Norm Stewart is director of sales and marketing for RWD Technologies.

We are a consulting company providing performance improvement to companies. We train engineers and technical people and operators to take the waste out of their systems.

I travel very frequently. I was only at home for 52 days from January through November, 2006. Most of my travel is international.

I stay at different hotels, sometimes chains, and sometimes small hotels that are inexpensive. For example, I stay in a small hotel that is near the Champs Elysees in Paris that is not very expensive.

We have local representatives in each country who set up the arrangements. They know the city, they know the traffic, and they know where we are going. This works out relatively well.

For the most part, these hotels are very comfortable and safe. Countries have gotten very careful about security now, so the hotels are at least safe. And the hotels are very customer-focused, so they pay a lot of attention to you.

Maybe it is the Scot in me, but the one thing that burns me up is having to pay access fees. It is $35 per day in Cairo. For the most part, in the U. S., access is free. But in Europe and the Middle East and Africa, they charge. In England, it is £15 a day, which is almost $28 per day. In France, there is a company that provides access service, and it is $25 or more per day.

I try not to use the hotel’s telephone service anywhere, because it is always so expensive. If I must, I use the Internet to make phone calls. There is no extra charge for the calls, once you are on the Internet.

Joel Tokash is national sales manager
for Dimensions.

We are in the craft business. We manufacture a number of crafting products – needlecrafts, kids’ crafts, paint-by-numbers, and a rubber stamp craft line.

We travel a fair amount, about 20 to 25 percent of the time. We are mainly dealing with retailers and calling on major accounts across the U.S. and Canada. We also have a group of independent reps.

We don’t have a corporate policy, but when we look for hotels, we tend to lean toward Marriott. We do this for the comfort and because Marriott tends to cater more to the business traveler.

Having free high-speed Internet in the room is always a plus. And it is nice to have a working area in the room. We are looking basically for the convenience of the place. Marriott also has a quick continental breakfast in the morning. They cater to business, so they have an express service that gets you in and out of the hotel quickly.

We are usually staying in or near major cities. A lot of times we are staying near the airport. Normally, we book on the Internet, and we are looking for a clean and comfortable room. Of course, we can end up in a lot of different places. When I cannot get Marriott, I try to make sure the hotel has a workout facility, which Marriott has.

We keep track of our expenses on a homegrown system. It is a pretty fair system. It is easy to use, but it is a little time-consuming, because you have to enter all the data. But I guess there is no way around that.

For air travel, we tend to lean toward US Airways, partly to bank the miles, and it usually goes where we need to go.

Michael Tims is a national account
manager for DHL.

We sell delivery services. I travel all the time to meet major clients. I try to see my top four customers in person every four to six weeks. I am in Philadelphia, and they are in Utah, Dallas, New York, and Canada.

For hotels, DHL has negotiated rates with certain organizations and they prefer that we use one of them. Within that group, we are supposed to choose the least expensive one. I tend to stay in Marriott. One reason is that I have the most points with them.

The most important thing about a hotel is that it is clean. We also want business services, interactive high-speed Internet, faxing, and the ability to do a conference call from the room. It is convenient to have a continental breakfast, and Marriott’s Fairfield Inn has a good one, but
it is not all that important.

I like to stay near the airport if possible. It would be great if all the hotels had free high-speed Internet and wireless, but overall I am
satisfied with the hotels.

For air, I tend to use US Airways, because they usually have direct routes to where I am going, and I have the most miles on them. But when I go to Utah, I take Delta.

We can book either online or through our corporate travel office with an internal email system. I am on the road so much that I would rather do it through the travel office than sit in front of a Website.

In order to use your travel time wisely and minimize windshield time, you have to plan travel properly. That means getting to the airport either early in the morning or late at night, so you are not flying three hours in the middle of the work day. To touch all your customers, you have to plan it out.

We report our expenses online and it is pretty easy. I do not use airline airport lounges frequently. I try to plan my trips so that I am in and out quickly. But when you are on a long layover, the lounges are nice to have.

You can’t predict when an airline delay or cancellation will occur, so you have to prepare to use your time wisely when it happens. That means always having a to-do list; then you can call one of your current customers, rather than sitting around.

Sam Stimmel is director of Profile Golf for Profile Products.

We manufacture products that are used to maintain golf courses and other athletic fields. I like to say, I play for a living. But you have to go to it, it does not come to you. I spend about 140 to 160 overnights on business travel each year, and most of my sales staff does the same. I have spent up to 240 overnights in some years.

We have written travel policies and guidelines that we try to follow, but we also use common sense. We want to be as prompt and judicious with our time as we can be.

I do about 90 percent of my travel out of Pittsburg on US Airways, because they go where I need to go. And their fares have become much more reasonable in the last several years, especially since Southwest has come into the market.

But since 9/11, airlines have reduced the number of flights and daily options. It is getting harder to get to where I want to go. You used to have five or six options each day. Now, you have a morning flight and a mid-day flight and nothing after. So planning is very important.

Fortunately, I almost always know where I am going six to eight weeks in advance, at a minimum. That helps me schedule things. I go first for convenience, then for price.

For hotels, I do a lot at the Hilton chain. I am a member of every air, hotel, and rental car club. All I care about in a room is that it is clean and safe. I want to be able to walk out the front door at midnight and feel safe, not uneasy. It does not have to be a five-star hotel, since all the bedrooms and bathrooms start to look alike after awhile anyway.

We mostly book online ourselves now. The airlines took away the incentives for travel agents to do it. I used to have an agent, and I just told her I needed to be in this city by this time, and she would come back with a couple of options.

I have no problems with rental cars. I think the people who have problems are the ones who must book at the last minute for changing schedules. We often ask for rental cars with the new navigation aids, especially when we are in unfamiliar territories.

My travel advice? This may sound like a cliché, but it makes no sense to get angry or irate about an airline delay. I almost love it when the person in front of me is unreasonable with the ticket agent, because then I walk up and treat the agent with common courtesy, the same way any of us would like to be treated, and it makes their day. Plus, if there is a thunderstorm or snowstorm, I am very happy to keep my two feet on solid ground.

Moreover, now that we have wireless and cell phones and laptops, if you are stuck in an airport for eight hours, you can use the airline club and get some work done. Invest the $300 to $500 for a membership, and you can make it back in one day of being productive.

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