Business accommodation is major player in the hospitality industry, businessman from all over the world look for top quality boutique hotels and guest houses. Johannesburg is the engine room of the South African economy and has many great accommodation venues available.

Traveling for work can be a stressful experience, since there are usually deadlines and planned meetings organised and you need to get there on time. The business trip can be last minute which then requires the business traveler to spare no expense, as many business deals involve lots of money that the company should not miss out on because of travel expense issues.

In the article below, Tim Roseland discusses the best way to plan a business trip on short notice and how to go about it. Use the navigation link to view various articles on Business accommodation on CBN's website as well as other business related articles.  


Business Travel on Short Notice
Author: Tim Roseland

In any travel situation, the further in advance you can plan your trip, the better you will do on all of your accommodations.  But in the world of business, it often occurs that you have to get to a destination immediately, and the ability to move swiftly is critical to the success of the business goal.  The good news is that you can do some preparations well in advance for short notice business trips so you are not caught completely without a plan. You don’t want to have to waste time trying to figure out how to book a flight and where to stay if a business trip comes up suddenly.   Short notice business trips seem to be endemic of certain industries and job descriptions. If you know you will go through this drill often, you can make some arrangements far in advance so you have a checklist of just what to do.

First of all, in a short notice travel situation, economy takes a second priority.  Your employer knows that if you have to book full fare on an airline to get to your destination at a specific time, the higher expense is unavoidable.  Make sure that your company travel policy has some clauses to put aside travel budget limits in such a scenario.

The part of the trip where you will have the least “wiggle room” will be airline accommodations.  Of course, you can use the big internet search tools like Travelocity, Orbitz or myroadtotravel.  In general, those are good places to start to find what airlines do have flights at your specified times.  But once you pick an airline, working through the airline’s web site directly will show you the most options they can offer and sometimes provide you with better fares, even on short notice.   Be sure you watch the travel details closely so you don’t find yourself enduring long layovers that are going to jeopardize the tight timetable of the business meetings you need to attend.  If necessary, spend the money on nonstop flights to assure that the business goal of the trip is top priority.

Do your homework about hotel accommodations well in advance.  If there are likely destinations that you could be called upon to go to quickly, you can do your research on the closest hotels to the business site so you cut down on commutes once you are there.  By having your target hotels bookmarked and the phone numbers on file, you can quickly call and set up your accommodations in a matter of minutes.  But if you find that your best choices for hotels are booked up on the days you will be at your site, call them anyway.  A good hotel will call around to other hotels in the area and get you a room as close to your destination as possible.  They can save you hours of frustration searching for a replacement room.

Rental cars are usually not as much of a problem.  It’s a good idea to call ahead and get a reservation, but short of a major convention or sporting event in town, there are so many rental car agencies that you should be able to find a car to rent even if you don’t start your search until you are on the ground at your destination city.

You can make other preparations for the possibility of a short notice business trip like having your toiletries and personal affects you always travel with packed and ready to walk out the door.  By having your travel clothes ready to go, you can virtually walk home and walk out the door in a matter of minutes. Business trips on short notice are sometimes unavoidable. Using the above tips will assist you in making your accommodations quickly and efficiently, and take the stress out of business trips on the fly.