The "golden age" of business travel in the UK is over according to a new survey by a market research agency.
BDRC said the size of the UK domestic hotel market for business travellers fell last year by 3% to 56m room nights.
Its 2010 Hotel Guest Survey revealed that business travellers had cut on average four nights off their stays compared with the same time last year.
The survey found that just under 50% of business travellers had been asked to change their behaviour to reduce costs.
This led to 27% cutting the length of stays and 22% staying at hotels with lower rates.
The survey also found that companies were "cracking down on travel" and with three out of four now operating a hotel policy.
A quarter of the survey's respondents said this was being "strictly enforced" compared to a fifth last year.
BDRC said that 44% of its respondents reported an increase in enforcement in the last 12 months.
This was either through limits on room rates (31%) or restrictions of choice of hotels (29%).
But the survey also found that 53% of travellers still chose their own hotel with the figure rising to 73% among frequent bookers.
The survey found that business travellers were becoming increasingly price savvy with 19% using price comparison sites to get the best deal.
Membership of hotel loyalty programmes was also growing, with 42% of business travellers and 69% of frequent travellers now signed up.
Tim Sander, BDRC's director, said the results painted "an extremely mixed picture for hotel brands".
He added: "Executives are still travelling but hotel brands need to work harder to secure their bookings.
"The nature of business travel has changed as individuals take more responsibility for their own travel, but as companies cut costs and place restrictions on room rates, today's business traveller is increasingly cautious about how they spend their money.
"The challenge is for brands to maintain their quality standards and deliver the kind of experience Britain's business travellers have come to expect, but at a keener price.
"A key objective for hotel brands must be to understand the varying business traveller segments and gain insight into the factors that are driving booking behaviours."
www.bdrc.co.uk