U.S. Business Travelers’ 2016 Hotel Rates Will See Largest Increases in a Decade
Skift Take
The doldrums of 2016 hotel rate negotiations are up against business travelers becoming more savvy with open booking and hotels flaunting better revenue management tools that give them more leverage over who gets the best rates--and when.
It's become a given that hotel rates for U.S. business travelers will climb each year, but many companies won't take respite in next year's projected year-over-year increase of 6.5 to 7.5%--the largest in nearly a decade.
Combinations of evolving practices at both corporations' travel departments and hotels led to this huge increase for 2016, said Bjorn Hanson, a New York University professor who made the projection. Hanson said the increase will likely cause some corporations to trade down from upscale to midscale properties, for example, and even trade down cities where a corporation sticks with the same branded hotel but chooses a less expensive city.
"This forecast accounts for after negotiations, meaning if everyone stayed in the same cities and same hotels
