Understanding Extended Stay Accommodations Role in Business Travel

In late 2015 and again earlier this year, the GBTA Foundation, in partnership with WWStay, conducted two research studies on extended stay accommodations to learn more about this market especially when it comes to business travel. The first study revealed nearly half (48 percent) of all U.S. business travelers have used an extended stay accommodation in the past 12 months when traveling internationally for business. In addition, 60 percent of business travelers who use extended stay accommodations book it themselves with many of that group booking through an online travel site (41 percent) or directly on the extended stay website (38 percent).

At GBTA Convention 2016, Rajeev Goswami, WWStay CEO, spoke with GBTA’s Caitlin Gomez about the study’s implications for the market and what WWStay is doing in this marketplace.

The 2016 follow-up study took a more qualitative approach to dive deep into the challenges travel buyers face when fulfilling extended stay accommodations as well as the duty of care implications. A recent BTN article says corporate awareness of extended-stay opportunities is on the rise and talks to various industry experts about the potential for finding opportunities to save with longer-term rentals and extended stays.

Travel professionals wear a lot of different hats, and in most cases, managing extended stay trips for their travelers is one of them. Understanding the unique needs of their travelers in terms of extended stay business trips, as well as available resources, will help them determine how to best manage extended stay within the company travel program.

Both the 2015 and 2016 study are free to GBTA Members and accessible on the GBTA Hub.