As a hotelier or professional in the hospitality and service industry, it is important to know your customers.

As a hotelier or professional in the hospitality and service industry, it is important to know your customers. If you anticipate what your customers need, you will be working towards customer loyalty and customer delight. A happy and satisfied customer will always return and become your most profitable source of marketing.

So here are some business travel trends you should be aware of to cater to that section of your clientele that keeps roving around the world and returning to stay at your hotel because you can take care of their needs.

What Business Travel Means in Modern Times?

Gone are the days when a business trip brought about a dreaded vision of having to fight through crowds of people to get to your destination only to find that you have back-to-back meetings and no time to even breathe. Today, business travel isn’t defined as ‘All work and no play’ and instead, many corporate personnel feel like they’re getting paid for something that they absolutely enjoy!

Of course, the term ‘business travel’ means to travel for business purposes. So, some amount of work definitely gets done! However, many high-flying corporate travelers say that they tend to take advantage of business trips to just unwind.

How is Business Travel Becoming Simpler?

Business travel is entering into a new age. Business travelers are now aware of and make use of the latest applications, websites and other technology to make their travel procedure simple. They have started to utilize check-in apps designed especially for hotels to book rooms in advance and not have to waste time seeing to formalities straight after they arrive. With in-flight Wi-Fi and e-boarding passes, many of the hardships involved in business travel are being eliminated.

Also, many business travelers actually like spending time at the airport- some enjoy chilling in the lounge, others make good use of the Wi-Fi/ iPad docking stations and get started on their work and there are still some more that frequent the airport restaurants, cocktail bars or salons to de-stress before their flight.

Business Travel is good for Networking

Business travelers, today, are quite good at multitasking and savvy enough to know that connections can be developed anywhere. Quite a surprising number of people actually form business relationships or make deals while waiting to board their flight or on the flight itself!

This new class of business travelers views traveling for work purposes as a blessing in disguise and make optimum use of it to derive inspiration from random places, pull through business deals and stock up on business contacts for the future. On board bars are one of the latest in a long series of developments targeted specifically at attracting business travelers who are looking to indulge in a bit of pleasure and not throw the entire trip away. Co-working lounges have also been introduced by hotels that cater mainly to the business or corporate crowd.

Leads Lead to Inspiration

A lot of business travelers say that they’ve been struck by inspiration while waiting for their flight to arrive and that, sometimes, a delay can be just the thing you need to get your creative juices flowing. This is probably due to the fact that they have so much spare time to utilize that their brain starts working overtime.

Ignites the Spark for Adventure

Many corporate travelers frequently extend their business trips while visiting a new country. They wish to combine their work with pleasure and feel that after the business deal goes through, they require some much needed rest and relaxation. Quite a percentage of business travelers decide to spend an extra day or two just visiting the tourist spots or seeing more of the country they happen to be visiting.

The scope for airlines, travel companies and hotels to develop new products and services specifically designed to meet the needs and desires of business travelers is practically unlimited. More and more corporate travelers are more likely to mix a little pleasure into their dreary business trips as time passes by. In fact, many of them believe they have the best jobs ever created because they get an opportunity to further their career and see different parts of the world at the same time!