Industry Insight: The Business Traveller Now and in the Future

Peter Waters, director, hotel distribution, global hotel group, Amadeus, explains how vital it is to keep up with the ever-increasing demands of business clients

Business travellers are changing. These changes introduce complexity at numerous points of the hotel process, extending from hotelier to travel management companies (TMCs) to travel agents (TAs) and everywhere in between.

This complexity is fascinating for us. It’s something we’ve delved into extensively, as indicated by our recent report examining the business traveller of both today and of the future. Titled The 21st Century Business Traveller, the report drew on specially-commissioned research among 400 UK and Ireland business travellers working for large companies. It suggested that for TAs, TMCs, and hoteliers, the changing business traveller’s needs result in new complexity.

To explain what I mean, let’s consider the new business traveller. The report indicated that business travellers now more than ever require flexibility, adjusting their plans once they’re on the road. They’re also more connected; personal technologies – such as smartphones and tablets – are increasingly important. Occupying senior positions in their companies, the business traveller is wired, rapidly moving, and short on time. They don’t like providing the same information again and again. Re-entering data at various steps of the hotel process is viewed as a waste of time.

These travellers present specialised needs. They want certain hotels that meet their precise requirements. This could be anything from having an integrated, one-step booking process through their TMC or corporate travel planning tool, to having access to a boutique hotel in a local destination close to work.

All of this introduces the complexity I mentioned before. At the moment, business travellers aren’t always able to get what they want. Their needs are too complex, their demands too many.

I believe that here is where the hotel industry and travel retailers can collaborate. It’s important that TMCs and TAs are able to present to travellers the variety of hotel content available. They need strong descriptive content on a vast range of properties and strong prices at their fingertips.

Consider a business traveller who wants to add a leisure trip to their work trip. TAs need the right variety of hotels and rates to meet these requests, and the know-how to book them. This is where the long tail of content is king – and where technology can make a real difference. Hoteliers who can deliver on this via the business traveller’s preferred channels will have the competitive edge.

Within properties themselves, the rate of advances in technology mean hoteliers will need to be prepared to meet the variety of technical business travel needs. Some guests might need high-speed internet. Others might request rooms without any tech as a sort of ‘digital retreat’.

All of these small adjustments could help hoteliers meet the number one priority of business travellers: convenience. Business travellers want things streamlined. They are time poor and globally busy, increasingly connected and evermore digital. These traits will require hoteliers to change.

Currently, business travellers are at the mercy of what is offered. Here is where those in the hotel industry can make a positive change. Everyone from the TMCs to the TAs to the hoteliers themselves can help business travellers get what they want, rather than being forced to accept simply what they are given.