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In any travel situation, the further in advance you can plan
your trip, the better you will do on all of your accommodations. But in the world of business, it often occurs
that you have to get to a destination immediately and the ability to move
swiftly is critical to the success of the business goal. The good news is that you can do some
preparations well in advance for short notice business trips so you are not
caught completely without a plan.
You don’t want to have to flounder around about how to book
a flight and where to stay if the business journey looms suddenly and
immediately. Short notice business
trips seem to be endemic of certain industries and job descriptions so if you
know you will go through this drill often, you can make some arrangements far
in advance so you have a checklist of just what to do when you find out that
you must be at your destination virtually immediately.
First of all, in a short notice travel situation, economy takes
a second priority. Your employer knows that
if you have to book full fare on an airline to get to your destination at a
specific time, the higher expense is unavoidable. Make sure that your company travel policy has
some clauses to put aside travel budget limits in such a scenario.
The part of the trip where you will have the least “wiggle
room” will be airline accommodations. Of
course, you can use the big internet search tools like Travelocity or
Orbitz. In general, those are good places
to start to find what airlines do have flights at your specified times. But once you pick an airline, working through
the airline’s web site directly will show you the most options they can offer
and sometimes provide you with better fares, even on short notice. Be sure you watch the travel details closely
so you don’t find yourself enduring long layovers that are going to jeopardize
the tight timetable of the business meetings you need to attend. If necessary, spend the money on nonstop
flights to assure that the business goal of the trip is top priority.
Do your homework about hotel accommodations well in
advance. If there are likely
destinations that you could be called upon to go to quickly, you can do your
research on the closest hotels to the business site so you cut down on commutes
once you are there. By having your
target hotels bookmarked and the phone numbers on file, you can quickly call
and set up your accommodations in a matter of minutes. But if you find that your best choices for
hotels are booked up on the days you will be at your site, call them
anyway. A good hotel will call around to
other hotels in the area and get you a room as close to your destination as
possible. They can save you hours of
frustration searching for a replacement room.
Rental cars are usually not as much of a problem. It’s a good idea to call ahead and get a
reservation but short of a major convention or sporting event in town, there
are so many rental car agencies that you should be able to find a car to rent
even if you don’t start your search until you are on the ground at your
destination city.
You can make other preparations for the possibility of a
short notice business trip like having your toiletries and personal affects you
always travel with packed and ready to walk out the door. By having your travel clothes ready to go,
you can virtually walk home and walk out in a matter of minutes for a short
notice business trip because you are that well prepared.
