The 15 best apps for business travel (2019)

• Corporate Traveller - Serko: Corporate Traveller’s mobile app for booking and managing your whole travel itinerary including domestic and trans-Tasman flights and hotels.
• Savi: Corporate Traveller’s revolution in online booking, the platform streamlines business travel for staff and their managers with state-of-the-art, intelligent customisation functionality.
• Conichi: a global network of business hotels with a fully digital arrival and departure process for a modern, secure and seamless stay
• Maps.Me: a mobile app providing offline maps, so no matter where you are in the world, you’ll be able to find your way
• Google Translate: instantly translate words, phrases and webpages from English into 100 other languages.
• XE Currency: keep track of live currency rates.
• Google Drive: cloud-based storage so you can access and update your business files from anywhere in the world
• WiFi Map: a crowd-sourced tool for finding all the Wi-Fi hotspots in your area
• Citymapper: a great tool for those who need to use public transport while travelling. This app searches through all available transport options to get you from A to B as quickly as possible.
• The Weather Channel: don’t get caught in the rain with this daily international weather app.
• Yelp: online directory for discovering local businesses – bars, restaurants and cafés, as well as petrol stations, supermarkets and doctors.

The digital age is pushing the boundaries of business travel – and the future is exciting!

Over the next decade, travel technology will move forward by leaps and bounds, dramatically changing the landscape of corporate business travel. And there are lots of different ways you can use technology now to simplify and better manage your company’s business travel.

If you’re not already using a flight app – you should be. Gone are the days of trawling the internet in search of affordable flights, printing out paper itineraries or waiting in line for an hour to check in.

When planning and managing business travel, you can use flight apps to manage itineraries, check in online, update seat and food preferences, and house copies of important documents like your passport and emergency contact details. These apps reduce the risk of human error, and make managing flight details a breeze.

For New Zealand business travellers, Air New Zealand’s mobile app is a great place to start. You can keep track of your Airpoints balance and Koru lounge membership, and manage any upcoming flights in one easy-to-access place on your mobile. You’ll be notified of any flight delays or cancellations and you can add a payment card or scan your passport too.

Now that you’ve ticked off flights, and once you’ve found suitable accommodation, hotels the world over are starting to realise how they can better service business travellers – and they’re using technology to do it. 

For features that save on time, like express check-in, keyless access and mobile check-out, look no further than Conichi. The app uses beacon technology, currently available at 400+ Smart hotels internationally – and counting. Using the app, you can send your details to your hotel prior to your stay, including information the hotel requires to fill out any registration forms. On arrival, your business traveller will be recognised immediately and can walk straight in, completely bypassing reception.

One of the most time-consuming tasks of business travel is expense management. It might be your company’s policy to reimburse staff travellers for their expenses after they return, or they might have a strict budget they must stick to.

It’s important, for financial reporting as well as for the sanity of your traveller, that you have a clear and efficient way of recording, managing and reporting on business travel expenses. If there’s one area that technology can streamline and enable better business decisions for New Zealand business travellers, it’s travel expense management.

Expense-tracker apps will automate the entire expense management process, from setting a trip budget and tracking expenses, right through to submitting a claim and analysing expense data. Some of these apps can directly import data from personal and business credit cards so no expense is overlooked.

Serko Expenses is a top-of-the-line business travel tool for smarter expense management. Say goodbye to the monthly grind of claims and reconciliation, the solution provides ‘always on’ expense management, automated reconciliation of corporate card transactions and receipts, and AI receipt processing.

Concur Expenses is another travel expense app. You can capture transaction data, snap a photo of receipts, and submit expense reports. Managers can quickly review and approve expenses and the app will automatically populate expense reports with electronic receipts from airlines, hotel bookings, restaurants and transport.