The pool of accommodation is deeper than ever before. While large global chains still dominate global hotel programmes, smaller chains are challenged by up-and-coming design-led hotels, serviced apartments and sharing economy properties.
The short-term "intrigue" factor plays its part, of course; some travellers will find a new style of accommodation doesn't fit their needs and revert back, but others will enjoy it and stay again.
Balancing the needs of your company with the needs, or curiosities, of your travellers can be tricky and that's even before we consider company perception. If you have a reputation for always choosing the cheapest possible option, are you going to recruit and retain the best talent? I'm sure the image below is familiar to many of you.
So, how do you evaluate what's going to work for your travellers and the business? Are non-chain accommodations even compatible with global hotel programmes?
Here are some tips and tricks for navigating the new industry landscape.
Engage your travellers
Travellers choose hotels that are the right fit and some travel managers have already started engaging regular travellers in the hotel programme. From surveys, monitoring expense and credit card data to see where they're staying, fireside chats, travel forums or stakeholder interviews — experiment and see what works for your road warriors.
If you know where they're staying, you're ahead of the game when it comes to identifying the right hotels for your programme.
Think traveller policy, not travel policy.
Of course, you can't just throw a list of rules and regulations at travellers and expect it to stick — it all comes back to that balancing act again.
Travellers broadly fall into these four categories, although it's rare someone will sit solely in one — it's much more likely they'll fall into two or three and identify most with one category.
And of course, they could fall into different categories for their leisure travel, although they will likely want the same experience in their business trips and holidays.
Let's look at some of the traits of each category:
The veterans want great service and a consistent experience.
The warriors like predictable, easy travel.
The explorers enjoy travelling and discovering new places.
The newbies want guidance and support.
A one-size-fits-all approach probably isn't going to work in such a diverse workforce. Think traveller-centric; look at what you can do to reduce the stress levels for each group of travellers and help them to have a 'home away from home' when they're travelling for work. If you can do this, they're much more likely to be compliant.
Count the cost
But of course, a good hotel programme must take the cost to the business, as well as to the traveller, into consideration. If an intriguing new property is miles away from the office it's going to have an impact on the total cost of a trip, especially if it's out of range of public transport.
It might be easy to have something for everyone in high-demand locations but in the markets where you have low demand it could be difficult to include boutique hotels or sharing economy properties alongside your usual suppliers. The 80/20 rule should apply.
Think safety first
If a hotel's off the grid, can it still be tracked? If not, it could become a security risk. Non-chain accommodation can work within a global hotel programme, but only if it has similar standards to other suppliers. If star ratings aren't an option, think about peer reviews or even test stays. You need to know that a new property is going to be low maintenance to manage and, most importantly, safe for your travellers to stay in.
Don't change for the sake of it
Many hotels are revamping their offer to travellers. Lobbies are turning into multifunctional meeting areas; a workspace with unlimited coffee and WiFi (for a fixed fee) during the day, then turning into bar for more informal, evening meetings.
Hotels are looking to attract repeat, regular travellers with an almost home-working like environment. Those who stay longer than two nights will typically be the ones who appreciate the new amenities most, as it means they have somewhere other than their room to work. They can also invite people to the hotel for meetings (which will, of course, work in the hotel's favour, as those who like it may stay next time).
Use traveller profiles
Traveller profiles are becoming more important — you can pre-empt what a traveller wants or needs during their trip and good service can become invisible. For example, if your traveller always like a copy of The Times or they prefer hypo-allergenic pillows and this information is contained in their traveller profile, a hotel guest relations manager can pre-empt their request, increasing satisfaction levels.
Make it easy to manage
As a good travel manager, it's unlikely you'll want 2,000 properties within your hotel programme if they're only offering low-to-average room nights, when you could concentrate on half this number and increase your negotiating power. In addition, if each of the properties in your programme is an independent, imagine how high your workload would be, with the various reps, RFPs and traveller communications to consider.
However, you may think that if traveller satisfaction and compliance increases while cost and safety remains steady, this could be a fair trade off. Otherwise, look at how to limit it. Some boutique hotels actually sit within larger, global chains, or you may find a large number of independents are managed by one rep within a separate management company. This will cut down on touch points.
And finally…
For a long time, companies have largely stuck to the same formula; find a hotel chain that works for you and keep negotiating each year. Now, however, with personalisation permeating all parts of our industry — from accommodation, to office sharing, to ground transportation — corporations need to look at alternatives to the traditional as we move into the next generation of hotel programmes.
Follow the tips and tricks I've outlined above, and you'll be able to decide if there's something in this new way of sourcing for you.