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1.) How many years has Accent coordinated international residencies for business students?
2.) What is the best time in an MBA curriculum to schedule our trip?
3.) Our program is unique. How flexible are your trips to my requirements?
4.) Our university has very stringent regulations for International Travel. Can you meet them?
5.) What happens if there is an emergency while we are traveling?
6.) How do you choose our hotels? Are they singles or shared rooms?
7.) What are your most popular destinations?
8.) I don't see our business-study program destination listed.
9.) Are there any destinations you don't handle?
10.) Can we book our own airfares? How about individual students?
11.) Can you handle our special needs (ADA or dietary restrictions) students?
12.) We'd like to arrange some of our own business meetings. Can you still work with us?
13.) We have a very small group. Will Accent work with us?
14.) Our program requires students to arrange their own airfare. Can you help with that?
15.) Can you answer my students' questions in "real-time"?
16.) How much do your programs cost? We have limited resources.
17.) Isn't it a lot more economical to do things ourselves?
18.) Who will I work with on a day-to-day basis?
19.) How can I protect myself from currency fluctuations?
20.) We've never used an outside company. What questions might we have forgotten to ask?
1.) How many years has Accent coordinated international residencies for business students?
We have over 30 years experience exclusively dedicated to business school clients. In that time we have coordinated more than 1,000 residencies for 25,000+ business students to more than 100 cities on 6 continents.
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2.) What is the best time in an MBA curriculum to schedule our trip?
The best time to travel depends on your academic calendar and your program goals. Most schools tend to do their international residencies mid-way through their second year in order to have time to integrate the residency objectives into their curriculum. Many schools avoid scheduling their trip as the final “capstone” event prior to graduation feeling that they may not have the complete attention of the students.
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3. ) Our program is unique. How flexible are your trips to my requirements?
Every program we do is a completely customized experience so we can meet any requirements you may have. As a fully certified ARC travel agency, we can handle many unique travel requests that most companies can not. We are completely flexible in working with you on your program content and scheduling. In more than 30 years we have yet to meet a client whose needs we could not meet with our creativity and diligence.
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4.) Our university has very stringent regulations for International Travel. Can you meet them?
Accent understands the importance of reputation to university-travel groups. Our unblemished safety record, $5 million in liability insurance and around-the-clock emergency support when groups are in-country provide peace of mind unmatched in the industry. We are confident that we will meet your university's safety standards.
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5.) What happens if there is an emergency while we are traveling?
When traveling with groups many situations can come up requiring special attention. Illnesses, work emergencies and family emergencies can force students to come home early, and we always work with you to facilitate this. Meetings can get cancelled and natural disasters or civil unrest can cause us to rearrange programs on the fly. Accent prides itself on providing you with the peace of mind that no matter what happens we will work with you to find a solution.
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6.) How do you choose our hotels? Are they single or shared rooms?
All of the hotels we recommend are ones that we know personally. We choose hotels for their suitability for our business school clientele, which includes business amenities, location, condition, and a variety of other country-specific measures. Ultimately, the hotels we recommend for a particular group are based on their budget and their specific needs. About half of our schools choose to provide single rooms, while those offering shared rooms always provide students the opportunity to upgrade to single rooms for an additional cost.
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7.) What are your most popular destinations?
Currently, China, India & Eastern Europe are our most popular business study destinations. These destinations reflect the areas of concentrated international business growth and investment. We are seeing increased interest in areas of the Middle East and Africa as well as additional Asian markets.
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8.) I don't see our business-study program destination listed.
Accent is a pioneer in creating meaningful business study programs. In addition to facilitating trips to more established international markets, we were the first company to organize residencies to emerging markets throughout Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. Let us know where you'd like to go. We'll lead the way.
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9.) Are there any destinations you don't handle?
We are very sensitive to the safety of our programs and students. While we are glad to work with clients to arrange programs to new business study locations, we will not coordinate programs to any country or city where we believe there are health, political or terrorism issues that could compromise a group’s safety.
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10.) Can we book our own airfares? How about individual students?
While the majority of our customers choose to use our group airfares and travel together, almost every group we work with has exceptions. Provided it is consistent with your school’s policies, students are welcome to book their own airfare, either through Accent or on their own. If students book their own airfare we will issue a credit for the group airfare they would have otherwise used. We are experts at working with individual students to handle special needs such as frequent flyer issues and business class upgrades.
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11.) Can you handle our special needs (ADA or dietary restrictions) students?
We are glad to work with you to accommodate the special needs of your students. Each year we have several groups with participants requiring travel assistance or special dietary restrictions. Please let us know as soon as possible if you have any special requirements as it often requires extra time and legwork to accommodate those requests.
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12.) We'd like to arrange some of our own business meetings. Can you still work with us?
Yes. Many of our clients prefer to set up their business visits. We'll help advise the best times for such meetings (accounting for urban traffic patterns, weather, and other cultural excursions). We will handle the transportation to and from your visits or meeting room set up in your hotel. Our services are fully customized and flexible to meet your program goals.
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13.) We have a very small group. Will Accent work with us?
We generally have a very hard time providing good value for groups of less than 15. Group airfares require us to purchase at least 10–20 seats (depending on the airline) and hotel prices for small room blocks are often not as attractive. Let us know what the size and needs of your group are and we will give you a specific answer.
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14.) Our program requires students to arrange their own airfare. Can you help with that?
Absolutely. As the only ARC-appointed full-service travel company specializing in the business school market, we can directly ticket with over 25 airlines to create individualized itineraries for students arriving early or requiring trip extensions. Approximately 1/3 of our groups require students to make their own air arrangements.
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15.) Can you answer my students' questions in "real-time"?
Responsiveness and a student-centered service model are Accent’s strengths. Our fully staffed customer service center is open during normal working hours and students can call us directly on our toll free number. Callers are always greeted by a person who can help. We are also extremely responsive to any requests that students submit to us via fax or email. This level of service also applies to our program directors and faculty trip leaders.
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16.) How much do your programs cost? We have limited resources.
Every program is unique, and we work with our clients to develop meaningful and cost effective programs to fit their budgets. The primary drivers affecting a program’s price are airfare (some destinations are significantly more expensive than others), hotels (we have a wide variety of high-quality 3, 4 and 5 star properties at a range of cost levels), and the length of the trip. Let us know your budget and your academic goals and we can suggest a variety of options.
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17.) Isn't it a lot more economical to do things ourselves?
In most cases no. Because of our volume of business with hotels and airlines we are often able to deliver a higher quality program for even less money than you could organize yourself. Perhaps more importantly, if you factor in the time and effort required of your staff and faculty to plan and execute a trip then the comparison becomes even more dramatic. Our volume and core focus on global business education means we’re likely to have more current information about the top global business destinations. Finally, in the event that something does go wrong on your trip our full-time staff is equipped to make immediate changes, enabling your program to continue.
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18.) Who will I work with on a day-to-day basis?
We have a team approach at Accent that means that there are always multiple people in our office who are intimately familiar with your program. This means that you should never have to wait to get answers to questions or to inform us of trip modifications. Typically groups are assigned a single account manager as their primary contact. The account manager will handle the majority of the planning for your program and receive assistance from other team members.
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19.) How can I protect myself from currency fluctuations?
We offer our customers the opportunity to lock in their program pricing at any time through currency hedging. We buy currencies forward in order to cover any program costs that need to be paid in local currencies that are not pegged to the dollar. This generally does not include the airfare. About half of our customers choose to use this service. An additional deposit is required at the time you decide to lock in your price.
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20.) We've never used an outside company. What questions might we have forgotten to ask?
Be sure to ask us about our foreign visa processing service and our use of forward contracts to hedge currencies and provide you guaranteed pricing in U.S. dollars. Also, if you are considering changing your trip location we encourage you to make use of our in-depth worldwide destination expertise to carefully consider the pros and cons of new locations.
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