Mar 22, 2019 11:05 GMT

How to make travelers comfortable withyour hotel program

For those of us who have been in the industry for a while, you’ll rememberwhen a good night’s rest was defined by a small, somewhat hard mattresswith well-tucked, flower patterned blankets. Then hotels introduced a bigfluffy, white bed, and just like that basic bedding was no longer acceptable totravelers.

It’s laughable to think a bed could be so revolutionary because today it’s sucha basic necessity. Traveler expectations for comfort have grown tremendouslyin the last 20 years or so.

Hotels can’t just have basic clean sheets, they have to be eucalyptus-scentedand organically washed. Gyms with a couple of treadmills and a few freeweights don’t cut it anymore. Fitness centers need a full suite of wellnessoptions. If restaurants and food kiosks don’t have fresher, healthier options,nobody will use them today.

Hotels are even offering free wine tasting, putting televisions in bathroommirrors, matching their décor to local flair, rooms with air purifiers, and usingmobile for check-ins, as keys and to control everything in the room.

Business travelers want hotels to be a place where they can rest, eat well,rejuvenate and be productive.

What do business travelers want then? 

In a recent GBTA/RoomIt by CWT study, travelers told us exactly whatamenities they wished were covered by their travel policies:

• 51% want premium Wi-Fi• 40% want food delivery services to be reimbursed• 36% wish to unwind with in-room entertainment/movies• 33% would like to use fitness class passes

The downside is most travel buyers don’t want the added cost of reimbursingthose amenities. 

Where does that leave us?

Hotels recognize that appealing to today’s travelers requires a revampedapproach. With stress on the rise, many chains have launched entire brandsdedicated to wellness or taking steps to help travelers maintain their health-focused life styles. In fact, the wellness travel market is expanding 50% fasterthan the overall industry.

That really is the key. Hotels are finding that they need to build a seamlessliving experience from home to road. At home, some people will headstraight to spin class right after work, so hotels are putting spinning bikes intheir gyms and even in their rooms.

With the rising number of food-obsessed people, or “foodies”, and theincreasing presence of food delivery services like Doordash, Uber Eats, andGrubhub, people require more than basic room service or pizza. To help meetexpectations hotels are now partnering with some of these services, anddirectly with surrounding restaurants as well.

Additionally, people often end workdays by unwinding to Netflix, Hulu andother streaming services, so it should come as no surprise that they hope toreplicate that when away. Luckily, some hotels are beginning to offerstreaming services built into guestroom TVs, so travelers can sign into theiraccounts and binge watch their favorite shows.

What's your part in this? 

The first thing you have to do is make sure you understand your travelers’needs. While breakfast and Internet access may have been enough a coupleof years ago, it may not be today.

Also, evaluate if you are offering enough choice to account for the varyingneeds of your travelers. If not, they will book outside your travel program.

Next, you need to get your travelers excited about these appealing lifestyleoptions at the hotels in your program. Many companies are hesitant to allowTMCs or hotels to market directly to their travelers, but when they canhighlight exciting opportunities, travelers will be motivated to book withinpolicy.

To be even more effective, take that message beyond email communications.Put it in your corporate intranet, and promote these amenities at yourcorporate travel fairs. For example, if a hotel has Pelotons, bring one to yourtravel fair for people to test out. Don’t stop communicating with travelers.There is no better way to close the many gaps between your policy and theirunderstanding of it.

To satisfy the foodies, it may be worth negotiating food and beveragediscounts with hotels that have revamped their food offerings. Restaurantsare becoming an increasingly bigger focus at hotels with some bringing inchefs and implementing completely new menus, and some brands are evenputting together customizable to-go bowls with healthy, local ingredients.

The good news is improving traveler satisfaction isn’t all about lettingtravelers spend more money on the road. Quite often hotels are stepping upto help meet many of your traveler’s needs, and it might only require a littlemarketing on your part, or a slightly different approach when negotiating inorder to make travelers realize you are meeting their needs. And whentravelers are happy with your hotels, they’ll reward you with better hotelprogram compliance.

Blog author: Michael Jarrard, VP Sales, Americas, RoomIt by CWT

CWT

CWT is a Business-to-Business-for-Employees (B2B4E) travel managementplatform. Companies and governments rely on us to keep their peopleconnected – anywhere, anytime, anyhow – and across six continents, weprovide their employees with innovative technology and an efficient, safe andsecure travel experience. Every single day, we look after enough travelers tofill more than 100,000 hotel rooms, while our meetings and events divisionhandles more than 100 events every 24 hours.

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