Executive travel is not always high-end hotels and dinners on the company credit card. Business professionals who travel frequently for work have to learn to deal with complications, schedule changes, bad weather, lost suitcases, noisy hotels and more. Executive assistants have to be able to plan for even the worst-case scenarios while juggling schedules and making successful travel plans. Relying on a professional travel agent, like BlueOrange, can be essential, but following this list of tips and ideas can also help to make any executive’s next business trip a success.
Know your executive’s preferences.
Save you and your boss headache and a bad travel experience by understanding their tastes and favorite things when they travel. Questions about airplane seat preferences, layover wants or needs, preferred arrival times, hotel and rental car leanings, and more can help to make their trip smoother from start to finish and save you from last minute scrambles to make changes that could’ve been handled in advance.
Prepare a full itinerary that answers questions before they are asked.
Keep your executive one step ahead by providing specific details that can affect their trip in advance. The weather forecast in destination cities or local events can impact travel and navigation to and getting around in the city. It’s important to share this information with your boss in advance. Also provide the phone number and e-mail address of the primary contact in the destination city. This way, when travel is delayed, your executive can easily communicate with them. You may also wish to anticipate other questions like the location of Frequent Flyer Clubs and Executive Lounges in airports or if food will be served on flights. Based on their preferences, you might decide to provide this information both in paper and in an easily accessible digital format.
Keep copies of essential documents at home.
Copy passports, driver’s licenses, company credit cards, frequent flyer cards, and any other essential identification or documents to keep at home. That way, if these pieces of important information are lost during travel, they can be easily replaced from afar.
Research the destination.
What is the city like? What is the best way to get around? Where are the best restaurants located? What about attractions and landmarks? When you include important information about the destination, then your executive is able to navigate the city easily in order to be efficient with business time and to enjoy his or her free time. If you can, include a map of the city and any other need-to-know details.
Always have a back-up plan.
It’s easy to plan for what is expected, but it is much harder to plan for the unexpected. This is when having a relationship with a travel agent is invaluable. By knowing the industry and maintaining connections, a travel agent, like BlueOrange, is able to go to work for you and your executive when bad weather or mechanical issues cancel flights or other emergencies happen. Be prepared for anything by having a strong support team.
Contact BlueOrange when you are ready to plan your corporate travel. Based in New York City, we are a luxury travel agency that specializes in combining business and leisure travel experiences into bleisure travel.