Your physical and mental health takes a beating when you travel. The main cause of stress for more than 60% of business travellers is flight delays and cancellations, followed by the usual in-flight tedium of irritating passengers and being plunged into an unfamiliar environment. Here are some packing and booking tips for business travel that’ll keep you sane, including how to get some of the best discount deals when booking flights and hotels for your business trip. Maybe your company needs to consider a global workforce management platform that can manage all the business trips in one place. If you can keep everything sorted in one place, then it only helps to further reduce the stress on your employees.
Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels
How to Pack for a Business Trip
Here are some packing tips from business travelers and frequent fliers that will help you pack appropriately to avoid delays and keep the stress levels low.
Bag it!
Prevent your dress shirts from getting creased by putting them in dry cleaning bags and plastic garment bags. Remember, your luggage gets squished in the aircraft hold with hundreds of other suitcases, putting tons of pressure on your case, so no matter how carefully you fold and pack your shirts, you’ll wish you had an iron when you get to your hotel room and open up your bag, unless you slipped your best clothes in a garment bag.
Weigh in Before You Fly
Don’t get caught out and held up having to empty your overweight bag. Always check the luggage allowance, and keep a small pair of scales handy to weigh your luggage before you set off. You can get scales small enough to fit in your pocket instead of packing them as well. Having scales is an excellent asset when you want to take souvenirs back home without exceeding the airline’s weight limit.
Pack for Casual Encounters
It’s easy to forget casual clothes when you’re focused on dressing your best for your business meeting abroad but it’s important to have a change of clothes to wind down between power meetings. Throw in your gym clothes, too, if you have space.
Get a Good Suitcase
When you travel a lot, investing in a sturdy and versatile suitcase is essential. Yes, good suitcases cost a fortune, but the dividends are priceless when you can easily navigate not only airports but crowded mass transit stations with tricky turnstyles. A good case keeps valuables safe, and you can use it as a stool when the terminal seats are all taken.
A durable and versatile suitcase that doubles as a stool is a blessing when battling with all manner of obstacles encountered on business trips. Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels
Pack Kit for a Good Kip
Once the stress of checking in and boarding is over, you’ll want to get in 40 winks or more while in the air, so be sure to pack things to help you sleep, especially a neck pillow to make your contortions in a slightly-reclining seat slightly more tolerable.
Breeze Through Airport Security
Airport security can sometimes be the most inconvenient part of traveling. Security protocols range from belt-buckle and shoe removal to limits on liquids and battery packs, meaning you often have to throw away shaving cream, shampoo and even drinks – only to have to buy them at inflated prices on the other side in the Duty Free department.
To sail through security unaccosted and with your toiletries intact, put all liquids, gels, creams and pastes in travel-sized containers that are no more than 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) each.
Place all those containers in a transparent 1 quart-size resealable plastic bag so that you can check them in with your hand luggage.
Anything in containers larger than 3.4 ounces or 100 milliliters has to be checked in with your baggage to go in the hold.
Book Stress-Free Flight & Hotel Deals
Instead of hopping around the web comparing online booking sites for hotel and flight deals for your next business trip, you can find all your travel options in one place at ITS Coop Travel – a Germany-based online travel agent featuring a vast array of deals from hundreds of other online booking platforms including Airbnb and ebookers.
ITS Coop Travel flight and hotel deal destinations include: Europe, Africa, Asia, Indian Ocean, Caribbean & Central America.
Use Coupons to Double Your Savings
Booking your business trip through ITS Coop Travel is quick and easy with a help team on hand 24/7 on the ITS Coop hotline. Book frequently for your business and holiday travel to collect ‘super points’ for discounts on various travel booking options – and double your savings with ITS Coop Travel gutschein travel vouchers to get some amazing discounts on flights, hotels, meal deals, car rental and other business travel deals.
You can get notified of the latest monthly vouchers and coupon codes for ITS Coop Travel by signing up for the Itscoop.ch newsletter, which claims that every discount is verified as authentic before being sent out to subscribers.
Quick Money Saving Business Travel Tip
If you’re staying in the city for your business trip, look for last-minute city trip deals which throw in hotel stays and city tours with return flights, often at a cheaper price than the air ticket or hotel stay alone.
How to Make Your Business Trip Hassle Free
Only Take a Carry-on Bag
If you’ve packed lightly you should be able to put everything you need only in a carry-on bag. Then you can get off the plane and get straight to your hotel without waiting for luggage or risking losing your luggage altogether. City destinations always have everything you’ll need if you forgot to pack something.
Prep So You Don’t Forget
Always keep essentials for any business trip packed in your bag between trips. Apart from extra toiletries, stash away chargers, office supplies and business cards in your bag so you only have to worry about clothes when you’re in a rush.
Take a Multi-Plug Adapter
Being able to plug in your phone or laptop charger to an alien wiring arrangement can be the difference between a successful or failed business trip. The relief of having a multi-plug adapter in a foreign hotel which doesn’t make a point of catering to business travellers is euphoric.
Hmm. Which one will fit at your foreign hotel? Pack a multi-plug adapter to power up on the other side. Photo by Castorly Stock from Pexels
Get With The Program
Even if your business trips are only a few times a year, before you know it, you’ve clocked up hundreds of thousands of air miles. Don’t wait a year before joining a rewards program. Sign up for one as soon as you can to start getting discounts as a frequent business traveler.
Avoid Foreign Transaction Fees
Check with your bank and credit cards whether you get charged for foreign transaction fees. If they charge you to pay or withdraw in a foreign currency, maybe you can make alternative arrangements before you fly.
Get Charged Up!
You can get a lot of work done in the airport, especially when you have to check in 2 to 3 hours ahead of international flight departure times. Not every airport has charging points, though, and even when they do, nine times out of ten you’ll be pipped at the post by other travelers low on power.
Often you can’t sit down at the charging points, either, so you have to stand there guarding your mobile device – not ideal if you want to fire off a few last-minute emails.
The simplest solution is to fully charge everything before you go. If that means buying extra batteries or power packs for your phone, laptop or tablet, then then it’s another investment that pays dividends when you don’t have to fight with other stressed out passengers over the only power point in the departure lounge.
No Queues in Airport Lounges
Another asset for the business traveler is airport lounge membership, which is not always exclusive to single airlines. Star Alliance has many airlines under its umbrella and lounges in international airports for its members. These lounges are masterpieces of interior architecture designed to give you a nice, quiet environment tucked away from the clamour of the check in hall. And you won’t have to fight to the death for a convenient charging point.
Print it Before You Go
Make sure you are not fumbling for flight numbers and booking confirmation. A dead phone won’t help you at the check in counter but a hardcopy printed before you left for the airport will save you the embarrassment and hassle.
Be Kind to Your Tummy
Fast food and snacks on the go really take their toll, especially when being corralled and cramped in tin cans and slippery airport chairs while dying for a breath of fresh air.
Have you ever noticed how much of a windbag you become after a long-haul flight? Much of the ‘jet lag’ is your body crying out for nutritious fresh food after dining in a series of nutrition deficient ready meals.
Pack plenty of fresh fruit and other healthy snacks, or even pack yourself a homemade meal for the outbound journey. You’ll save lots of money on airport food, and you’ll feel much better when you land.