Too often, business travelers spend a lot of time finding the right flight, then picking the hotel in a hurry. Once they have a guaranteed flight, it is easy for them to postpone the accommodation reservation.
Or maybe they have a lot of time to book best hotels in morocco but they just don’t want to spend all day on it.
Booking hotels for business trips is not complicated, but there is more than meets the eye if you really want to optimize your trip. This post will give you tips and advice to make it simpler and easier.
1. Understand the priorities of the trip
This month at NOAH London , I met a business traveler who spends 240 days a year away from home.
When you’re away from home for so long, where you sleep matters a lot. An airplane is a glorified bus, and hopefully the journey will only take a few hours to go on with your life, but your accommodation can have a huge impact on your trip. Would you rather be close to the event site or the city center and fun places? Do you need a small kitchen to prepare your own vegetarian meals?
We have a new feature in the results map that allows you to add layers with restaurant areas, party areas and tourist attractions in your hotel search.
Whether you are booking for yourself or someone else, the first step is to understand the particular priorities and preferences for the trip. Do this as a first step and you won’t waste time with options that don’t align with your needs.
Choose the accommodation for your trip
In my case, I have to combine business with leisure, since I travel a lot and I like to be close to activities that my wife and son can enjoy when they travel with me.
2. First, look for your preferred hotels and / or those with negotiated rates
Searching through a fixed list of hotels can make the process of booking one much faster. Whether for you or for any other traveler, see if there is:
Hotels with rates negotiated with your company.
Preferred hotel chains.
Favorite hotels in destination.
When you apply these criteria, you or the traveler will find a small number of options to choose from and thus save time.
When you book with LBN Hotels, negotiated rates and preferred hotels can be saved by company or by user. Thus the options are already limited – a great time saver.
3. Choose ease of transportation over proximity
Business travelers are racing the clock. A quick method of transportation to the office or event is a requirement. Often when booking trips, people focus on the distance to the desired location, not the time it takes to get there.
In busy cities, walking 1.5 kilometers may take longer than a 6-kilometer subway ride. Not to mention that if you choose a hotel further from the center, you can find a nicer accommodation at a cheaper price.
With Google Maps it is easy to search for hotels in a specific radius and see the estimated travel times by subway, train and car .
4. Adhere to the travel policy from the first moment
The fastest way to book a hotel for business travel is to get it right the first time. A company’s travel policy may include a budget for hotels that varies by city and based on the type of trip or per day.
Whether you are booking for yourself or for another traveler, you must adhere to the travel policy to avoid having to ask for approval.
The times when it is justified not to comply with the policy is when you are traveling during a very popular event that is increasing hotel prices, or if the city you are staying in has higher prices than what the company considers normal . TravelPerk makes the approval process quick and easy, more however, it is best to avoid it and adhere to company policy as much as possible. Our search feature color-codes available hotels to quickly identify which ones are or are not in compliance with policy.
5. Be attentive with group reservations
Group trip on the horizon? It’s worth taking a minute to consider what works best for the group:
Should they all be in the same hotel and share transportation to the event?
Should they all stay in the same house or apartment to build ties between the team during the trip?
Should some be hosted separately, or does it not matter?
The most common mistake is when business trips are booked by an agent. It is easy for groups to separate when it would have been better for them to stay together. Save all the hassle of canceling or modifying reservations by deciding in advance if the group needs to stick together.
6. Correctly book alternative accommodations (such as Airbnb)
Alternative accommodations like Airbnb and Homeaway are becoming increasingly popular for business travelers and business travelers with tourist expectations is a growing trend.
Being able to feel like a local in a new city, having a perfect location, cooking what you like in your own kitchen, and many other things can lead you to book an apartment (or a room in an apartment) and not a traditional hotel.
Whether it’s a house for a group event or a cozy flat for a long solo trip, using Airbnb for business is just getting started. The only problem is having to exchange many messages with the owner: “Are there pots and pans in the kitchen?” How reliable is the Wi-Fi? ”
Chatting with potential hosts can take a significant amount of time, but a quick solution is to book with TravelPerk, one of the only platforms that can book an Airbnb on your behalf, and with travel assistants who can help you with this communication. An incredible time saver.
7. Don’t use the star rating method – it’s out of date
3 stars, 4 stars, who cares? To be honest, I’d rather stay in a 3-star hotel with a great business center (one that looks like a comfortable living room, not a room with a fax machine), than a 4-star hotel with concierges and bellboys that don’t let them get to my room as fast as I would like.
There are preferences more important than the stars. One of those is the style, modern or homemade? Another is the size, if you have a kitchen, among others. At TravelPerk, we’ve redesigned the hotel search feature , allowing you to search by proximity to the meeting place, apply filters by preferences, color-code depending on policy, and more.
Whatever you use to book, be sure to use clear requirements and preferences, not outdated ratings that give you little information about the experience.
8. Pay in advance without the need for refunds
Forcing business travelers to pay for their own travel upon arrival causes problems. It also happens frequently when travelers act on their own and make reservations on tourist travel platforms. “Pay later” sounds good when you book a vacation, but when you’re traveling on business it’s not that much fun.
It’s much faster for everyone when the company can pay the bill on the spot. That way workers don’t have to deal with the reimbursement process. Also, no employee can book outside of the travel policy when the stay has been prepaid.
