Welcome to the StoneEffect
Your source for better business travel tips
Welcome to the StoneEffect. While the name is not intuitive, if you bear with me and read the next two paragraphs you will understand what this site is about and whether it can be helpful to you!!
My name is Dan and I am a consultant. This means that I travel as a part of my job. I fly out on Monday to whatever city I am working in that week, rent a car or take a cab/car service to the client, work until late that night, check into the hotel that will be my home away from home for the next couple of months…..rinse and repeat…..
Early in my career I put a lot of effort into learning how to maximize my comfort while traveling as well as my personal benefits, while staying within the firm’s expense policies. In speaking to my colleagues, however, I learn that a lot of consultants are not up to speed with all the ins and outs of this game. So I decided to post all the tips I have picked up during my work travels on the web for all to use. Every tip is based on my own experience and is not guaranteed to work for everyone, but has worked for me. If you have a different opinion/thought/experience, I encourage you to share it by clicking on the tip. You will be taken to a forum where you can post your own response. 
How this whole thing started
By way of background, I must tell you that this web site was inspired by my first out of town study -- a really terrible travel experience that left such a bad taste in my mouth that I vowed to either stop traveling completely or to learn how to get maximum benefits from the system. It all started when I got back from a two week vacation that I took to get married abroad. When I returned to New York an email was waiting for me in my in-box letting me know that I was staffed on an out of town study (my new wife was thrilled!). My first action was to call my manager to figure out where to go, how to get there, etc.
Expectation: I expected to find someone who would take me under his wing, help me book travel for the first time….show me the ins and outs of the airport….share a cab….sit together on the plane…..laugh, swap stories……..
Reality: My manager and I had a three sentence conversation.
Sentence one: Great to have you on the team. I just learned about this case 5 minutes ago.
Sentence two: 08:00 am Monday, 800 E US 86 in Nowhereville, IL team room 18D – BE THERE!
Sentence three: We are already behind schedule.
Well, I figured out how to book the travel, but it did not go very well.
I put this site together to help you avoide all the mistakes I had made and quickly find out all the "tricks" of business travel
- To see the most recent tips check out the update section
- To share some of your tips click here
Reading the tips on this site will hopefully help you as much as they did me. If you find this site helpful please visit some of our sponsors to make sure we stay on the web.
Cheers,
Dan
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