Business travellers spend big bucks. According to the U.S. Travel Association, direct spending on business travel totaled $266.5 billion in 2013. High expenditure like this comes with some pretty high standards, so business travellers expect specific amenities and services tailored for their needs.
The good news? Nowadays, technology can fulfill many of the business traveller’s unique requirements more quickly and conveniently than ever before. This trend spells great opportunities for your hotel.
But first things first. A good enough hotel website just won’t cut it anymore. Your website has to be stellar in order to attract today’s business traveller, many of whom rely solely on the Internet to plan their trips. A recent study by MCD, an independent digital customer experience agency, found that 72 percent of business travellers say that the quality of a hotel’s website, app, and digital tools sway their decision to book.
Think of it this way—your website is the very first impression that business travellers get of your property. If your technology is clunky or outdated, people will assume that your amenities and services suffer from the same problems. Business travellers need their trips to run smoothly. In order to avoid snags along the way, they bank on hotels with contemporary, efficient websites.
A quality website doesn’t just gain the trust of potential business customers. It’s also the perfect platform to market the very amenities that are so important to business travellers in the first place. For instance, show off your property’s business center by featuring the space in some high resolution photographs. In the same vein, prominent photos of your rooms’ large desks and comfortable office chairs speak volumes to those who need to put in long hours while traveling.
Make sure that your web content clearly advertises other aspects of your hotel that are well-suited to business travellers. Think about how your property simplifies a business traveller’s life. After all, most business travellers surveyed in the MCD study consider hotels their “second home.” As such, these people would rather not to leave property grounds unless it’s absolutely necessary. Highlight on your website any amenities and services that make it possible for business travellers to simply stay put, such as 24-hour room service, a workout facility, steam room, and cable and on-demand television.
Clearly, your hotel’s website is immensely important in attracting business travellers. That said, technology’s a great way to engage guests during their trip as well. In this day and age, high speed Internet is pretty much de rigueur. Nothing makes a business traveller happier than fast, reliable hotel Internet that’s optimized for their mobile devices.
Another quick way to a business traveller’s heart is through his or her phone or tablet. Mobile devices are now essential to the work and play of business people on the road. And the types of mobile-based tools that hotels can provide are growing. In essence, your hotel’s mobile website can work as a business traveller’s virtual Swiss Army Knife. People can use your mobile site to find their way around the hotel’s surrounding area on an interactive map, order food or extra linens, see amenity hours, pay their bill, arrange for a taxi, check out—the list goes on and on. When it’s time to finally relax at the end of a long day, travellers can stream content from a phone or tablet on their room’s TV.
To sum things up, build a great website. Provide awesome hotel tools for mobile. Attract more business travellers. Keep them booking with you time and again. Then, all you have to do is make sure your rooms have enough outlets for these folks to plug in and get going.
About the author
Forest Key is CEO and founder of buuteeq, a provider of digital marketing systems (DMS) for hotels.
