If you travel a lot for business you might find yourself in new cities, countries or continents on a regular basis and it can be really disorientating, especially if you combine it with jet lag. There are hundreds of apps out there that claim to save you time, energy or money when you’re abroad but which are the apps every business traveller should have?
TripPay (iOS and Android)
We love this app because it solves a problem relatively niche problem that some business travellers encounter. You arrive at a hotel and the check-in staff ask for a copy of the credit card that made the booking. You’re on business so your companies travel provider has made the booking which means you now need to get hold of them to get a copy of the card sent over! TripPay is brilliant because you load up your hotel booking and it gives you an image of the front and back of the card used to make the booking, enabling you to quickly and easily present it at the hotel reception if needed! There are lots of other functions too including the ability to store images of hotel invoices to make sorting your expenses out easier. We’ve been using this app with a lot of our Corporate customers and we’ve been getting some great feedback from it.
LoungeBuddy (iOS and Android)
Whether it’s to have a shower, find somewhere peaceful to work or a treat before a special trip, using a lounge at the airport is a high priority for a lot of travellers. However, it can be hard to find out if there is a lounge you can use, what services it offers and whether it’s worth getting to the airport early for. The LoungeBuddy app aims to solve this issue. Its intuitive design encourages you to enter your trip details so it can tell you which lounge (if any) you are entitled to use with your ticket or airline status and which ones you can buy entry to (including the cost and easy payment option). It also gives each lounge a rating of Basic, Solid or Luxe based on reviews from customers and you can then add your own review and rating to help other travellers. The lounges offered are similar to the ones offered by Lounge Pass but also include some Lufthansa business lounges.
Google translate (iOS and Android)
It might seem like an obvious one and yes, the translations aren’t perfect but if you just need to get the gist of something, this app could be a lifesaver. They’ve added lots of new functionality since the original version, including the ability to translate images (hold your phone up to a street sign for example and it will translate it) and it will also translate text in a foreign language on any other apps on your phone, so if a colleague messages you in their local language, you can quickly see what the translation is.
XE currency converter (iOS and Android)
I don’t need to say a huge amount on this one – live exchange rates in an easy to use app. Bingo.
AwardWallet (iOS and Android)
When you are travelling between different countries, using different hotel groups, different car hire companies and different airlines, you can become a member of a lot of loyalty schemes and it can be hard to keep up with them all. AwardWallet is our pick of the digital loyalty trackers out there. You can view your frequent flyer miles, hotel and credit card points all in one place, plus you can check your balance at any time, even if you’re connected to the internet.
FlightAware Flight Tracker (iOS and Android)
Getting live updates on your flight can give you peace of mind as well as ensure you manage your time as effectively as possible. FlightAware allows you to track your flight and updates you if there are any delays or changes to arrival or departure.
WiFi Map (iOS and Android)
If you rely on Wi-Fi when you are travelling you’ll know it can be a bit of a pain working out where to find it and how much it’s going to cost.WiFi Map is an app that helps travellers locate free Wi-Fi spots in their area. Hotspot locations are crowdsourced by a community of users who report new spots, rate the internet quality and even list the password. The app claims to contain the location of more than 100,000,000 Wi-Fi hotspots all across the world.
