From finding compliant arrangements that will please the boss to handling unexpected itinerary changes. For an executive assistant (EA), overseeing travel for work can bring many challenges.
Overcome the overwhelm of organizing company work trips with a straightforward checklist. From pre-departure planning to post-trip tasks, this comprehensive guide will relieve all the stress of arranging future work trips.
Pre-trip planning
Gather intel for your upcoming trip
Before booking anything, it’s important to gather info from the travelers you’re responsible for.
To stay on top of changes and ensure a smooth travel experience, start by getting as much detail about the trip as possible, including key information like:
To stay on top of changes and ensure a smooth travel experience, start by getting as much detail about the trip as possible, including key information like:
Destination and dates
Planned meetings and trip objectives
Stakeholders
The executive’s travel preferences
Time zones
Currencies
Travel legislation and restrictions
Full name (as it appears on their passport or driving license)
Home address
Cell phone number, email address, and a designated family or friend to contact in emergencies
Membership numbers for any loyalty programs they belong to
Any activities or restaurants they would like to try while in their destination
For overseas travel, make sure your executive has a valid passport and any necessary visas needed to get into the country and any transit destinations if required. They may also need to organize or show proof of various vaccinations.
Craft an itinerary
Now you have all the details you can get to work booking flights, hotels, trains and everything else your traveler will need. Trawling through different websites trying to find the best prices can be seriously stressful. And we all know the heartbreak of carefully calculating your planned itinerary costs only to find the price has increased while deciding between the options.
But thankfully there are new online tools that can streamline this search for you. With a solution like Perk you or your traveler can book all the elements you need in one easy-to-use platform. Plus, you can integrate company policies into the process so you always know you are choosing from compliant options. And, rather than chasing separate receipts, you receive just one streamlined invoice.
Work trips for executives have tightly-packed schedules which can easily get derailed—even by minor miscommunications. After booking your travel arrangements, creating an itinerary that includes all the details of their upcoming work trip can prevent the dreaded flustered phone calls from an executive stuck at an airport or missing a crucial meeting.
When working on the itinerary, ensure you:
Balance business and personal time: among networking dinners, in-person meetings, and industry events, be sure to weave in some downtime for your executive. Recharging and relaxing are just as important to a smooth travel experience.
Pre-book high-demand restaurants and activities: organize bookings for the restaurants and activities they would like to try ahead of time. Be sure to have a hold of reservation numbers and follow up on bookings made.
Include useful information: clarify hotel check-in and check-out times, luggage allowances for flights, any confirmation numbers, addresses for meetings, and contact details for drivers etc on the ground. Your boss will thank you when they don’t have to go digging through their inbox or searching online.
Point out key procedures: write a simple guide for best practices for expenses and what they should do in the case of an emergency.
Pre-departure preparation
Plan for the unexpected
We all know that when organizing work travel, things rarely go according to plan. Meetings get canceled, employees get sick, and your carefully crafted itinerary goes out the window!
Mastering more flexible options for your company’s work travel is possible. With FlexiTravel, you or your traveler can amend the itinerary up to two hours before departure. With just a few clicks on the easy-to-use mobile or desktop app, you can cancel or change your plans and receive up to 80% of the costs back, no questions asked. FlexiTravel helped EU Business School save €66,000 from canceled trips in 2023 by transforming how they booked their travel for work.
Brief your traveler
Go over the itinerary once more and ensure it contains all the relevant information for the trip. Present this to your exec, discuss any final adjustments, and brief them on logistics and standard procedures, including:
Specific details for their destination
How they can help keep track of their expenses
What your company’s duty of care policy is
What their options are in case of an emergency
This briefing is where you will be able to hand over all the necessary documents, including hard copies, in the event that WiFi might be down, or the executive cannot use their phone.
Provide in-trip support
Keep up to date
Staying on top of shifting safety concerns and procedures can be the most stressful part of an EA’s role. Taking a modern approach can save hours of laborious manual work. Using a complete duty-of-care solution like TravelCare offers complete peace of mind, automating hours of research to ensure your travelers are up to date with the latest developments in their destination.
Whether it’s incoming bad weather that will disrupt a flight, new entry requirements, or an ongoing security alert. With TravelCare, you and your travelers receive real-time notifications so you can react fast.
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Putting your travelers safety first. Learn how today.
Offer 24/7 assistance without disturbing your sleep
In the past, some EAs had to be available round the clock to help their travelers sort out unexpected issues. But, by using the latest technology, you can offer your executive more comprehensive support and achieve a better work-life balance.
A tool like Perk provides users with comprehensive support. Say goodbye to sitting on hold. Perk’s customer service team aims to answer in a target response time of 15 seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Contactable by phone, email, or chat, you and your traveler will always have access to help from a team of travel experts.
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Post trip tasks
Ease expense reimbursement
From restaurant bills to taxi fares and other incidentals. Collecting all your execs' travel receipts can feel like a wild goose chase. Streamline the process using the latest accounting tools like Yokoy, Spendesk or Expensify, which you can integrate into a travel management tool for one seamless experience.
Follow up for the future
While your executive might be busy when they return, try to carve out five minutes to get some feedback on the trip.
You can ask them questions like:
What went well on their trip? What didn’t?
Was there enough time to transit between flights?
Was the flight comfortable, or do they prefer another airline if possible?
Did they like the hotel, or were there facilities they missed?
Was the car hire company reliable? Did they provide speedy service, and were there any issues with the vehicle?
Did they like the restaurants and any activities they did in their destination? Would they recommend them to others?
The information you gather could be useful for improving not only their future travel experiences but also the work trips of other colleagues.
Optimize ongoing work travel
Work smarter not harder
Even without the latest tools, there are tips and tricks you can use to lighten the load when organizing work trips. When gathering information from your frequent travelers, create a spreadsheet where you can log their preferences for future trips.
You can also use your feedback as a travel planning hack for other travelers. Say you frequently send colleagues to visit the company's office in New York or have regular site visits planned throughout the year. Keeping an easily accessible bank of travelers' feedback can help you make faster decisions on future bookings.
Making the most of loyalty programs is another way to efficiently improve your executive's travel experience. Many airlines and hotels offer room upgrades, lounge access, or other preferential perks for repeat customers. Just make sure to add your travelers' membership number to your bookings.
And when you are ready to upgrade your processes, a tool like Perk can help you keep track of all this information and share it effortlessly across your organization.
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