Around 80 per cent of employees travelling on business have to travel three hours drive from their place of work to justify a hotel stay to their company, a new study has found.
The survey of 1,000 UK business travellers showed employees could be travelling for around six hours a day without being allowed to have an overnight stay.
It also showed for employees on business in Europe, the flight time needed to be two and a half hours before a company authorises a stay. This means employees could be expected to travel from London to Berlin return in one day.
Jon West managing director of HRS, the hotel booking provider that commissioned the study, said: “It’s staggering to think that bosses expect their employees to travel abroad, attend a full day’s meeting and return on the same day.
“Travelling abroad can add a huge amount of pressure on an employee and affect their performance, and bosses should really consider their duty of care to the workforce,” West added.
The study also found a quarter of respondents admitted to staying away on business even if they didn’t need to. Around half said they like to do so because “it’s simply nice to stay in a hotel”.
West said: “Despite people bemoaning the fact that they have to stay away on business to their colleagues, the findings show that in reality some people see a night away as a perk of the job.”
The study found on average business travellers stay away from home for nearly 13 nights a year.