31430461 – travel concept. suitcases and signpost what to visit in usa. 3d
According to a survey conducted by Accountemps in 2017, 35% of the nation feels more work-related pressure during the holidays. This, coupled with the fact that stress and the unhealthy behaviors people use to manage it, contribute to some of our country’s biggest health problems – including obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
Increased traffic and an annual spike in the number of travelers during the holiday season make travel during this time of year even more stressful – so here are some tips for business travelers to reduce holiday travel stress:
Plan ahead. During the holiday season, we often find ourselves being tugged in different directions at once – family, job and personal well-being. To help maintain balance, plan ahead. If you know you will be traveling a few days before Christmas, plan out each part of your trip to ensure all of your competing “priorities” receive attention.
For example:Make sure your flight gets in a day before important meetings to allow time to prepare, decompress from the flight and eat a decent meal or two. Look for hotels near the location of your meetings, but preferably not more than 30-45 minutes away from the airport. This will aid in cutting down commute times and ensure you can get to your meetings promptly.
Pick a travel site that best suits you. Not all online booking sites are not created equal. While many sites promise cheap rates, they often have hidden fees. A great hotel for $110 dollars a night can easily become $190 dollars with an undisclosed parking fee, taxes and the site’s booking fee.
Many popular travel sites offer bundle deals if you book your car, hotel and airfare together, but you may find lower rates booking the hotel, car and airfare separately. Feel free to break up your travel by booking a hotel on one site and a car on the other. Make sure you do your due diligence when choosing these sites.
Check and double check. Once your hotel is booked, don’t just show up the day of your check-in and assume that your name and confirmation number is in the system. Oftentimes, business travelers get frustrated when they have a confirmation email from an online travel booking company only to reach the hotel and find out their reservation is not even in the system. This is particularly important during the holidays and other busy travel times.
Make sure you call the hotel company in advance and verify that you are in their system. This takes a few minutes and provides you with peace of mind. Some travel sites do this for you in advance so that you don’t have to worry about if your reservation is solid or not.
Organize and pack important documents.You do not want to wait until the very last minute to collect and organize all of your important documents. Here is a quick checklist of important documents that every business traveler should remember:
- Passport/travel visa (if traveling abroad).
- Frequent flyer cards and other loyalty program card numbers.
- Cash and credit cards. Call your credit card companies before you travel to inform them of your travel (otherwise they might turn them off to prevent perceived fraud).
- Health insurance cards/document(s).
- Reservations and itineraries. Print them and save them electronically for easy access.
- Travel insurance information.
As soon as you book a trip, it’s a good idea to double-check that your passports and IDs aren’t expired, and that they will not expire in the middle of your trip if you are traveling internationally. You’ll also want to inform your bank of you’re traveling dates so they don’t assume fraudulent activity and freeze your credit card. Consider emailing yourself a copy of your passport, driver’s license, medical cards and itinerary, so if anything happens to them you’ll be able to access them online.
Let family and friends know where you are headed or about any change in plans.While you may have alerted your immediate family to all travel plans, it is always smart to give your itinerary to one other person, whether it is a close friend, work colleague, etc. This ensures that if there is a delay in your flight or itinerary and you can’t reach one person, you will have an additional person to contact in case things don’t go as smoothly as you had hoped. Keeping a few people in tune with your travel plans helps ease everyone’s state of mind, especially when it comes to international travel.
Source: EHS Today
