All of the tips given here so far are excellent! I believe that some tips may help more than others depending on your work/travel patterns. IE, are you going to be traveling to the same exact customer and location every week or to a different customer in an entire different city? Will you be traveling in on Sunday out on Friday or taking multiple flights during the week? These are all important factors to consider.

Tips for same place every week:

1. Pick a hotel and "live" there. Become friends with the GM. Believe me, once you've stayed in the same place for a month straight and made friends with the staff, your official status won't matter, you'll get plenty of perks! I'm still good friends with the GM of a Homewood I lived at for most of 2007!

1a. If they do a great job, help bring them more business. tripadvisor reviews, word of mouth referrals, other consultants from your firm, etc.

2. Get a hotel with a kitchen. Just my personal opinion. I believe you'll get very tired of eating out all the time; I know I sure did. Now for me it's Homewood, Staybridge, or Summerfield wherever I go.

3. Do the exact same thing with rental car staff, especially if it's at a smaller airport. Upgrades, etc. will be yours without asking. I personally prefer National so I can choose my own car, but that's just me.

4. Check your company's travel policy about the possibility of staying at the location over the weekend rather than flying back home. It's often cheaper to do this, and less hassle. Yes, I know it's sacriligious to not get the miles, but you will be getting more hotel points and rental car credits.


If you're traveling to new places often:

1. Concentrate hotel stays on the chains that will enable you to get elite status by number of stays, not just nights. IE, don't stay at Marriott.

2. Same goes for rental cars. Status is very important with this kind of travel since you probably won't be able to develop relationships with the staff.


Generic Tips no matter what your travel patterns:

1. You've already mentioned the portable power strip. I'll add portable wireless router and ethernet cable to that list. I've often found that if wireless service at a hotel is slow, I can speed it up tremendously just by plugging in an ethernet cable. No idea why, but it seems to work. A universal power supply is great too.

2. Concentrate your flying in 1 Alliance and stick to it. If price becomes an issue, remind your accountants that they need to include paying for baggage in programs where you don't have elite status. IE, if you're UA elite, you get free baggage on UA, CO, and US. So even if DL fare is $25 cheaper, it's still more expensive when baggage fees are included.

3. Find out if your customer (presuming they are larger than your company) has any pre-negotiated discount rates with hotels, car rentals, and even airlines. Use them to save money. They will appreciate it, and it may help you appear like a team player.

4. Consider joining an airline club. It will be invaluable during IRROPS, and it's much more relaxing. See if your company will pay for it. You never know...


And most importantly, ENJOY YOURSELF! Take this wonderful opportunity you have to see the world (or at least a lot of the USA) and have fun with it! Don't just camp out in your hotel room. Get out and live it up! Take advantage of any facilities your hotel has (pool, hot tub, etc.) and relax. Workout at the gym. Find interesting things to do & see in the local area and do them.

I wish you the best of luck with this new opportunity!