Skift Take
The needs of the modern business traveler are changing. As efficiency and healthy living have become top priorities, travel brands would be smart to listen to the evolving desires of road warriors in order to win more business and build better loyalty. Download this trend report for FREE!
This is an excerpt from our FREE Skift Trends Report, Lifestyle Habits of the 24/7 Business Traveler, brought to you in partnership with American Express.
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Today’s on-the-go executive is savvy and always connected, whose time is a precious resource. He views his hotel as a home away from home and expects it to deliver all the amenities he is used to accessing when not on the road.
He relies greatly on tech to do his job efficiently. That means he expects WiFi to be automatic, and, being used to working in an information-rich environment, requires problems to be solved swiftly and with little fuss.
Maintaining his health is important, even if it means squeezing in a quick workout before he starts a conference call, or being able to choose a smoothie over a bacon and eggs breakfast.
And since he’s often using his room as his base, it needs to be outfitted to make sure he’s most productive.
“They don’t just want to have a home away from home,” says Chekitan Dev, Associate Professor, Service Marketing, at the Cornell School of Hospitality. “They also want to have an office away from the office. A lot of time the business traveler ends up working in their room two, three, four times a day. They need it to be as efficient as if they were in their own office.”
Female business travelers – 47% of women who travel do so for business—require that too. But they have other needs, most often to do with security measures, reliable and empathetic personnel, healthy options and cleanliness. Assistance in areas of the world where she is expected to conform to social restrictions is also top of the list.
Finally, Millennials and their travel habits are shaping corporate travel like never before. They greatly depend on technology and use mobile devices more than their colleagues. In a recent survey, of the 75% of travelers (over multiple age groups) who said that they use smartphones for business and personal reasons while on the road, those 18–30 years old were the most likely to do so. 2
Since they are used to tapping into their devices for services like groceries, instant music downloads and sundry deliveries like dry cleaning and household goods, Millennials expect to be able to do the same at their hotel. They are also more apt to extend a business trip into a vacation and use loyalty points on their journeys.
In May, we launched a FREE Skift Travel Trends Report, Lifestyle Habits of the 24/7 Business Traveler, brought to you in association with American Express. Above was an extract from it. You can download the full report here for all the insights.
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