Business Travel to Houston: The Complete Guide
Everything a business traveler needs for Houston — getting around, where to stay, the companies you'd visit, and the conferences that land here.
Getting around Houston
Houston runs two commercial airports and 62.1 million passengers between them in 2025, 48 million at Bush Intercontinental and 14 million at Hobby. Which one you fly into changes your day more than anything else you decide, because they sit on opposite sides of the city and only one of them has a dedicated route downtown.
From IAH there is a real airport express, and it is better than Houston’s car-city reputation suggests. METRO’s Route 500 Downtown Direct is nonstop at $4.50, leaving Terminal E, Level 2, outside Door E-201 between signs 6A and 6B, and it runs seven days a week from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.. If you would rather save the four dollars, Route 102 is the local at $1.25 from Terminal C, Door C-105. Note the doors: they are not the same, and Houston’s ground transportation is organised by door rather than by one central pickup point.
That door-specific logic is the thing to internalise. Rideshare at IAH is Terminal A Door A-114, Terminal C Doors C-103 and C-104, Terminal E Level 2 Zone 5 — and taxis use different doors again. Terminal B South has no ride-app pickup at all; you take the Skyway to A or C. At Hobby it is simpler: taxis at Curb Zone 2 and ride apps at Curb Zone 5, both on the baggage claim level, exiting by the door nearest Carousel No. 4.
Everywhere that is not downtown, rent. Houston’s employers are spread across the Energy Corridor, the Woodlands, Sugar Land and the Medical Center, and no bus route connects them to an airport. Treat traffic on I-45, I-10 and the 610 Loop as the real cost of the trip. One overnight detail if you connect late: the landside Subway between IAH terminals is closed between 12:15 a.m. and 3:15 a.m.
Where to stay in Houston
Houston is a submarket city and the airports are on the wrong ends of it. Bush Intercontinental is far north, Hobby is south-east, and most of the offices people fly in for are neither. Book to the office, not to the airport and not to the skyline.
Our Houston stay guide maps the metro by submarket and employer, with a verified shortlist for each company.
Who you're visiting: Houston's headquarters
Each company below has a complete visit guide, the hotel, the airport route, and the meeting. Pick your client.
| APA Corporation | Westchase, on West Sam Houston Parkway |
| Baker Hughes | Energy Corridor, far-west |
| CenterPoint Energy | Louisiana Street, west-central CBD |
| Cheniere Energy | Milam Street, central CBD |
| Chevron Corporation | Downtown / CBD |
| Comfort Systems USA | Memorial / Katy Freeway corridor |
| ConocoPhillips | Energy Corridor, far-west I-10 |
| Corebridge Financial | Allen Parkway, just west of downtown |
| Coterra Energy | Memorial City, on Gessner Road |
| Enterprise Products Partners | Louisiana Street, west-central CBD |
| EOG Resources | Bagby Street, the west edge of the CBD |
| ExxonMobil | Springwoods Village / CityPlace, ~25 mi north of downtown, by The Woodlands |
| Group 1 Automotive | CityCentre |
| Halliburton | Greenspoint / North Belt, near IAH |
| Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) | Springwoods Village, ~25 mi north |
| KBR | Jefferson Street, central CBD |
| Kinder Morgan | Louisiana Street, in the heart of the CBD |
| NOV | Westchase, on Richmond Avenue |
| NRG Energy | Louisiana Street, central CBD |
| Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) | Inside Greenway Plaza |
| Phillips 66 | Westchase, off Beltway 8 |
| Plains All American Pipeline | Clay Street, the north edge of the CBD near Buffalo Bayou |
| Quanta Services | North Loop West, inside the 610 Loop north of the Galleria |
| Sysco | Energy Corridor |
| Targa Resources | Louisiana Street, central CBD |
| Westlake | Galleria / Uptown, on Post Oak Boulevard |
| WM (Waste Management) | Capitol Street, central CBD |
A free evening in Houston
Houston rewards a walk once the meetings end. Decompress along Buffalo Bayou Park or in Hermann Park by the Museum District; for a client dinner or a solo evening, Montrose and the Museum District have the range. If a half-day opens up, Space Center Houston is the one worth the detour.
More on working the city and recovering on the road.
Restaurants for the working dinner
Montrose is the city’s flexible dinner district for groups that want range without formality.
The Museum District is the steadier client-dinner choice when the meeting is central and the night should stay calm.
The Galleria area is the practical answer when the evening needs hotel convenience more than texture.
See the pillar: Explore.
Before you book
Two questions decide a Houston trip. Which airport, and which submarket. Getting the first wrong can add an hour before you have met anyone; getting the second wrong adds it to every day of the trip.
Score it with the Trip ROI Scorecard, then plan the airport-to-office run and book to the right submarket.
The Field Brief: sharp travel-ROI notes for the people who carry the quarter through airports. No signup, no email, nothing to unsubscribe from: read it free in the open archive.
Read the brief →