GUEST BLOG: Staying power - ​how your hotel policy can help win the battle for top recruits

It’s a tough job market for employers. If you want to attract the top recruits, you’ll have to fight for them. When taking new roles, many employees want benefits that offer better work-life balance, like more paid time off and flexible work arrangements.

For those who travel frequently, a good travel policy is essential to work-life balance and can be a key factor when determining whether to stay in a job or accept a new one. In fact, 59% of North American business travellers and 66% of Latin American travellers told GBTA that a company's travel policy is an important factor when deciding to take a job with a new employer.

What can you do to make sure your hotel policy appeals to recruits?

1. Offer convenient locations and properties

Time and time again, business travellers say convenience is their number one priority. It’s not an unreasonable request. Who doesn’t want an extra 30 minutes of prep time or sleep before heading out to a meeting?

Yet, if you only rely on GDS content, your hotel program may not offer properties at all of the locations your travellers visit. Offering properties from third-party hotel content sources like Booking.com and Expedia Partner Services can provide travellers with access to more locations and accommodation types (independent hotels, apartments, etc.) that are not available in the GDS.

2. Be realistic about rates

Beyond convenience, travellers want to stay somewhere clean, comfortable and safe. Quality matters. While price does not equate to quality, there are significant differences in average room night rates by location. When setting city caps, make sure you know average rates by city and how much rates are expected to grow. Carlson Wagonlit's  2019 Global Travel Forecast can help you determine rate increases by region. Also, consider the type or class of property your travellers expect to stay at when setting rate caps.

3. Help travellers save time

Scrolling through pages of hotel property results trying to decide which hotel is the right fit – not so much fun. Neither is searching through several sites. Partner with a travel management company (TMC) that offers personalised search results. 

4. Offer loyalty perks

Travellers care so much about loyalty points that they’ll risk their personal safety to earn them. Literally. 3 in 10 business travellers surveyed by CWT said they would sacrifice safety for loyalty points and incentives. The good news is that travellers can book rates with loyalty points through RoomIt. The even better news is that they can earn additional hotel loyalty points through Loyalty Booster, driving in-channel bookings to your preferred suppliers.

5. Make Bleisure easier

More companies are allowing travellers to add a holiday to the end of their work trips. However, most travellers book their trips through consumer sites. Make sure travellers are clear if they can take advantage of your preferred rates or TMC when booking personal extensions and how to pay for those accommodations so they can book their full trip all at once. 

Blog author: Scott Hyden, Chief Experience Officer, RoomIt by CWT, who will be exhibiting at Business Travel Show on 20-21 February at Olympia London. Secure your free ticket now at www.businesstravelshow.com.

GUEST BLOG: Perfect pairing: serviced apartments benefit bleisure travellers

Just as leisure travellers admit they are always working – 43 per cent of international travellers always take their professional mobile devices with them on holiday or weekend trips*– business travellers are beginning to extend their stays to include a leisure component. This blurring between business and leisure travel, dubbed ‘bleisure’, was identified as a major trend in the recent Skiftmagazine Megatrends Defining Travel in2015.

For many business travellers worldwide, bleisure is already a way of life, with data from BridgeStreet Global Hospitality’s 2014 Bleisure Report indicating 83 per cent of respondents use time on business trips to explore the city they’re visiting.

Most annual travel is for leisure, with business travel making up less than 30 per cent, and according to BridgeStreet's survey, nearly half (46 per cent) of business travellers add personal travel days to business trips. Having surveyed more than 640 recent guests, BridgeStreet’s original research reveals an overwhelmingly positive sentiment toward bleisure as the latest business travel trend.

While a desire for ‘bleisure’ is growing amongst employees, the majority of businesses have yet to incorporate the concept. Nearly 60 per cent of respondents indicated their company does not have a policy on bleisure, with an additional 27 per cent unsure of any policy. But bleisure is about more than rest and relaxation; these trips can actually impact employee satisfaction. Seventy-nine per cent of recent BridgeStreet guests indicated that adding leisure trips to extended business travel (3+ weeks) adds value to an assignment, while 73 per cent feel that the opportunity to take bleisure trips benefits them as an employee.

With 95 per cent of travellers more than or equally likely to take a bleisure trip in the next five years, business could benefit from implementing policies surrounding this trend. Employees feel bleisure opportunities benefit them and add value to work assignments, contributing to higher job satisfaction and loyalty.

Clear and fair guidance around ‘bleisure’ trips will likely help foster trust between companies and their employees as well as motivate them, make them more productive and create a positive attitude toward the work/life balance. With the proper implementation, who knows, ‘bleisure’ travel may even have a positive effect on a company’s bottom line. 

  

To learn more about the rise of bleisure travel and view the complete Bleisure Report visit http://www.bridgestreet.com/bleisure.

* 2013 Orbitz trend report

BridgeStreet is exhibiting at the Business Travel Show on 25-26 February, Olympia Grand, London. Register for a free visitor pass now www.businesstravelshow.com