Business travellers 

Read and listen to the articles about business travel, one about a businessman who prefers to travel first class and one about travelling on a budget. Complete the chart

Counting the ways to bridge the gulf by Jill James

As more carriers open up more routes, travelling to and around the Middle East has never been easier.

Edmond Moutran, the 63-year-old Chairman and Chief Executive of Memac Ogilvy & Mather, the multinational advertising and communications company, should know. The Lebanese executive reckons he spends 60% of his working week in the air. «I spend 200 days in Beirut, 40 days in Dubai, 40 days in Bahrain and 25 in the UK. I also spend one week in each of Cairo, Jordan, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kuwait, Tunis and Algeria. I go to South Africa once a year, Barcelona once or twice a year for conferences and I go to Paris four times a year.»

He says his choice of airline is dictated by convenience, but his preference is for Middle East Airlines and its «new aircraft and equipment, and well-trained, fresh and energetic staff». His second choice is Gulf Air, with Emirates third, followed by British Airways and Air France.

He always travels with his wife, Liliane, who worked with him until very recently, and prefers to travel first class. He also uses business class. He says he will travel economy «in an emergency«.

He uses airline lounges. «I want good chairs, plenty of newspapers and television. Airlines that spend millions on decor and have uncomfortable chairs really need to look at themselves.»

«MEA gets me a car to the airport and they open a special counter for me as an individual,» he says. «Staff take your boarding pass, check you in and walk you through to the lounge. The airline saves me about an hour of standing in line. It shows real respect. You don’t really get this extra special treatment on other airlines.

With MEA, it’s the whole process — that’s why I’m so loyal to them.» So what annoys him most about flying? «The attitude of crew and staff sometimes,» he says. «If they’re tired of their jobs, they should give it up. I also dislike the casual attitude of ground staff. Employees should be trained to cope with customers who have problems.»

Mr Moutran says that the problems with ground staff are one of the reasons he hates travelling to the US. «No one ever has time to answer a question there,» he says. He also doesn’t like the lack of openness shown by airlines when there are problems and delays.

Business travel on a budget by Roger Bray

The mere existence of business class and «business hotels» tends to convey the impression that anyone travelling in connection with work has cash to spend. But this is untrue. UK-based John Cox, who runs his own publishing consultancy, is a perfect example: «I mainly fly on Star Alliance carriers and do between 80,000 and 100,000 miles a year, mostly across the Atlantic with United. I always pay the lowest economy fare I can find, but, of course, I earn frequent-flyer points to get upgrades. Sometimes I even go on a Saturday to get the lowest fare.»

«I recently flew from London to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington and back — and saved £400 by travelling out on a Saturday rather than Sunday.»

For simple trips — three days in New York, for example — he suggests seeking a city break from a tour operator, which might incorporate a fare for midweek flights at the same sort of level otherwise available to passengers flying on Saturdays.

It is also possible to cut the air-ticket bill by booking in advance and avoiding peak travel. A recent study published by BTI UK showed companies could make the greatest savings by booking flights three to four weeks in advance. Mr Cox says he tends to use taxis only when burdened with heavy luggage. «I’m probably the world’s greatest customer of public transport. A taxi to or from JFK, for example, costs about $60 with a tip. On the AirTrain and subway, it’s only $7.

Not long ago, I went to Milan for the first time in 20 years, flew to Linate rather than Malpensa because it’s much closer to the city, inquired at the airport about transport and took a bus which cost me a couple of euros.»

Regarding hotels, Mr Cox says, «I want a certain level of service, Internet access — preferably wireless — and a good-class laundry service.» High-speed, in-room Internet access is becoming available further and further down the price scale. In the UK, the 470 properties under the Premier Travel Inn brand have high-speed connections in all rooms.

Finally, remember that hotel groups have shifted to «dynamic pricing», which is jargon for doing what airlines do: altering rates to reflect demand. Try to bear in mind that in the city-centre hotels, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are generally the most popular for business travellers.

Peak travel

Match the sentence halves to complete the definitions 

Complete the text with the phrases

Talking about the future

Read the rules

We can use different language forms to talk about the future.

Complete each dialogue with the correct form of going to or will

More practice

Choose the correct tense (the Present Continuous or Present Simple) to complete the sentences

Telephoning

Jennifer North, Sales Director at Madison in New York, makes two telephone calls to Cristina Verdi, a fashion buyer in London.

Listen and note the purpose of each call and the result

More details

Listen to the first call again and complete this extract

Listen to the second call again and complete this extract

Study the phone call

Rearrange the sentences to make a dialogue

⇒ 

Receptionist: Good morning, Wolfson’s Estate Agents. How may I help you?

Jake: Could you put me through to Maria Templeton’s extension, please? My name’s Jake Daniel.

Tick the phrases you can see in the dialogue. Sometimes you will need to tick two phrases

Telephone call role-play

This telephone conversation is the one that Jake mentions in his call to Maria. Role-play the conversation. You are Jake Daniel. Your teacher is Maria Templeton

Jake: Introduce yourself and your organisation (Richmond Advertising).

Maria: Say hello. Say you’re very busy.

Jake: Explain that you would like to meet to talk to her about advertising her organisation (Wolfson’s Estate Agents) in local magazines across the country.

Maria: Say again, politely, that you are very busy, and that he should call again next month, when things should be quieter.

Jake: Apologise for phoning at an inconvenient time.

Maria: Say that it’s not a problem.

Jake: Confirm you will phone sometime next month.

Both: End the conversation suitably.

This telephone conversation takes place a week after. This conversation is between Maria’s receptionist and Jake Daniel. Have the conversation, using these ideas

Receptionist: Give the company name — Wolfson’s Estate Agents. Greet the caller. Offer to help them.

Jake: Say you’d like to speak to Maria Templeton.

Receptionist: Ask who’s calling.

Jake: Give your name and organisation.

Receptionist: Tell him you’re putting him through. (You try to do this, but find that Maria’s on another line.) Explain this and offer to take a message.

Jake: Explain that you should be meeting Maria Templeton at 10.30 tomorrow, but something’s come up. (Give a reason.) Give your phone number and ask if Maria can call you back to arrange another time.

Receptionist: Ask for Jake Daniel’s number.

Jake: Say it’s 00 44 7979 238841. Say that this is your mobile number and she can call anytime she likes.

Receptionist: Confirm.

Jake: Thank the receptionist for his/her help and say goodbye.

Receptionist: Say goodbye.

Building hotels fast

Read this article from the Financial Times

Hotel changes the landscape of building

by Roben Cookson

1. The biggest hotel to be constructed from shipping containers opens in London this week. Travelodge, the budget hotel chain, imported the containers from China — complete with bathrooms, plastering and air conditioning units — then stacked them into a 300-room hotel near Heathrow in just three weeks. The steel modules are made by Verbus Systems, a London-based company that designs, manufactures and supplies what it calls a «Lego kit» for developers.

2. «Our proposition is absolutely unique,» Paul Rolled, director of Verbus, says. Verbus supplies oversized shipping containers — as much as five metres wide — that are strong enough to build high-rise buildings anywhere in the world. It has provided a developer in Liverpool with two modules that came fully finished, with pillows on the beds.

3. For medium-sized hotels — those with more than 200 rooms and six storeys — Verbus claims its modules are up to 20 per cent cheaper and 50 per cent faster than traditional building systems. «It cannot be beaten,» says Mr Rolled. The Heathrow Travelodge took 58 weeks from start to finish — 16 weeks faster than a conventional building would have been constructed. During one evening, an entire floor of 60 rooms was lifted into place in three hours.

4. Travelodge plans to expand aggressively over the next decade and expects to use containers in many of its larger hotels. The containers can be stacked 17 storeys high without the need for additional support. They can also be recycled. «We could unbolt this building, take it down, refurbish the rooms and move it to Sydney,» Mr Rollett says.

5. It remains to be seen whether developers will break with convention and adopt steel modules over bricks, concrete and timber en masse. But Mr Rollett argues that containers are the most reliable option, as well as the cheapest, especially in extreme environments.

6. He cites Canada, where construction must be rapid because of permafrost; west Africa, «where you can’t build timber-frame hotels because the termites eat them; and the United Arab Emirates, where cities are springing up in the desert.»

7. The future imagined by Mr Rollett, with buildings worldwide made from identical metal blocks, would require a profound shake-up of the established order and, in its most extreme form, would cause nightmares for traditional builders and architects. But as Mr Rollett says, industrialisation is a powerful force. «If Henry Ford in 1903 had started making houses and not cars, the world would be a completely different place. I just can’t understand why buildings aren’t made in factories.»

Look through the first four paragraphs and match the figures to the things that they refer to

Paragraphs 4-6

Give the infinitive form of the verbs in paragraphs 4 and 5 that mean the following

4. Travelodge plans to expand aggressively over the next decade and expects to use containers in many of its larger hotels. The containers can be stacked 17 storeys high without the need for additional support. They can also be recycled. «We could unbolt this building, take it down, refurbish the rooms and move it to Sydney,» Mr Rollett says.

5. It remains to be seen whether developers will break with convention and adopt steel modules over bricks, concrete and timber en masse. But Mr Rollett argues that containers are the most reliable option, as well as the cheapest, especially in extreme environments.

Find among the expressions in bold the phrases to complete these statements. Mind the correct verb forms

It remains to be seen whether developers will break with convention and adopt steel modules over bricks, concrete and timber en masse. But Mr Rollett argues that containers are the most reliable option, as well as the cheapest, especially in extreme environments.

He cites Canada, where construction must be rapid because of permafrost: west Africa, «where you can’t build timber-frame hotels because the termites eat them; and the United Arab Emirates, where cities are springing up in the desert.»

Videoconferencing

Read this article from the Financial Times

Reluctant users slow to take up videoconferencing

by Danny Bradbury

The public relations executive was enthusiastic on the phone. The IT company he represented had started installing green data centres and energy-efficient computers. Would I like to fly to California to see for myself? That would be a 2.500-mile round trip from my home in midwestern Canada. According to the online calculator from Terapass. The trip would release 1,132 pounds (about 500 kilos) of CO2 into the atmosphere. «If you’re really into green technology, couldn’t we do a videoconference instead?» I asked. «Sure,» said the PR person. «We are totally into green issues.» He promised to arrange it. Months later, nothing had happened.

The high-tech industry is quick to praise the benefits of flexible communication, but videoconferencing is one area where things have failed to live up to the hype. «Videoconferencing has not significantly displaced travel,» says Frank Modruson, CIO for global technology consulting firm Accenture. As the IT sector continues to push its green values, this mismatch between rhetoric and reality is becoming harder to ignore. So why are relatively few people using videoconferencing?

Andrew Davis, managing partner at online collaboration market research firm Wainhouse, says the technology is let down by usability. For many people, videoconferences are just too difficult to set up. This is why Nortel is emphasising the services side. «The barrier isn’t the technology. It’s the services around that technology,» says Dean Fernandes, the company’s General Manager of Network Services.

Nortel is one of several companies getting into a relatively new segment of the videoconferencing market called telepresence. Specially equipped rooms enable people to appear as if they are sitting across the table, with life-size video representations of remote colleagues in high-definition video. Customers pay to use Nortel‘s facilities, which can also handle video filming, enabling the room to double as a production facility for corporate TV, for example. Nortel will also handle post-production tasks such as editing. Accenture, on the other hand, opted for the capital investment route. Mr Modruson said it is installing telepresence systems, creating rooms in Chicago and Frankfurt, and hopes to roll out another 11 cities in the next few months.

Look through the whole article and match the people to their jobs

Videoconferencing

Choose the best summary of the first paragraph

a) An IT company said it was developing environmentally friendly services. The writer asked its public relations representatives to organise a videoconference in order to talk about its latest services, but nothing happened. Perhaps this was because it was too complicated to arrange.

b) Videoconferences are good in theory, but it’s better to travel to see someone, even if the environmental cost is high, as nothing can replace face-to-face communication.

Reluctant users slow to take up videoconferencing

by Danny Bradbury

The public relations executive was enthusiastic on the phone. The IT company he represented had started installing green data centres and energy-efficient computers. Would I like to fly to California to see for myself? That would be a 2.500-mile round trip from my home in midwestern Canada. According to the online calculator from Terapass. The trip would release 1,132 pounds (about 500 kilos) of CO2 into the atmosphere. «If you’re really into green technology, couldn’t we do a videoconference instead?» I asked. «Sure,» said the PR person. «We are totally into green issues.» He promised to arrange it. Months later, nothing had happened.

The high-tech industry is quick to praise the benefits of flexible communication, but videoconferencing is one area where things have failed to live up to the hype. «Videoconferencing has not significantly displaced travel,» says Frank Modruson, CIO for global technology consulting firm Accenture. As the IT sector continues to push its green values, this mismatch between rhetoric and reality is becoming harder to ignore. So why are relatively few people using videoconferencing?

Andrew Davis, managing partner at online collaboration market research firm Wainhouse, says the technology is let down by usability. For many people, videoconferences are just too difficult to set up. This is why Nortel is emphasising the services side. «The barrier isn’t the technology. It’s the services around that technology,» says Dean Fernandes, the company’s General Manager of Network Services.

Nortel is one of several companies getting into a relatively new segment of the videoconferencing market called telepresence. Specially equipped rooms enable people to appear as if they are sitting across the table, with life-size video representations of remote colleagues in high-definition video. Customers pay to use Nortel‘s facilities, which can also handle video filming, enabling the room to double as a production facility for corporate TV, for example. Nortel will also handle post-production tasks such as editing. Accenture, on the other hand, opted for the capital investment route. Mr Modruson said it is installing telepresence systems, creating rooms in Chicago and Frankfurt, and hopes to roll out another 11 cities in the next few months.

Look at the expressions in italics. Select True or False

Helpful phrases

Match the two parts of these expressions from paragraph 4.
Match them to their meanings

Nortel is one of several companies getting into a relatively new segment of the videoconferencing market called telepresence. Specially equipped rooms enable people to appear as if they are sitting across the table, with life-size video representations of remote colleagues in high-definition video. Customers pay to use Nortel‘s facilities, which can also handle video filming, enabling the room to double as a production facility for corporate TV, for example. Nortel will also handle post-production tasks such as editing. Accenture, on the other hand, opted for the capital investment route. Mr Modruson said it is installing telepresence systems, creating rooms in Chicago and Frankfurt, and hopes to roll out another 11 cities in the next few months.

Future constructions

Match each item on the left with an item on the right

⇒ As you know, we’re going to increase our special offers. — We’re about to start advertising.

Study the forms in bold. Decide which sentences illustrate the meanings below

⇒ Hold on. I‘ll call our Travel Department and find out for you. — instant decision.

Construct the sentences

Put the words and phrases in order to make sentences

Tip

After as soon as/if/until/unless/when/once/next time we use a present verb form, even when we are talking about the future.

Next time you‘ll be in Vancouver, you must stay at the Plaza Hotel.
Next time you are in Vancouver, you must stay at the Plaza Hotel.

Getting the message right

Listen to five messages, and decide what each speaker wants to do. Order the messages

Read the tapescript and check

Message 1

Good afternoon. This is a message from Ralph Knight at Bernardini Fashion. I was calling to let you know that I’ll be in Dortmund next week, and I wanted to make an appointment to see you. I’d like to tell you about our new collection. Erm … Well, anyway. I’ll call back later or send you an e-mail when I get back to the office.

Message 2

Hello, Julie. Peter here. I finally managed to have a look at the draft programme you produced for our Chinese visitors. You’ve done a great job as usual. It’s looking very good on the whole, except that the schedule for the Friday afternoon seems a bit tight. I’ll get a revised version off to you at once. And … talk to you tomorrow.

Message 3

Sandra. Hi. Rachel here. Something urgent’s just come up and I have to dash off to Head Office. So I can’t make it this afternoon, I’m afraid. I’m very sorry. I’ll give you a ring when I get back. Speak to you soon. Bye!

Message 4

This is a message for Mr Benson, Head of Accounts, from Liz Glover in Sales. Today is 3 April, and I see from my bank statement that my February travel expenses haven’t been paid in yet. It can’t go on like this! Why do we have to talk to a machine and wait ages to have our expenses refunded?

Message 5

This is Rose Wilkinson here, from the Travel Section. I got your note about the hotel booking. I see you’re leaving on Tuesday, and it’s a two-day conference, but could you specify whether you plan to come back on the Wednesday or the Thursday? Please get back to me and let me know so I can go ahead with the reservation.

Press releases

Read the information and the format of press releases