How planning can save the day
Travel Notes
Whether you’re preparing for your first student travel experience or your tenth, you want the months spent organizing and fundraising for your big adventure to be worth it – for your trip to be all about the memories and experience, not derailed by hiccups and avoidable frustrations. That’s where BRT comes to the rescue. In planning thousands of trips, we’ve learned to anticipate challenges and put systems in place to keep them off your itinerary. Here are a few ways that planning can truly save the day:
Getting to know you
It may sound simple, but one of the most effective ways to solve challenges before they happen is to have a great director-planner relationship. These relationships are at the core of what we do here at BRT because if we understand what makes your group unique, we can craft a trip that’s just as special. Some of the most consistent feedback we receive from directors is how personalized their trip felt. As we get to know you, we learn what you like, what’s important to your group and incorporate those elements into your trip – whether that’s a specific restaurant, performance stop along the way or group activity. Knowing you is more important than anything else in our planning process and helps us do our best work on your behalf.
Focus on the forms
In terms of logistics, forms are your friends – they keep you organized and can prevent issues that could arise when your group is on tour. We recommend that you keep a binder with complete and current versions of each of these forms:
- Rooming List
- Dietary Restrictions
- Performance Essentials List
- Air Manifest
- Equipment List
If we’re working together to plan your next performance tour, you’ll know exactly which forms we need you to complete and when – just one easy way we make the process “super.”
Protect your investment, skip the stress
While the goal is to have a worry-free, memory-making travel experience for your students, life happens. Inclement weather, sickness and other emergencies are often unavoidable but don’t need to be disastrous. We offer all of our clients travel insurance to protect them from expensive travel changes. Also, when you choose to partner with us to plan your trip, you can trust that your investment is protected, as we hold insurance coverage and a consumer protection plan as recommended by the Student and Youth Travel Association.
Communicate
Great communication between the trip organizer and parents/students helps everything run smoothly, cutting off many issues before they can arise. This begins with an effective parent meeting and continues throughout the planning process. Keep students and their parents informed each step of the way, through additional meetings and emails. Work closely with chaperones to help them understand your expectations for their role on the trip. Stay in constant contact throughout the trip with our list of recommend apps. The more connected everyone on the trip feels, the fewer issues will arise.
Communication with your planner is essential as well. Things change throughout the planning process – plans, dates, budgets, logistics – and we can often make magic happen, both before departure and during the trip, if the lines of communication are open and buzzing. And if your group forgets your music stands the morning of the performance, chances are we can come to the rescue then too (true story).
Your group deserves a hero flying alongside you. We’d love to partner with you to plan the student travel experience of a lifetime. Contact us today to see us in action!
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