We both know that business travel problems mean driving from the manufacturing headquarters to meet with logistics partners, suppliers and everyone in-between. It’s a typical dance routine that can turn into a nightmare if even the slightest challenge arises.
There are a few ways to keep your business travel problems at bay and your work travel stress-free. They largely depend on cutting out the root cause of it all, which requires a bit of forethought and a couple of modern solutions.
Understand the root causes of your business travel problems
Situations that cause someone’s blood to boil often differ from person to person, making it tough to pin down exactly what’s so stressful about work travel. Is it the long lines, unfamiliar environment or the fact that you can’t go home and flick on the telly and sit back on your favourite spot on the sofa?
It turns out that it’s a little bit of all three. Wasted time, unexpected problems and being taken out of our comfortable routines are the three main causes of business travel stress, according to Forbes.
Those stressors can turn into more than just a headache; anxiety, depression and subpar health were just a few of the side-effects associated with business travel stress, the Harvard Business Review found.
Sit back in your favourite chair and talk with one of our business travel agents to find out how to improve your business travel strategy.
Figuring out how these emotional triggers arise in your daily life is key to managing the business travel problems and stress that goes along with them. Aim to plan ahead for as many unknown elements as possible by creating situations for yourself that become a sure-fire approach to getting work travel right.
Two ways to avoid business travel problems related to wasted time
Work travel is often consolidated into a short period of time and any time-wasting challenges that pop up can be aggravating to say the least. But by introducing new tools into the process, you can potentially avoid these business travel problems altogether. Here’s two ways that you can do so:
1. Digitising receipts and expenses:
Keeping track of paper receipts for the odd meal or cup of coffee and making sure all of the physical copies are kept safe and organised in one spot is soul draining for anyone.
Instead, encourage your business travel management team to implement a digital process that uses tools like Roomex by adding in stay allowances to your bookings or Expensify to make keeping track of paper receipts a thing of the past. Simply snap a picture and let the app do the rest of the work for you.
2. Finding a hotel close to your location:
There’s nothing more frustrating than having to spend your nights far away from the work site, wasting time to travel back and forth between them. It’s a top business travel problem, but it’s also one that’s easy to solve.
Using a business hotel booking platform, companies can easily see all the locations of hotels within their price range – and within the range of where you need to be. Ditch the holiday bookers for software that was designed with business in mind and wave goodbye to long daily commutes.
Three ways to avoid business travel problems related to unexpectedness
It’s easy to say, “expect the unexpected.” It’s a whole different challenge when it comes to actually planning ahead for the unexpected business travel problems. Ironically enough, some of the most unpredictable situations are actually pretty common within the industry – here’s how to avoid them.
1. Be aware of company travel policies:
Budget for hotels, daily per diem and any other expense-related guidelines can sometimes be hidden away.
By making them clearly available to everyone, either via weekly email updates or a business hotel booking platform that implements them in real-time, everyone involved in the process can gain a bit more clarity and certainty about their purchases.
2. Getting reimbursed in a timely manner:
While you may be fine spending your own money on the road knowing that it’ll go back into your pocket at the end of the month, the good feelings can change quickly when that expected check isn’t there.
Avoid this business travel problem by using workforce travel tools that bill on account – meaning the company (and yourself) won’t have to pay for anything until the end of the month.
3. Know how to handle an emergency:
It can be nerve-wracking when something goes wrong and you don’t know who to call. Simply put, ensure there’s a legitimate duty of care plan in place and that each person knows who to escalate emergencies to.
Three ways to avoid business travel problems related to being taken out of your routine
When we’re taken out of what’s comfortable, it can be tough to adapt to the new situation. When you’re always on workforce travel, this can quickly can turn into a major source of business travel problems. Here’s how you can avoid it becoming a major source of frustration:
1. Keep healthy in all areas:
When you travel a lot, you tend to end out, skip the gym and go long stretches without seeing family or friends. This would take a toll on anyone.
Work with your business travel management team to be placed in hotels that either have healthy food options in or around them, or come with their own kitchenette. Similarly, getting a hotel with an on-site gym can keep you active and mentally healthy. Lastly, don’t forget to video chat with the people that mean most to you.
2. Agree on access to transportation:
Uncertain travel and expense policies can turn transportation into a business travel problem. If you’re on-site for an extended amount of time, make sure there’s a clear agreement in place with how you’ll be supported travel-wise – including in your leisure time.
3. Avoid low-star hotels:
Last but not least, avoid the hotels with uncomfortable beds or poor services by leveraging a business hotel booking platform like Roomex. Roomex has the best prices on more than 1 million hotels, giving your team the ability to save up to 21 percent on the average room – and use those savings to make sure that you get the best quality accommodation possible.
