Top 10 business travel apps

Air travel

For those who regularly need to travel for work, so many of the old frustrations of flying overseas, staying in unfamiliar cities or countries and dealing with different currencies have been all but erased by smartphones.

So many apps now promise to make travelling easier and hassle-free, from tracking your expenses to finding the cheapest hotels and flights, making your phone the most essential item in your suitcase.

But choosing the best of the bunch can be difficult, so here's our list of 10 of the best apps to download before you travel.

Booking.com Hotel Reservations Worldwide & Hotel Deals

URL: http://www.booking.com/

Price: Free

There are plenty of hotel booking apps out there, all promising to make your stay the easiest and most convenient it can be, but Booking.com's offering is the perfect travel companion for choice as well as price, with lots of filters for specifications like Wi-Fi, parking and location that make it much easier to find the best hotel for your specific trip.

There's a choice between hotels, apartments, villas, hostels and B&Bs in more than 67,000 places around the world, depending on your requirements, and you can often get some nice exclusive deals not found elsewhere.

Why is this app so good for business travel? When travelling for work, finding a suitable place to lay your head at night can feel like one hassle too many, so it's a good idea to get an app that does a lot of the leg work for you before you get there. If you're paying for accommodation yourself, then those deals will also be helpful.

Expensify Expense Reports, Receipts, Mileage, Time Entry, Travel

URL: https://www.expensify.com/

Price: Free

With so much usually going on while you're away for work, it can be difficult to keep track of what you're spending and on what. The trouble is, your company likely wants a detailed breakdown of where your money is going while you're out there, and Expensify is designed to make that much easier.

You can record receipts to avoid the problem of losing them, automatically inputting them into expense reports that can then be passed on to your boss once you're home.

Why is this app so good for business travel? Anything that makes your life easier while away on business is no doubt quite welcome, and this app is the perfect way of both tracking expenses and recording time you might have worked. It reduces the likelihood of error, and can't be lost nearly as easily as paper copies.

Caroline Preece

Caroline has been writing about technology for more than a decade, switching between consumer smart home news and reviews and in-depth B2B industry coverage. In addition to her work for IT Pro and Cloud Pro, she has contributed to a number of titles including Expert Reviews, TechRadar, The Week and many more. She is currently the smart home editor across Future Publishing's homes titles.

You can get in touch with Caroline via email at caroline.preece@futurenet.com.