Smart Business Travel
by Rick Hudolin, Travel Hounds Travel Advisors
There’s a moment I love when traveling.
The bags are packed. The out-of-office message is on. You’ve made it through the airport, boarded the ship, checked into the resort, or finally pulled away from home for that long-awaited road trip.
For the first time in weeks, maybe months, you can exhale.
That’s what travel should feel like. But getting to that moment takes a little preparation.
As a travel advisor, I spend a lot of time helping people decide where to go, where to stay, and what experiences they want to enjoy once they arrive. Just as important, though, are the steps travelers can take before leaving home to protect themselves, their families, and the money they’ve invested in their vacation.
You can’t plan for everything. But you can help prevent a small problem from becoming a big one.
Start with the Boring Stuff
Nobody dreams about passport expiration dates.
We dream about Tuscany, Alaska, the Caribbean, or finally seeing Ireland. But before you get too far into planning an international trip, check your passport and understand the entry requirements for every country you’ll visit. I do my best to ask the right questions, but I can’t account for every situation, such as criminal records. Some countries have specific entry rules, and as the traveler, it is your responsibility to know whether you can legally enter. Not knowing can potentially cost you a lot of money.
Don’t assume that having a passport means you’re automatically ready to go. Depending on the destination, requirements may include passport validity, visas, entry authorizations, or available blank pages.
And don’t wait until the week before departure to figure it out.
The same goes for cruises. Documentation requirements can vary based on the itinerary, citizenship, and the traveler’s circumstances. What worked for your neighbor’s cruise may not apply to yours.
Know before you go.
Protect Your Investment
Vacations aren’t inexpensive.
Between airfare, hotels, cruises, tours, and activities, a family can have thousands of dollars invested before ever leaving the driveway.
That’s why travel protection deserves more consideration than simply clicking “yes” or “no” during checkout.
Different policies cover different things. Trip cancellation, interruption, medical emergencies, evacuation, delays, and lost baggage may all be handled differently depending on the policy. Booking coverage within 14 days of your initial deposit, or when you pay in full, can be important. It may determine whether Cancel for Any Reason coverage is available.
The important thing is understanding what you’re buying. Ask for a copy of the policy. I automatically send these to my travelers when they purchase coverage.
Insurance isn’t especially exciting when everything goes according to plan.
It becomes very important when it doesn’t.
Don’t Keep Everything in One Place
Your wallet gets stolen.
That’s bad.
Your wallet contains your driver’s license, every credit card you brought, and all your cash.
That’s considerably worse.
Travel with more than one way to access money, and keep those options in separate places. The same principle applies to important documents.
Keep secure copies of passports, travel protection information, emergency contacts, and key reservation details somewhere you can access if the originals are lost.
A little redundancy can be a beautiful thing when you’re several thousand miles from home.
Your Phone Is Part of Your Luggage
We protect our suitcases but sometimes forget that one of the most valuable things we carry is in our pocket.
Our phones can contain email, banking information, credit cards, travel itineraries, photographs, passwords, and access to personal accounts.
Use a strong passcode and biometric security when available. Be cautious with public Wi-Fi, especially when accessing financial or other sensitive information.
And be careful with QR codes, text messages, and emails offering travel deals or claiming there is suddenly a problem with your reservation.
Travelers are attractive targets for scammers because we are often distracted, moving quickly, and expecting messages about flights, hotels, and reservations.
If something looks suspicious, don’t use the link in the message. Go directly to the airline, hotel, cruise line, or travel company through a trusted source.
Be Careful What You Tell the World
We all love vacation pictures.
But there’s a difference between sharing your vacation and announcing to the entire internet that your house will be empty for the next ten days.
Consider waiting to post some photos until you return, especially if your social media accounts are public.
Business owners should take this a step further.
If you’re traveling, make sure someone knows how to handle urgent situations at the business. Be especially careful when accessing company systems from public networks, and think twice before announcing that the person who normally handles financial transactions or approvals is out of the country.
That information can be more useful to a criminal than you might think.
Have a Plan for When the Plan Changes
I’m a big believer in having a contingency plan—and a backup for that backup.
Flights get canceled. Weather happens. People get sick.
Luggage occasionally chooses a completely different vacation than its owner.
Before you travel, know who you’ll call if something goes wrong.
Keep important medications and necessities in your carry-on instead of checked luggage. Have contact information for your airline, cruise line, tour company, travel protection provider, and travel advisor readily available.
If you’re traveling internationally, it’s also worth knowing how to contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate in an emergency. Consider enrolling in STEP, the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. It lets travelers register their trip so the embassy can share important safety information and assist during emergencies. I use it whenever I travel outside the country, and it’s very simple to use. I also use FlightAware to stay updated on specific flight status, delays, departure and arrival times, gates, and aircraft tracking.
You don’t need to spend your vacation expecting something to go wrong.
You just need to know what you’ll do if it does.
Be Smart About What You Book
That amazing excursion you found online for half the price of everyone else?
It might be an incredible deal.
Or there may be a reason it costs half as much.
Research tour operators and excursion providers before handing over your money or getting into someone’s vehicle in an unfamiliar destination. Understand cancellation policies, transportation arrangements, and what happens if the activity runs late.
Cruise travelers in particular should understand the difference between excursions purchased through the cruise line and independent excursions, including who is responsible for getting you back to the ship on time.
Saving a few dollars isn’t much of a bargain if you end up watching your ship sail away without you.
Give Yourself Permission to Enjoy the Trip
Travel safety shouldn’t be about being afraid.
Quite the opposite.
Preparation gives you the freedom to relax.
Check the documents. Protect the money. Understand the insurance. Secure the phone. Have an emergency plan. Work with reputable companies, and ask questions when you don’t understand something.
Then go.
Try the food.
Talk to the locals.
Take too many pictures.
Sit somewhere beautiful and do absolutely nothing for a while.
Travel has an incredible ability to reconnect us—with the people we love, the world around us, and sometimes ourselves.
A little preparation helps protect that experience.
At Travel Hounds Travel Advisors, we have a simple phrase that sums up how we approach travel:
Honor the Journey. Protect the Pack. Your Pack.
That doesn’t mean worrying about everything that could possibly go wrong.
It means taking care of the important things before you leave so that once the journey begins, you can focus on the reason you traveled in the first place.
Making memories.
