You have to go abroad for work. Why not take your family with you? Here’s how to do a business trip with family.
Advantages of a Business Trip with Family
There are three main advantages to mixing work with family while traveling. The first is financial. Your employer is already paying for your hotel room and your airfare. These are the two most expensive parts of travel, and now you only have to cover it for the rest of your family. For a family of four, that’s a 25% savings. Usually more, given that adult plane tickets are more expensive. If your kids are young enough that you only need one hotel room, the savings just increased.
The second advantage is emotional. It sucks to miss out on seeing your kids because you have to travel. You’ve done this so many times that the glamour has worn off. Your spouse may envy the fact that you’re jetting around the world. You’ve explained that it’s business, but that explanation sounds insincere. Now you can bring them along.
The third advantage is psychological. Your family gets travel experience, which is nice. They also get a better understanding of “what you do all day” when you’re on a trip. I know they’ve wondered how much of this travel is really warranted. Now they’ll see first hand just what you do. This gives them more empathy for the next time you have to go on a trip.
Get Approval First
Stay out of legal trouble by checking your company’s policy on doing a business trip with family first. If the policy isn’t clear, or there isn’t one, make sure to get your supervisor’s approval. Make sure you know what the explicit rules are about expenses that you can claim and those you can’t.
Manage Expectations – of Employer and Family
First and foremost, you’re there to work. Make sure your spouse and your kids know that they’ll be on their own on the days when you’re working. They can have an adventure and tell you all about it at dinner. You can eat breakfast together before you head off. Or you can add a few days at the start or the end of the trip to do things as a family. This may mean you’re now covering the hotel bill on your own for that portion of the trip.
Traveling with a team or meeting clients? Make sure they know which nights you’re free for a team dinner or drinks with clients and which nights you’ll be spending with family. Pay attention to cultural clues. If your clients find out your spouse is with you, will they feel obligated to invite her to dinner as well? Whether that creates tension or increases goodwill depends on the culture and how you handle the situation.
Smooth the Way
Is a car picking you up at the airport? Make sure they know you’re not traveling alone. If the family arrives separately, set things up for them to be as easy as possible. Arrange for the hotel concierge to help set up day trips. Make sure they have good contact numbers (and phones that work) in case they need assistance and you’re in a meeting. After all, your spouse might feel abandoned when you travel for work. He didn’t agree to this trip so he could feel abandoned in a new location.
Done right, a business trip with family can give you a cheaper vacation, more time with your kids, and a renewed appreciation (by them) of why you have to travel for work.
Get other tips in my book Travel With Kids.