Great services for today’s business traveler

The modern business traveler has a lot of demands and little time to fulfill them all. Luckily, thanks to rapid advances in technology, business travelers can obtain most of the services they as and when they need them, thanks to a variety of apps designed specifically for them. Here’s a list of our favorite services for business travelers that can be had with just a few taps on their smartphones.

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Kayak hotel and flight bookings

Most business people’s travel dates are set in stone, which means there’s little point in scouring the web for the best possible deals. Instead, they just want the best possible price for the day they intend to travel, and Kayak is able to deliver exactly that.

Using Kayak, you can search for ticket prices on sites like Travelocity and Orbitz, and it also has its own special deals too. In other words, you’re guaranteed to find the best possible rates for the day you want to fly. Kayak organizes available flights in order, starting with the least expensive. It also states how many seats are available. The app is dead easy to use too, and flights can be booked directly in the app, so it’s a great tool for making last minute bookings while you’re in a cab on the way to the airport.

Hipmunk for hotels

There are many hotel search apps out there, but Hipmunk is perhaps the most useful for travelers thanks to its Tonight Only feature for last minute deals on lodgings. Hipmunk works with more than a dozen different providers, including Expedia, Airbnb and HomeAway to get the most competitive prices on last minute deals, some of which offer up to 60 percent off.

When using the Tonight Only feature, last minute deals can be sorted according to price, ratings, amenities and Hipmunk’s unique “ecstasy” filter, which ranks listings according to which hotels have the best balance of all three factors.

Blacklane for airport pickups

Ridesharing apps like Uber might be all the rage these days, but in some cities the service can still be a bit hit and miss, especially if you’re landing at the airport in the middle of rush hour chaos. With that in mind, the recently launched Blacklane service fills a niche in that it specifically targets business travelers looking for airport pickups and transfers. Simply download the app and you can even book your ride on the same day, so there’s no need to plan ahead. One of the best advantages of Blacklane is that your ride includes 15 minutes’ waiting time for standard pickups and 1 hour for airport pickups, so you won’t be charged for any delays. Even if your driver has arrived early, your included waiting time starts from the time you booked your ride.

PassBook for boarding flights

A surprisingly underused feature of the iPhone is PassBook, an app which saves information about hotel bookings and boarding passes you book with other apps. Simply hit “Find apps for Passbook” and you’ll quickly retrieve all your latest bookings, so all you need to do is show them at check in time.

For Android users, PassWallet provides a similar service and can be downloaded from Google Play.

Scannable for scanning documents on the go

Rather than struggling for ages to take a clear photo with your phone, Scannable uses special software to adjust the contrast levels of whatever document you’re trying to scan. It then scans the document, straightens things out and alters the image so you’re left with a very professional-looking document. All you have to do is point it in the general direction of the document you want to scan and press click, and the app does the rest for you. It’s also possible to scan multiple pages and format them into a single PDF.