Business Traveler Booking Priorities

The GBTA Foundation recently released a study in partnership with Carlson Wagonlit Travel that surveyed more than 500 North American business travelers looking at their booking behaviors, especially related to hotel booking, to learn more about booking priorities and levels of satisfaction.

It turns out travelers have a diverse set of priorities when booking hotels for business travel. When asked to rank the importance of seven factors influencing an “excellent hotel booking experience” two of the three factors most commonly ranked in the top three focus on the outcome of the booking rather than the process. The top three ranked factors are: finding the right hotel for my needs (61 percent), finding the right price (56 percent) and ease of booking process (53 percent).

Finding the right hotel for their needs is a no-brainer to end up in the top three important factors for business travelers. More surprising, given that companies are often footing the bill, is that business travelers show concern about finding the right price. While this could be because travelers have a price ceiling, it could also indicate that business travelers may be receptive to efforts by a travel buyer to convince them to use booking methods that yield the greatest savings.

Satisfaction
Regardless of the booking process, travelers are almost universally satisfied with the experience of booking hotel accommodations for their last business trip with 92 percent saying they were either “very satisfied” or “satisfied”.

Want to learn more? Register for a webinar on October 20 where GBTA will further discuss the study and its findings including booking priorities and differences among Baby Boomers and Millennials when it comes to booking behaviors.