Op-Ed: Hotels will need to be agile to cater for the new era in corporate travel

Until a decade ago, hoteliers could largely set their operating calendars to ‘remote’ and be confident that what had worked in the past would work in the future.

For city hotels, business travel and conferences would fill rooms mid-week, while on weekends, slight concessions would be made to attract the leisure market and local functions.

Seasonal business was just that: January would be traditionally quiet for business travel, winters would see both corporate and leisure travel chill down, and hotels would look to reach their annual targets with bumper business, conference and end-of-year events from October through to mid-December.

This article features in the new winter edition of AccomNews HERE

Then COVID hit and while the virus may have largely disappeared from the headlines, business travel has changed significantly, with both seasoned and a new breed of business travellers refining their demands from hotel stays.

With the new financial year upon us, my colleague Joseph Sim and I thought it was timely to review how hotels are responding to the challenges and opportunities that this new era of corporate travel presents.

Loyalty has never been more important

Business travellers are not as rigidly locked into negotiated deals with hotel groups these days, which means that attracting and retaining corporate clients requires more targeted approaches, and this is where loyalty programs should—but sometimes don’t—give a hotel a competitive edge.

There is no doubt about the power of airline loyalty schemes, as any competitor to Qantas will attest, but the same doesn’t always seem to appear to apply to hotel schemes, particularly in our part of the world.

Demands for the best rate, especially for smaller companies, have helped boost the popularity of OTAs, where easy comparisons can be made for the best deal on a hotel in a particular area.

Geographic and location prominence and convenience are obviously essential ingredients in determining whether one hotel group is selected over another, but what can set them apart can come down to the level of value, rewards and recognition the hotel group’s loyalty program can deliver.

Questions that need to be reviewed when assessing a hotel loyalty program’s effectiveness include:

Do members feel they can progress easily in terms of status?

How easy is it to earn and burn points? Are points appropriately valued?

Can points be earned through diverse earning opportunities?

Do premium members receive tailored and exclusive access to experiences?

Does the mobile loyalty app deliver a seamless, all-encompassing experience?

Are the rates and benefits really exclusive?

New PMS and CRM systems, backed by AI, have the potential to deliver a vast amount of information about hotel guests.

Gone are the days when ‘Hotel Ambassador’ Ric Angeletti at the Hindley Parkroyal in Adelaide used handwritten cards to remember guests and their specific interests. That level of personalisation became legend in the industry, and with automation today, there’s the potential to deliver customer intelligence at an unprecedented level.

For instance, are the ‘privileges’ a loyal guest receives, such as drinks and snacks, really ‘personalised’?

Does a non-drinker get bottles of beer or wine simply because they are at a specific status level, rather than determining an individual traveller’s preferences?

There is nothing better than arriving at your room and seeing that management has taken the time to ‘know’ their guests and tailored an expression that recognises the guest’s preferences.

Are hotels recognising the trend towards healthy travel?

The trend towards healthy travel is not a fad, it has been happening for quite some time. The days of offering beer, wine, chocolates and cakes as welcome gifts might need to be reviewed if a corporate traveller has shown their interest in healthy options.

This applies to F&B as well. If a hotel wants to win more business for breakfasts and dinners, having healthy options can help rebuild in-house F&B spend.

Many corporates are now working from lobbies because of the improvement in lobby design and the creation of coworking spaces. This is a ‘captured audience’, but they will want good coffee and healthy options to keep them there.

Hotel gym and fitness centres can be a make-or-break for corporate travellers. Hotels need to review whether their equipment is up to date for their market and whether they can allocate more space and equipment to the hotel gym to enhance their competitiveness. Providing information about the most scenic running tracks near the hotel and availability of personal trainers can also win loyalty and create a point of difference.

Sustainability is as much a business imperative as it is environmental

With governments and many large companies now requiring hotels to prove their environmental and corporate social responsibility, meaningful investment in sustainability has never been more of an imperative.

Hotels are increasingly taking sustainability seriously, recognising that their guests, particularly the new emerging corporate and leisure travellers, are far more conscious about the issue and appreciate a hotel’s genuine efforts to reduce their environmental footprint.

This can be reflected in significant investments, such as the installation of solar panels, the enhancement of water and energy-saving infrastructure, recycling initiatives, and procurement of more environmentally sensitive products.

At an individual level, hotels that reward their guests by providing them with loyalty points and special benefits for foregoing daily room servicing can win both ways—they can highlight the benefits this delivers for the environment while improving operational efficiencies.

The new government and corporate tendering requirements require hotels to provide detailed information on their environmental and CSR programs, making it worth considering signing up for established certification programs like EarthCheck, GreenKey and Ecotourism Australia’s Sustainable Tourism Certification. The tick of approval can demonstrate the hotel’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility.

Technology can set hotels apart for business travellers

The new wave of CBD hotels has introduced a superior level of technological adoption that has become even more critical for business travellers.

Corporate travellers of the past may have been in a hotel before 9 am and after 5 pm, but the new breed of business traveller is just as likely to be holding meetings and working on their laptops in public areas throughout the day, requiring access to top-class internet and other services.

Business travellers also require a seamless experience in booking, checking in, and checking out, along with account management. This should be available through an app, which could evolve to include smartphone access to rooms.

In-room integration of the TV system with phones and computers so that guests can bring their preferred streaming services with them is now a ‘must’, and hotels should constantly review the ease of connection, as not all travellers are as tech savvy as others.

By embracing these trends and auditing existing performance, hotels can create a more appealing and valuable experience for the returning business travellers, ensuring they remain competitive in the evolving landscape of corporate travel.