If you’re a frequent business traveller, you know all about the drama of lost itineraries, misplaced tickets, and missed flights, as well as the headache of finding your way around a strange town, let alone trying to find somewhere decent to eat! If only business trips were more enjoyable…
Relax – there’s an app for that.
Here are six of the best travel apps for intrepid business travellers…
SIMPLY DECLARE
Want to keep the finance director happy? Simply Declare can keep track of your travel expenses against your budget. Put in your spending limit (or the amount you can declare at customs if you’re travelling internationally), and as you make purchases, enter the amounts to keep tabs on what you’re spending.
The app will convert foreign currency, so you know exactly what you’re spending before you buy. You can also save images of your receipts into a document – emailing a list of expenses plus receipts is sure to win you brownie points with Accounts!
Simply Declare works on iOS (iPhones and iPads) >>
TRIPIT
Not sure where you’re going or what you’re doing next? The hardest thing about going on a business trip is not having your personal assistant with you to sort things out! Enter Tripit, an itinerary app that will save you phoning her every five minutes. Tripit turns all your flight, hotel, and rental car confirmation emails into a handy travel itinerary – all you have to do is press forward on those emails!
That’s right, you just forward all your travel documents to plans@tripit.com and this smart app automatically builds you an itinerary which you can access from your smartphone or tablet. You can share your itinerary with colleagues and family, and receive mobile alerts about flight and meeting times. Tripit for Business is an enhanced version of Tripit offering business travellers useful extras like a shared company calendar, so you can see what the rest of your team is up to.
Tripit is available for Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows 7 smartphones >>
BLACKBERRY TRAVEL APP
Use your Blackberry to plan, book, manage and share your travel activities with Blackberry Travel App. Find hotels and car rental options, book taxies, and get notifications if your flight is cancelled – and you don’t even have to put all your trip details into the app – the automatic trip scanning feature does that for you.
Best of all, Blackberry Travel App is BBM-connected, which means you can share your travel plans with your BBM contacts or the entire BBM community.
Get Blackberry Travel App from Blackberry App World >>
ITRAVEL
iTravel is an iPhone/iPad app that acts as a virtual tour guide, with travel guides and street maps to help you get around unfamiliar cities. Coming soon – Passbook, an iTravel app add-on which Apple hopes will provide digital versions of boarding passes and live updates to these e-passes.
iTravel is designed for iPhone and iPad >>
WORLDMATE
Described as the world’s leading mobile travel app, WorldMate builds your business itinerary and puts it on your phone. Flights, hotels, car rentals, and more are synchronised with the WorldMate online travel planner and your calendar, making it easy to share with those who need to know.
Any changes to your travel plans are automatically reflected on the WorldMate website and on your smartphone. There’s also a smart hotel search, a maps and directions function, weather forecasts, currency converter, world clocks, and a built-in LinkedIn function – all of which keeps you organised and informed on the run.
WorldMate is available for Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows 7 smartphones >>
FOODSPOTTING
All that running around, networking, and wheeling and dealing works up an appetite! But when you’re in an unfamiliar place, finding a spot to grab a bite to eat can be challenging. To make the hunt for food easier, you need Foodspotting – a smartphone app that helps you discover what to eat and where.
You can explore who serves the food you like in a given neighbourhood by searching by dish, not by restaurant – so, if you like Tandoori chicken, Foodspotting will uncover all the eateries in a given neighbourhood which serve this Indian dish. All you have to do is choose one, based on which photo looks most appealing, and by checking out what other foodies think of it.
Foodspotting is available for iPhone, Blackberry and Android smartphones >>