Trips for More Budget Conscious Business Trips

When big business and big business professionals have to travel, they generally are not concerned with the costs associated with it. For some small businesses, travel is a must, but they often do not have the budget dollars to spend willy-nilly on fancy hotels or unnecessary stays. If traveling is an important part of keeping your business running, but you do not necessarily have the funds, here are some tips that can allow you to travel when needed without breaking the business’ bank.

Make the Most of Your Rewards Miles or Points

Many major credit cards offer frequent flyer miles or travel points for their customers. Although these are great, and small businesses generally earn a lot of miles, it can sometimes be hard to use them. Airlines often ask for a ridiculous amount of miles when booking flights and will sometimes not allow rewards members to use their miles on the flights they want. Hotels are the same way – it takes a large number of rewards points to even get one free night when clients spend a lot to earn them.

One way to make the most out of these rewards is to use services like AwardWallet.com or Traxo.com – these services request access to your loyalty accounts and will alert you to any deals or special offers hotels and airlines may be having. Additionally, they will also let you know when your miles or reward points are expiring so you can work to use them before they are done. While this is a great way to leverage your rewards, remember that these sites may not work with all airlines and hotels.

Shop Smart for Rental Cars

Often, hotels and airline flights will need to be paid upfront and making any changes to your reservations can often cost you extra money. One aspect of traveling that can be changed at any time is using a rental car. While you should still reserve your car when making your initial travel plans, there is nothing stopping you from “re-shopping” the rental car prices right before you take a trip. Often, this will result in finding a lower rental rate and making the reservation change costs you nothing.

Get Corporate Hotel Rates

Many larger companies work out deals with hotel chains – the company makes the hotel chain their preferred hotel for all travel and the hotel offers them a discounted rate. Often, smaller businesses do not travel enough to be able to secure these types of rates… Or can they? Services such as QuikBook.com allow small businesses access to the same discounts as larger corporations.

QuikBook.com is a major player in the hotel game in popular markets such as New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and San Diego. The only downside to using QuikBook.com is that they use a “blind booking tool” – this means that you will not know what hotel you are staying in until you have paid a non-refundable fee. Although the uncertainty is unnerving, you will be able to book hotel rooms at a fraction of the cost you would be paying without using the service.

Stacy O’Quinn is a work from home professional helping new entrepreneurs develop their own opportunities to create a six-figure income. If you would like to see how Stacy can help you, click here.