This week’s post title may sound odd coming from an organization dedicated to excellence. In the real world we know that business travel is a hard, punishing and often disappointing experience. For each pleasant lunch and easy transfer, there’s more than a few noisy, dirty or otherwise unacceptable hotels. This post aims to see you safe in the world of business travel, arming you with the knowledge that you need to avoid the horrors and get the job done.
Go with what you know
If you have visited a destination and been content, it may be worth adopting a ‘better to know than not to know" attitude. You know what to expect and it will be acceptable. This is also mostly true for hotel chains; that have strict standard operation instructions to enforce uniformity of standards. If this is not possible you need to look wide…
“Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them”
Santayana may have been talking about grander things than checking out acceptable hotel rooms but his wisdom shows us the way. If we can find out who has genuinely had a good experience and who has not with a particular provider of business travel, we are well on the way to our acceptable experience.
The problem is that this is not easy. Most travel oriented websites may have some genuine feedback but it is equally plausible that it’s hyperbole from the provider itself or deliberate disinformation from competitors.
What to do?
The oldest and best way of finding something out is to ask someone you trust who has been there before. This someone needs to have no interest in the providers. This only works if you know someone well enough and trust their unbiased opinion; although, your travel department may be able to put you in touch…
After that, unfortunately you need to look for recommendations from travel review websites. But be aware of the following points: Take averages; you need to rely on what many people have said and average it out to get a fair idea. Read the mediocre reviews; 5 and 1 star reviews are normally single issue reviews, look for the people who had an O.K. time – they’re also more likely to be genuine. Avoid obviously scripted reviews – these are easy to spot, with lots of punctuation (awesome!!!!).
While we can’t offer you any sort of assurance that your whole business trip will be acceptable, Pontarelli Transportation can guarantee you world class ground transportation to support your travel. Based in Chicago and offering services in our home city and, through our affiliates, across the world, we strive to offer nothing but the best quality of service for our many treasured clients. We can offer options for all budgets and occasions so call us today on 800-322-5466 to see if we can give you a better deal.
