Do you have to leave your hometown for a business trip? While seeing a new city or country for work purposes seems like a prestigious affair, seasoned business travelers can attest to how challenging it really is.
Business travel comes with a set of disadvantages that are often not talked about. Aside from the costs of airfare and hotel accommodation, the stress, homesickness, and unhealthy choices associated with business travel can truly wear you down. The good may outweigh the bad if you recognize these issues and do everything in your power to turn the situation around.
The next time you’re going to travel for work, here are 7 business travel tips to remember by heart.
1. Stay in the same hotel chain
Traveling frequently? Whenever possible, choose the same hotel chain for your hotel accommodation. Flying to Ireland? See if that hotel in Kildare is under your go-to chain or hotel group.
Make sure you sign up for their loyalty program too. Doing so allows you to access a range of exclusive benefits including late checkout. Stay more often and you’ll get to earn points that can be converted into free stays, room upgrades, discounts, and more.
2. Travel light
Unless your business trip is longer than a week, experts recommend limiting luggage to a carry-on. Aside from saving money from baggage fees, traveling with a carry-on is more convenient and time-saving. No need to check in a bag or wait for it when you exit the plane.
3. Pack strategically
Next to maximizing your luggage space and avoiding baggage fees, strategic packing also helps maximize your comfort and save precious time.
Some of the best packing practices for a business trip include:
- Define your attire for the next few days/weeks, and go for a few classic, versatile pieces of clothing you can easily mix and match.
- Ask the hotel if they have a clothes iron so you won’t worry about wrinkles and folding marks.
- Roll your clothing to maximize luggage space.
- Use packing cubes to organize everything and make unpacking easier.
- Buy travel-size containers for your toiletries.
- If you’re not delicate, you may ditch your toiletries and use the complimentary ones in your hotel room.
4. Get organized
We’re not just talking about your belongings — getting organized means managing your time and priorities wisely.
Your business trip can often lead to less structured days, especially if you work from your hotel. The line between work and personal life is blurred, causing you to either stare at your laptop even until post-work hours or procrastinate for the love of comfort.
Create a realistic schedule and honor the time you set. You can set alarms too if necessary.
5. Make your hotel room as homey as possible
Are you going to stay in a hotel for days or weeks? After the excitement of traveling wears off, you’ll start to feel homesick during your business trip, especially if your room is cramped. The good thing is there are simple ways to make it as homey as possible.
- Unpack your clothes and belongings upon arrival to make your hotel room feel more like home.
- Can’t start the day without drinking your favorite medium roast Costa Rica coffee? Bringing your favorite coffee is a simple way to get a taste of home while you’re away.
- If your hotel has a kitchenette, find the time to cook your meals.
- Does the hotel have a pillow menu? Sleeping soundly in an unfamiliar room can be a bit of a challenge, so see if you can customize it to your liking.
- Take a little something from home and place it in your room. It can be your wife’s fragrance, your Batman action figure, your go-to mug, or your favorite pillow.
- If your pet is more of a travel companion and comfort animal than a distraction, see if you can find pet-friendly hotels.
6. Designate spaces
Want to stay productive during the day and enjoy your personal time when the working hours are over? You might want to designated spaces to create a clear distinction between work life and personal life. That means setting up makeshift office space and using the bed solely for sleep and leisure.
7. Prioritize your health above everything
Frequent traveling can take a toll on your physical and mental wellness. Work-related stress, travel fatigue, jetlags, missing home, surviving on fast-food takeaways — all these can make it hard to stay healthy. It might help to do a couple of these things when you’re on the road
- Take time to relax and have some “me” time. Check out the offers from your hotel spa, eat comfort food, stream movies, and walk around to breathe some fresh air and see new sights.
- Redefine “rest”. Instead of hitting the sack right after your workday, you can spend some time sitting by the hotel pool, doing meditation, watching a movie, play a game, and doing things you love that don’t necessarily require exerting physical and mental effort.
- Take advantage of hotel amenities. Use the pool, gym, and jogging grounds for getting some exercise.
- Eat healthily. Cut junk food and fast-food consumption and try to cook your own healthy meals.
- Prioritize quality sleep. See if you’ll have issues like hotel noises, uncomfortable pillows and beddings, alarms, thin hotel walls, and the lack of blackout curtains.
Author Bio: Carmina Natividad is a foodie and travel blogger who hates being locked up at home. Her fondness for travel, food, and cultural appreciation makes it easy for her to write inspiring pieces of content about them. To know more about hotels and travel blogs, you may visit Osprey Hotel.
