Corporate travel has dropped dramatically due to the pandemic but finally it seems like the start of the recovery has begun. At least in many countries restrictions have dropped and travel is increasing. The desire for leisure travel has already shown a great pick up but will corporate travel ever be the same? As always when something is uncertain there are many different opinions, some say never, some say in 5 years and some are even more optimistic. What we can say for sure is that the pandemic has reshaped corporate travel and you need to adapt and be aware of what kind of business travel trends you should focus on to capture your share of the market.
You have probably heard the name bleisure travel before and even before the pandemic bleisure travel was important (specially by younger travelers). As the name implies it’s a mix of leisure and business travel. This trend is probably even more strong now and corporate travelers are more willing to extend their trip for leisure activities. For the hotels you need to make it easy for the travelers to switch between business and leisure and give them a reason to stay at the destination. How can you reach out with packages that fulfill the needs of being entrained so they will extend their stay for some more days.
Even though business travelers tend to rely on human service when it comes to more complex trips, most of the business trips will be booked by the themselfs. When they book by themselves it’s easier to meet their criterias and preferences. Make sure you are correctly displayed with pictures and relevant information in all your booking channels.
An issue with self-booking is that travelers tend to book a hotel outside their corporate program and travel policy. The excuses can be; I want to stay closer to the meeting location, I found a better price on another OTA, I want to be close to the city center, I want better quality accommodation that suits my preferences. Some solutions on these challenges might be:
One of the reasons that corporate travel tends to booking outside their corporate program is that their travel policies are not flexible enough. Make sure you provide better availability and different rate options to better meet travelers preferences. A normal case is that the Travel Manager only wants to include standard rooms so they keep control of the cost. However, if you have data which shows that the travelers go through distribution channels outside the travel policies you have a better chance to include a higher room category, or different packages at a higher rate.
Business travelers want to have everything as smooth and easy as possible and technology that makes their stay more streamlined will certainly help.
Explore what kind of technology that suits your business travelers.