Key Insights into Today's Business Travellers

According to research commissioned by RoomIt by CWT, business travellers want different hotel experiences based on the country they are from.

The survey compiled responses from 660 business travellers from nine countries to identify what influences them to choose a particular hotel during the booking process.

The results revealed that globally, having access to Wi-Fi (84%), room rate (81%), distance from business site (81%) and breakfast (79%) are the most important influences.

A few of the key differences between countries were also revealed, such as business travellers from the UK and Germany are the most swayed by having access to a health club (44%) and loyalty programs are the most important to those from Mexico and Germany (46%).

“We continually work to understand business travellers’ specific wants and needs so we can offer the accommodations that will improve their satisfaction,” said Scott Hyden, SVP and Chief Experience Officer of RoomIt. “We know that you have to get the basics right in order to maximize compliance and reduce travel spend.”

Several other notable takeaways from the results — business travellers from Germany are most likely to be persuaded by photos (56%) compared to other countries while travellers from France are the least likely to experiment with new hotel brands (26%).

Travellers from Mexico are less likely to use their company’s booking tools (24%), compared with those from Canada (35%). German travellers rely most on having someone else book their travel (41%) or going offline to speak with a travel agent (40%) compared to US travellers (27% and 22%, respectively).

Overall, business travellers are more likely to stay at upper midscale to upper upscale properties, but there are key regional differences. Travellers from India and Australia are more likely to stay in luxury properties (35% and 25%), while Mexico, the US and Italy travellers are more likely to stay in upper midscale properties (35%, 32% and 27%).

Globally, when asked what attributes best describe the ideal hotel accommodation, results show that the hotel and service are stronger drivers than amenities, image or location.

Quality (44%), trustworthiness (38%), convenience (40%), quietness (30%), affordability (28%) and coziness (28%) resonate the strongest. Regionally, quality is most important to India (63%), the US (44%), Canada (40%), and the UK (39%). France prefers coziness and quiet the most (49% and 39%), while Mexico ranks trustworthiness the highest (54%).

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