Business travel is on the rise. The Global Business Travel Association predicts companies will spend $268.5 billion this year on travel in the U.S. alone, according to an article on Entrepreneur.com. At the same time, mobile apps, smartphones and tablets are helping frequent travelers streamline travel plans as well as travel expense management.

Here are five ways mobile apps can make life easier for the frequent traveler.

  1. Staying organized with online expense reporting. Instead of waiting until the end of a business trip, mobile expense tracker apps make it easy to enter expenses as you go. 
  2. Hailing a taxi. The free Hailo app allows you to summon a taxi to your current GPS location and pay your fare at the press of a button. The service works in five major cities, including Boston and Chicago.
  3. Using public transit in a new city. The HopStop app provides public transit maps and service updates for 600 cities in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
  4. Getting the most out of airports. If you’re spending a lot of time in airports, TravelNerd can help you with details like flight updates, terminal maps, Wi-Fi and restaurant coupons.
  5. Finding a good seat. Whether you have long legs or need to be able to recline, the right seat on the plane makes a world of difference. SeatGuru offers hundreds of seating maps and photos plus user tips to help you find extra leg room.

With business travel and spending on the rise, it just makes sense to take advantage of mobile tools that offer increased comfort and efficiency for frequent travelers. Combined with the best expense report software, these mobile apps make good business sense.

We’d like to hear your suggestions. What mobile apps would you recommend for people working on the go? Share your recommendations in the comments section below!

Subscribe

Our choice of Chrome River EXPENSE was made in part due to the very user-friendly interface, easy configurability, and the clear commitment to impactful customer service – all aspects in which Chrome River was the clear winner. While Chrome River is not as large as some of the other vendors we considered, we found that to be a benefit and our due diligence showed that it could support us as well as any large players in the space, along with a personalized level of customer care. Sally Abella, Director of Corporate Travel Harman International
We are excited to be able to enforce much more stringent compliance to our expense guidelines and significantly enhance our expense reporting and analytics. By automating these processes, we will be able to free up AP time formerly spent on manual administrative tasks, and enhance the role by being much more strategic. Ben Zastrow Zelle