Booking flights

Happily, booking a last minute flight is a whole lot easier these days – it's really just a case of hopping on the internet and browsing one of the many flight aggregators. A site like Cheap Flights, for instance, makes finding the right flight a pretty straightforward process and because it allows you to compare numerous carriers you should also be able to track down the best deal.

Booking the hotel

Again, this is something that has become a lot easier in the internet age. It's obviously quite important, particularly if you're travelling with colleagues, that you don't inadvertently book rooms in a hotel that turns out to be a complete dive, so check out sites like Tripadvisor to see impartial hotel reviews.

Booking the right hotel pretty much comes down to common sense; business travellers will generally want something comfortable with good basic amenities, but palatial luxury might be deemed unnecessarily expensive. A key factor will obviously be location – proximity to the venue of your meeting or the airport could be crucial in ensuring that the trip goes as smoothly as possible.

Renting a car

If you need to rent a car then it's likely that a major factor will be price; there are a few major car rental companies to choose from and if you‘re concerned about getting the best price you might want to compare quotes - whilst it's hard to recommend a particular rental company as consistently offering the best prices there can be fairly significant price disparities on individual rentals. The big car hire companies are Avis, Herz and Lastminute.com's entry into the car hire market: Holiday Autos. Look out for opportunities to save – if it's a service you're likely to use relatively frequently you might consider signing up as a regular customer, this should save a bit of money over time.