Post Link: 5 Top Travel Apps for Sales Reps

5 Top Travel Apps for Sales Reps

While traveling is second nature to many salespeople, the details that go into travel coordinationand logistics can be overwhelming and tedious. Luckily, there are some great apps that makeplanning and scheduling business travel more efficient and fun. These apps help you do thingslike book travel, organize your itineraries, secure rental cars, and to be well-prepared for theinevitable hiccups that will arise while you're away.

For travel apps to be useful to sales reps, they should include features like:

Route-Planning - When you arrive in an unknown city - you need to learn your way around,quickly. A great travel app lets you learn the lay of the land (and traffic) before you even startyour car.

Transportation Booking- Whether renting cars or booking or modifying a flight, travel appsshould simplify the booking process.

Scheduling - You're likely managing multiple appointments a day, so it's critical that your travelapp pulls in your calendar so you can view and modify appointments.

Great travel apps often include these nice-to-haves:

- Weather updates

- Parking recommendations- Expense tracking (check out more options here)- Traffic updates- Team communication capabilities

With that in mind, here are some must-try travel apps for sales reps that will help you book andorganize travel and keep you on track when you're on the road.

5 Top Travel Apps for Sales Reps

1. TripIt (iOS, Android, Blackberry)

TripIt, the all-in-one travel organizer, aggregates all of your travel information into one, easy touse, interface. Available both online and offline, TripIt has an simple system: you forward themyour travel email confirmations and they display it back to you as an itinerary in the app.

TripIt has a free and Pro (paid) version, as well as the newly launched Trip it for Teams fortravel coordination amongst multiple employees.

Pros:

TripIt wants to make the process of traveling as organized as possible. In order to do this itstop features include:

- Aggregated travel schedule- Weather updates- Confirmation numbers for all legs of a trip- Itinerary sharing with others

Cons:

Although the free version is great for getting organized, a lot of the best features of TripIt comeat a cost ($49/year). TripIt's Pro version includes flight status and gate notifications,rescheduling functionality, and trip recommendations. TripIt for teams build on top of the Profeatures and includes an Admin dashboard that gives visibility across your teams' travelschedules.

Also, TripIt might not be as useful to you if you only travel by car.

2. Mynd (iOS)

Mynd is an adaptive calendar app that keeps you on top of your travel schedule. This “smart”app is able to look at current traffic schedules and notify you when it’s time to leave for yournext meeting, opening your favorite navigation app to help you get there.

Pros:

Mynd is more than just a mobile calendar. It works to simplify each of the experiences in yourday. It includes:

- Driving times and recommended estimated departure times- Easy access to Evernote files as you enter meetings- Meeting scheduler that easily finds overlapping times across different contacts' schedules- Contact aggregator using LinkedIn and your address book- Auto-dialing to conference calls

Cons:

Mynd does not notify a user if a new event is added to your calendar, so, if you use Mynd tokeep you organized be sure to glance at a full day’s schedule - you don’t want to be surprisedby a meeting you didn’t plan on.

Also, Mynd relies on you to keep their schedule, contact list, and LinkedIn connections up todate. It can’t pull information that you don’t have.

3. Silvercar (iOS & Android)

Silvercar simplifies what most business travelers consider an annoying part of travel: car rental.Their tagline is "Car rental that doesn't suck."

For $89/day on weekdays and $59/day on weekends, Silvercar lets you reserve an Audi A4 thatis delivered to you via valet when you arrive in an airport. You use the app to unlock the car,and then when you return the car there’s no waiting to be checked in - the in-car technologychecks in and records fuel usage.

Pros: Silvercar lets you check in and out without having to wait in line. You pick your own car,and everything is the same regardless of location so your comfortable with your ride and candepend on a consistent experience. And let's face it, an A4 is sexier than your average carrental options.

Cons: Silvercar is only available in 6 cities (Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Miami, San Francisco, LosAngeles) but will be expanding soon. It's also obviously a pretty narrowly focused app - onetype of car, one service.

4. Hipmunk (iOS & Android)

Hipmunk is a flight and hotel booking app that strives to reduce aggravation associatedwith travel planning. In order to make things easier on the traveler, the app lets users sort by“agony” level which categorizes ease of use, including, for flights, things like the length of thetrip and the number of stops.

Adding a little flair to a travel experience, Hipmunk also features a “heat map” highlighting spotsclose to restaurants, shopping, and other fun activities.

Pros: Hipmunk’s user interface is really dynamic. They aggregate information from manydifferent travel sources making sure they give you all of the best deals. The uses then see

different charts based on their preferences outlining the best options for their travel needs andtake into account what travelers are looking for with their agony and ecstasy ratings.

Cons: Hipmunk does not let you sort based on adjacent airports or flexible travel times. Addingthis feature would minimize spending and travel times while maximizing the benefits of a roadwarriors trips.

5. Sales Navigator (iOS)

We've reviewed Sales Navigator previously as part of our Best Calendar Apps post last month,and we're bringing it back because of its great route planning capabilities that are specificallycreated with sales reps in mind.

Pros: Sales Navigator's route mapping function provides a geospatial view of your customers,prospects, and daily sales schedule. It lets you map alternative routes to your destinations andmanage your time more effectively. It also integrates to Salesforce.

Cons: If you're a Road Warrior and your travel needs are mainly around driving in a definedterritory, this could work for you. However, if you travel by air or have any rental car needs,you'll definitely need to try another app. It's also only on iOS.

Hope you have some luck with some of the travel apps above. If you have some travel appsyou can't live without, let us know! Check out our posts on to-do list apps, calendar apps, andreceipt tracking apps for more recommendations.

Post originally located at: www.handshake.com/blog/top-travel-apps-sales-reps

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