maximum savings.
The money you’ll save by planning early can be substantial, especially when traveling frequently for business. The small effort it takes to book early is well worth it. Tracking fares and rates does require more work than leaving it until the last minute, but doing so will reward you with the lowest prices.
Take Advantage of Airline Status Perks
One of the best business travel secrets is taking advantage of airline status perks with frequent flying. If you fly enough to earn elite status with an airline, you can enjoy benefits like:
- Priority boarding allows you to settle in and get comfortable before general boarding starts. You can get overhead bin space and have time to get organized without feeling rushed.
- Free checked bags – Most airlines allow their elite members to limit bags for free, a big perk. No more waiting in line to pay $25 or more per bag each way. This will save you time and money.
- Airport lounge access – Many premium airline status levels come with free access to airport lounges. This gives you a space to relax, eat, drink, and get work done before your flight. Lounges offer much more comfort than crowded gates.
Taking the time to earn airline elite status through work travel pays off tremendously with perks that make each trip smoother. It makes all those hours spent in the air and at airports much more enjoyable. Be strategic with your flights and stay loyal to 1 or 2 airlines to maximize status. Those perks will make business travel feel like first class.
Expense Reporting Apps
Living life on the road often means accumulating expenses at every turn. Our fifth corporate travel hack involves utilizing an expense reporting app to streamline this process, sparing you from the hassle of managing stacks of receipts or struggling to recall your expenditures. These apps empower you to effortlessly snap photos of receipts, log expenses, and submit reports directly from your smartphone.
The key is finding an app that seamlessly integrates with your company’s expense software, enabling you to submit expenses without needing finance to re-enter data. Apps like itilite simplify expense reporting regardless of your location.
With just a few taps, you can input expenses, organize receipts, and dispatch your report. Some apps even offer integration with other tools to track spending automatically.
The right app, such as itilite, handles everything from tracking to submission on your behalf. So, the next time you embark on a business trip, let an expense app ease your burden and streamline cost management. With it, navigating expense reporting becomes a breeze, and the days of managing piles of receipts are long gone.
Make Your Next Business Travel Seamless with Business Travel Secrets
Preparing for your business trip is the best way to avoid unforeseen circumstances. These business travel secrets will help you ensure that you have a seamless business trip and that you do not face any last-minute stress.
If you want to stay organized on your trip, consider using itilite. It is an advanced business travel management platform that helps you plan and modify your itinerary, manage your receipts online, and notify you of any upcoming trip.
Get a free demo to try the benefits yourself.
