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Planning a trip for someone else is a lot of pressure in itself, let alone when that someone is your manager. It’s time-consuming and detailed work: taking personal travel preferences into account, managing layovers, allowing for downtime and preparing the necessary paperwork. All whilst ensuring everything is compliant with internal travel policies.
This handy guide to making travel arrangements for your manager will help you break down this mammoth task into easy-to-follow steps.
Create a business travel checklist
Creating a basic business travel checklist before you start will ensure you don’t miss any important steps. When planning a business trip for your manager, there’s a high margin for small errors that could easily cause problems later down the line. Get ahead of any issues by defining your business travel checklist early.
Here are a few suggestions:
Make sure you have access to your manager’s travel documents, such as their passport, so you can easily book travel
Research the location of the trip to ascertain any entry requirements that need to be planned in advance e.g. a VISA or ESTA
Check official government travel advice for any necessary vaccinations or other health guidelines
To get started on your checklist, follow this easy guide.
Tailor the trip to your manager’s preferences
One person’s dream trip could be another person's nightmare, so the first thing you need to do is to schedule some time to speak to your manager about their personal priorities. Do they prefer a window seat on a plane? Is travelling at night difficult for them? Do they have dietary restrictions that need to be accounted for when planning meal locations? This is all key information that will help you make travel arrangements for your manager.
Not only will this ensure that the trip is perfectly suited to your manager, but as an executive assistant, it shows that you are proactive and diligent when it comes to making your manager comfortable during travel.
Some people find travel for work an unpleasant experience. According to a survey commissioned by World Travel Protection 46% of business travellers reported experiencing increased stress and burnout from frequent trips. Taking your manager’s likes and dislikes into account when planning the business trip could make all the difference.
If your manager is a regular traveller, check whether they have already accrued loyalty points with any airlines or hotels, and opt for travel options with these companies wherever possible. If you’re using a travel management platform, these will be easy to locate. Which leads us to our next top tip.
Book a business trip for your manager with a travel management tool
If planning your manager’s work travel is going to be a common occurrence in your job role, or you might end up planning trips for other members of staff, it is worth looking into investing in a travel management platform. Everything from flight searches to car rental can be sorted in one place, and your manager will have access to a handy itinerary within the platform, too. All of this will help minimise the time-consuming shadow work involved with booking travel.
Every traveller’s personal details and loyalty programme memberships are saved within the platform, making booking a trip with your manager’s preference in mind quick and easy. You’ll also get preferential rates on hotel bookings, choosing from over 26,000 discounted hotel rates.
As an executive assistant with potentially multiple trips booked for several colleagues, a travel management tool with a travel tracker is also extremely helpful. You’ll then have full visibility over everyone’s movements.
How to prepare a travel itinerary for your manager
With a travel management solution like Perk, the details of each trip can be found and downloaded from one place. Even if you’re not, it's still important that they have the information they need.
Remember, simplicity is the key here. Your manager is likely to be juggling a lot of tasks at once in the lead up to their trip, so keep the itinerary succinct.
Here is our guidance on how to create a clear itinerary for your manager:
Break down each day and detail activities and timings
Record booking confirmation numbers for car rentals, hotels, restaurant reservations and other elements of their trip
For flights, include airline phone numbers, the terminal's address, confirmation numbers, flight numbers, seat reservations, and any membership numbers they might need for lounge access and other loyalty perks
Specify platforms for train journeys where possible, and note taxi numbers for onward travel
If you have any pre-booked car services, include these details and the contact numbers
Include the address of their specific hotel and the contact details for the front desk, in case there are multiple hotels with the same name
Note check-in and check-out times for hotel stays, and any restrictions on breakfast or other mealtimes: very important!
Add meetings to this itinerary, noting the attendees and objectives of each appointment if this is available
Include emergency procedures and phone numbers
Plan in breaks and downtime, particularly after a long spell of travel
After you have completed the itinerary, save it as a PDF, print it off and email it to your manager so they have access to both hard and digital copies.
Have a backup plan in mind
Even the most organised travel managers have to deal with unexpected issues, including flight cancellations, changed plans, traffic, illness, and many more. You’ll need to be on hand to support your manager with alternative plans if the worst were to happen, or have the ability to provide them with support details for outside of office hours, such as Perk’s phone, email and chat service.
To avoid the costly fees of changing plans, you always want to book the most flexible fares possible. A tool like FlexiTravel allows users to cancel or change all elements of their bookings up to two hours before departure and receive 80% of the costs back. You or your manager can select alternative arrangements on the easy-to-use desktop or mobile platform, and they will be ready to start their new plans immediately.
Whatever the reason for shifting plans, you won't have to chase refunds. The money will be back in your company account as a credit, ready to use in as little as 14 days.
Don’t let sustainability be an afterthought
Sustainability isn’t a boardroom buzzword, it’s an expectation from all manner of stakeholders that all sizes and types of businesses will actively work to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. And as an executive assistant booking travel, any decisions you can make to reduce the environmental impact of business travel will go a long way.
Ensuring your manager’s work trip aligns with environmental regulations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals is a considerable task, which could involve hours of research and collaboration with your company’s sustainability team.
Green Trip offers detailed reports of the emissions generated by your manager’s work travel, and highlights eco-friendly travel options during the booking process. Plus, remaining emissions can be offset through VERRA-verified carbon-reducing projects.
Make your manager’s travel expense reporting simple
When travelling for business, the process of collecting paper receipts and filling out lengthy spreadsheets can easily turn into a significant time burden for your manager. At the other end, the average expense report takes 20 minutes to complete and £45 to process.
The whole process can be massively simplified by taking advantage of Perk’s integration with third-party expense management apps. This allows your manager to quickly scan their receipts on the go, eliminating the need for the dreaded post-trip receipt hunt.
And because trip costs and spend reports are stored safely within the platform, your finance colleagues will benefit too.
Go the extra mile
The itinerary is prepared, you’ve thought about alternative plans and everything is all-set to hand over to your manager. If time allows, you could add in these thoughtful extras to really impress them:
Include LinkedIn photos of meeting attendees to ensure they can give them a warm and personalised greeting.
Add predicted local weather details so your manager will have an idea of what kind of attire to pack.
Research top-rated local restaurants to make choosing where to go for dinner a doddle. You can even use a concierge service to secure reservations
Note any travel adapter and surge protector requirements
Prepare luggage tags
Include a few handy phrases in the local language
By planning a business trip for your manager with a proactive and organised approach, you’ll make it a smooth and memorable trip for all the right reasons. Perk has many features that will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, so book a demo now to see how it could transform your future workload.
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