For instance, if there's a meeting at noon, how did this work for travellers to plan? Did they just wait around a long time? Did they have some calculation for it?
The need for timezones only became apparent with the advent of rail travel in the 19th century, which was rapid enough to make one aware of the difference between the local solar time of different places. Before this point local solar time, indicated by sundials, meridians, etc. sufficed.