When It Comes to Business Travel, When to Scrimp vs. When to SpendThe bottom-line balancing act of business travel.

When Fan Bi was launching Blank Label, his Boston-based luxury menswear company, he traveled often to New York City and Washington, D.C. "Once I went for the low-budget option and booked a hostel without entirely realizing I would share a room with nine others," he recalls. Making matters worse, the facility's Wi-Fi, already unreliable, was available only in the lobby.

Lesson learned: While it's important to guard your company's bottom line when you travel, you have to strike a balance that protects your productivity. You have to determine where to scrimp and where to spend. You have to determine where to scrimp and where to spend.