As “road warrior,” I decided today that I would share some travel tricks of the trade and wanted to blog about them.  I was talking to someone this morning about getting to the airport, and realized that infrequent travelers might not know the insides.  I hope my tips help you prepare for your next trade show or out-of-town event.

HOTELS: When booking hotels, most hotels when booked directly with the property offer a decent cancellation policy, up to 24 hours before check-in.  Many of the frequent traveler programs available nowadays offer great opportunities for points.  Lately, a lot of these programs have extra promotions.  For example, Hilton offer the Hilton Honors program (http://hhonors3.hilton.com/en/index.html), which includes “Base Points” and sometimes promotional program – where you can obtain double points or even triple points for each stay.  Marriott Rewards (https://www.marriott.com/rewards/createAccount/createAccountPage1.mi?segmentId=elite.nonrewards) offers a roll-over of nights to help guests reach the next service level.  So if you stay in a Marriott 11 nights in 2012, these will rollover into 2013 and will help you get to “Silver” or “Gold” status faster during that following year.

Most trade shows will offer a Hotel Booking agency through which you can select room blocks.  Please note that you will still be eligible for points during these stays.  Make sure you share your rewards card number with the front desk as check in just to make sure you get your credit! The points can add up quickly.

Book early to save money on flights!

FLIGHTS:   Flights!!!  This is usually the most painful part.  It’s tough to predict the best day to book your flight – but try to book on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, as prices tend to be lower mid-week.  The theory is that people are searching for flights on Mondays, when they don’t want to be at work, and on Fridays/weekends, when people are ready for the weekend!  Try to book on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Also, www.kayak.com is a fantastic search engine to use for searching multiple airline sites at the same time.

GETTING TO THE AIRPORT: If your city offers a Park ‘N Fly, http://www.pnf.com, this is a GREAT place to park your car while you are out-of-town.  Park ‘N’Fly offers a Frequent Parker Club, where you can register and log-in to collect points for days parked.  For every 8 days parked, you will receive a free parking day at the facility.  The service in Fort Lauderdale is great – and the shuttles will drop you right off at your door.  Plus, when you return, they’ll pick you up, so you don’t have to remember where you parked your car.

I could go on and on, but figured this would be a good place to start.  May your next trip be smooth – and safe!  For any questions, please contact Betsy at Betsy@EventDrivenSolutions.com.