When American Natasha Colkmire returned to work after having her first child, she didn’t want to leave her newborn son with a nanny to go on a business trip.
So she convinced a family member to tag along.
“They would meet up with me when my son needed to be nursed,” she said. “We also had the evenings together.”
The trip worked so well that Colkmire took more business trips with non-colleague companions.
“My grandma went to Houston with me, a friend went to St. Paul, and my mom helped me when I needed to do a job in Washington D.C.,” she said. “Each person loved getting the free trip.”
More than half of business travelers (55%) have had loved ones join their work trips, according to a survey of 4,000 adults from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Spain published Wednesday by the travel tech company TravelPerk.
Among C-suite executives, the number jumped to 73% — with executives saying they’ve had partners (53%), children (22%), friends (21%), and even pets (7%) join their business trips, according to TravelPerk’s data.
Companionship and cost savings
For some, bringing loved ones on business trips is a way to reclaim time together, according to Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo, TravelPerk’s president and COO.
“Traveling for work can be lonely,” he told CNBC Travel. “Work trips can be an opportunity to experience something new, and by taking a loved one along, you remain connected.”
Plus, business travelers don’t have to miss family time, be it bedtimes or birthdays, said Taunay-Bucalo.
“For me, it’s about having the best of both worlds, and sometimes performing at my peak also means seeing my kid at the end of a work day — it provides some normality,” he said.
Other business travelers who spoke to CNBC said there is another motivation — money.
Colkmire, who now runs a travel website, recalled the time she joined her husband on a work trip to Vienna, Austria.
“Our expense was cut in half, which was a huge blessing so that we were able to explore an area of the world that we had not yet been to without breaking the bank,” she said.
I didn’t keep [my] travel plans a secret, nor did I broadcast them to coworkers.
Bridgette Borst Ombres
founder of The Commsultant
Bridgette Borst Ombres, a former journalist turned public relations consultant, said she has used work trips to create “budget-friendly mini-vacations” for her family.
“Attending a tech conference at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, was the perfect business trip to bring along my husband and then-2-year-old daughter,” she said. “The conference lasted two days, so while I was working, my husband took our daughter to visit his dad, who lived in the area, and we’d meet up for dinner in the evenings.”
After the conference ended,