We all have our preferences when it comes to personal travel, and while some business travellers are happy to leave theirs at home, others will often bring them along for the ride.

Picky business travellers are tricky to manage – unless you take into account these five factors before booking their accommodation:

Free in-room WiFi

Few business trips could survive without WiFi, but if there are any barriers to getting online, irritation levels will rise. Hotels that only offer free WiFi in the lobby or limit the number of devices that can be connected in the room won’t be popular with business travellers.

More than half of business travellers spend at least one hour per day using in-room internet access for business reasons, and the picky traveller won’t want to hunt around for access codes or be forced to top-up their credit once they exceed their allocated time online.

Always look for hotels that offer free, unrestricted WiFi in their rooms.

Plenty of tech amenities

We travel with a lot of battery-powered devices these days, and you won’t hear the end of it if a picky traveller has to charge their phone several feet away from the bed.

An adequate number of power outlets and USB charging points are therefore highly desirable, but there are other tech amenities you’ll need to take into consideration.

For instance, millennial travellers are likely to choose a streaming video service as their preferred in-room amenity, while high-frequency business travellers will be keen on maintaining their own ‘profile’ which delivers a personalised stay, wherever they happen to be.

Mobile app convenience

Sixty-one percent of business travellers have installed at least one of the world’s major hotel chains’ apps on their smartphone.

This trend suggests they’re keen on exploring what the brand has to offer and will probably make use of any convenience features available.

For instance, forty-three percent of business travellers use hotel apps to check the status of their reservation and many more will use them to book their stay and manage reward accounts.

Hotel apps often enable travellers to check themselves in without visiting the front desk, too – something that is highly desirable after a long day of business meetings and, increasingly, picky travellers will expect this service as a standard.

Space and privacy

Business travellers want adequate space in which to rest and work, but they want their privacy, too.

Room sharing with colleagues is, therefore, best avoided, and, instead, a focus placed on offering a home-from-home experience when staying at a hotel for business purposes.

If you’re struggling to find accommodation that meets these demands, serviced apartments typically offer up to 30% more space than hotel alternatives, making them a compelling choice when satisfying business travellers’ needs.

A flexible stay

With hotels offering tempting package deals that include breakfast and evening meals, it’s easy to inadvertently send business travellers on an inflexible stay.

Some travellers want to explore the local area during their downtime – and 49% of business travellers have extended a business trip in the last year. The ability to leave the hotel and sample the local restaurant scene without fear of falling foul of the expense policy is a boon for these people.

Do your homework Picky travellers are at their hardest to manage when they check into a hotel and discover a vital element of their stay is missing. It’s a call every travel manager dreads.

To avoid this, travel managers and organisers should gather traveller requirements prior to the business trip, and we’ve created a super-handy toolkit that helps you to do just that!

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