The one area of my work that I enjoy the most is Travel Management. It probably stems from my educational background in Travel & Tourism, along with my huge passion for anything travel related!
I’ve travelled extensively over the years; living and working in different countries, and from those experiences, along with my education, means I can offer sound travel advice, expert guidance, and detailed information tailored to each clients’ individual needs.
With the growing number of online travel research tools, it’s possible for Virtual Assistants to source fantastic deals on flights, accommodation, car hire, transfers, and activities that at one stage only a travel agent could have obtained.
So here are 5 reasons why you should use a VA for your travel needs:
1. Less hassle.
Whether it’s a business trip or leisure trip, there are often numerous separate entities that will need to be thought of and organised. Such as airport transfers, flights, car hire, accommodation, restaurant bookings, insurance, activities, and not to mention preference of seats, type of car hire, location of hotel room etc …
By handing all that organisation over to a VA, you can relax, get on with your own work, and simply wait for the options to pop into your inbox.
2. Have a choice.
Travel research takes time. To do it yourself, slotted in amongst all your other daily tasks, will probably mean you’ll get frustrated quickly and settle for anything to get it over and done with.
A Virtual Assistant can take away all that frustration, tackle the research and provide you with a comprehensive outline of all the options. These will be within the budget you specified, the time-frame needed, and will probably have all that extra information that you didn’t even consider such as insurance, visas, time differences etc. All you then have to do is choose which one suits your needs best.
3. Get the best deal.
With so many online travel companies competing for business, it’s easy to compare prices and ensure that you get the very best deals available. If there’s even the slightest possibility that the price could be beaten elsewhere, a VA can pick up the phone and negotiate with companies on your behalf, whilst you get on with running your business.
4. Can React Quickly.
If a business meeting gets re-scheduled, or the family holiday needs to be postponed, it can be extremely time consuming dealing with each operator to make changes or cancellations, not to mention making sure you get money back when possible. A quick email or phone call to your VA to re-arrange on your behalf will get it over and done within a matter of minutes.
5. Create itineraries.
What my clients often say is one of the best things about using me to arrange their travel, is the full itinerary I put together before they head off. It outlines their travel plans from leaving home to returning home, however many days or weeks later.
This itinerary will generally include transfer pick up and drop off times, flight times including departure and arrival terminals, accommodation details including address, telephone number, check in and checkout times, booking reference numbers, and in case there are problems whilst they’re away, I provide a list of important contact telephone numbers that can be referred to immediately.
So whether you travel a lot on business, or just want help and advice with your personal travel, use a Virtual Assistant to not only make the whole experience much more stress-free, but to get a wider range of options that you maybe wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Great post Sarah, I have yet to organise travel plans for a client but I used to do this in a previous job… to be honest it wasn’t my favourite task! I think it’s a brilliant task to outsource to a VA though, saving all that research time.
Thanks Jo! And now you know where you can come when those travel requests do come through – if you don’t want to deal with them that is:)