Hotel for business: what do business travellers need?

A program that could facilitate cooperation between corporate buyers of business travel services and hotel business representatives has long been necessary.

Travel managers, purchase specialists, administrative directors, i.e. all those whose job duties include business trip arrangement, admit that the industry needs certain standards regulating service quality in hotels focused on business travellers.

Besides, hotel industry representatives feel they also need a program like that. Severe competition, especially in large cities, has forced hotels to look for new distribution channels as well as for efficient ways of increasing their occupancy rates. Thus, many hotels have come to the conclusion that corporate focus can be the most efficient way of hotel positioning.

According to ABT data, business travellers account for 60% of guests in Russian hotels, and this percentage is even higher in economically active cities. Corporate sector that is focused on long-term cooperation is considered to be the most numerous, predictable and stable, as well as the most paying all over the world. Its activity fluctuates only during summer vacations and on holidays, and its demand and spending power are reliably high.

An office away from the office

If you have ever been on a business trip, you may know how difficult it is to find a hotel that provides comfortable conditions for good work outside your office. A business trip is not a vacation, and most companies ask their employees to stay in touch 24 hours a day and to solve daily tasks apart from the tasks of the business trip.

A hotel is an office away from the office rather than a home away from home for a business traveller. It means, that the room should be equipped at least with a proper working desk, a good light, good mobile communication and the Internet, office appliances, cables and adapters, the necessary number of sockets, an opportunity to scan and send out documents. The hotel staff should offer a business traveller a comfortable meeting room to hold talks with business partners, a good restaurant, a notary office, interpreter services and finally show the way to the nearest chemists’ or a fitness centre. Let alone the fact, that hotel staff should speak at least one language fluently, because a huge number of foreign guests have been visiting our country lately. Safety issues are of primary importance: a business trip is working time when the employer is responsible for his employees.

Unfortunately the reality is far from the slightest acceptable level, let alone the ideal situation. When ABT experts studied the market and compared it to corporate buyers’ demands, they came to the conclusion that there was a huge gap between requests of business travellers and hotel services offered.

The desire to change the situation and to increase competitiveness and hotel service quality in Russia and the CIS, as well as to help corporate buyers make a motivated hotel choice on the basis of reliable information about its service quality have been the reasons for the development of the Business and Conference Hotel Attestation program.

Internet, air conditioning and ATM are the new business minimum

At the stage of ground work representatives of the largest Russian and foreign companies with the leading business travel costs were questioned. The survey has revealed the main factors affecting the choice of a hotel by corporate buyers. The highest rating in the list belongs to travel policy compliance (64%), convenient hotel location, i.e. strong transport links to railway stations, airports and business areas of the city (51%), colleague recommendations (41%) and service level (40%). Interestingly, room rates were the decisive criterion for only 22% of respondents.

As for the range of services, 92% of business travel industry representatives are sure, that a modern business hotel is impossible without high speed Internet, preferably wireless, and it should be accessible in all public places — in the restaurant, the hall, the lobby and even in the corridor. The necessary services included air conditioning (77%), an ATM in the hotel or nearby (73%), payment with cards (62%), a safe (54%), a hair dryer (50%), a business centre (50%), room service (50%), as well as extra sockets allowing to charge a laptop, a smart phone and other devices simultaneously (38%).

Most of these parameters are not included into the state hotel classification system, as this program is focused at an average traveller and does not take into account business demands at all. That is why ABT Attestation program is based on criteria that are of primary importance for business travellers and includes such factors as organization principles of working desks, requirements regarding meeting room, conference hall and equipment rent, catering service and telecommunication standards and a lot more.

According to ABT program, either of two categories, and not stars, is assigned to the hotel — a business or a conference hotel. The inspection is carried out by independent experts who have working experience in the hotel industry and who are not staff members of any hotel at the time of inspection. In the course of inspection a check-list is filled in — a special form to check 345 criteria of a «business hotel» category and additional 55 criteria to certify a business and conference hotel.

Experts try to be as objective as possible during hotel attestation, so in most cases points are not given, but the presence or the absence of certain elements if fixed — furniture, systems, inventory, services. Some requirements are compulsory, such as the Internet, and some are optional, and give the hotel fewer points.

In order to receive the Certificate, the hotel should get not less than 75% of reference points. If the hotel fails to qualify for the certificate after the inspection, the expert issues a written report with recommendations to reconcile the inconsistencies.

ABT certificate is the pass to the world of new opportunities

ABT certificate is not the final stage of the hotel’s cooperation with ABT. Within three years of the date of its issue an additional inspection by a Mystery Guest can be organized in the hotel on the initiative of corporate buyers.

Corporate buyers of business travel services state univocally, that the presence of ABT certificate is a hefty criterion when choosing a hotel for corporate travel policy, business trip arrangement and MICE. It is very important for hotels, especially if we take into account the latest industry trends: reduction in the number of suppliers, consolidation of purchase volumes and their centralization, travel budget control, including the means of travel policy introduction in the field of trip expenses and entertainment costs.

Benefits of the program for hotels are evident. ABT certificate works for the hotel’s brand image and plays the role of a quality mark that proves compliance of the product and service level and serves as an additional marker that allows to distinguish the hotel in electronic booking systems. During the certificate validity period the hotel has the right to use the program sign in all marketing and advertising materials. ABT, in its turn, guarantees PR-support of the certified hotel in business, industry and travel press, the opportunity of joint participation in specialized exhibitions as well as direct channels of communication with corporate buyers.

At the moment, Oktogo.ru, the Russian hotel booking system, and the Russian Association of Business Travel are working together on the new special service — certified hotels search filter. In the near future all certified hotels will get a special sign on Oktogo.ru, which means additional distributions channels.

The geography of ABT certification is constantly growing. If at first only Moscow accommodation facilities filed their applications for participation, now hotels in Kazan, Sochi, Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, Tyumen, Ekaterinburg are interested in the program.

Such recognition is the best proof of the fact that Business and Conference Hotel Attestation Program of the Russian Association of Business Travel is a product that is really in demand and the absence of which renders further development of the industry impossible.