How Successful Companies Choose Hotels for Corporate Travel

Introduction

Does your company have branches, factories, stores and new production facilities that your employees regularly visit? Does your sales team travel to multiple clients in different locations across the country in one week?

It may sound simple, but a company’s day-to-day reality determines its travel needs. Choosing a hotel partner that meets these needs is more important than ever. The good news is that choosing a corporate hotel partner doesn’t have to be difficult. It comes down to identifying the things needed for your company to be successful and matching those needs with available hotels.

So how do mid-size and large successful companies do it? And what’s their strategy?

We wanted to find out, so we collaborated with Callosum, a marketing research agency, to uncover the key criteria successful mid-size and large companies use when establishing corporate travel policies and choosing a hotel partner for their corporate travel needs.

A qualitative study of current and prospective Choice Hotels® North American clients was conducted in 2014.*

*Phone interviews were conducted in March 2014.

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Building a Corporate Travel Policy

Callosum found that when companies choose hotels they organize themselves around a somewhat formal process and the standards they want to uphold. In other words, whoever chooses the hotels simply puts company practice into action. It’s about companies identifying what’s important to them, and picking the brands that meet those needs.

Who’s Booking the Rooms?

Travel responsibilities mainly fall to executives and administrative assistants and/or the procurement department if the company has one. Most companies separate the responsibilities of hotel reservations and contract negotiations. This includes yearly re-negotiations between administrative assistants and/or other employees via intranet and procurement, especially when high-volume activity is involved.

Callosum’s research found there were different types of variations among companies and industries (e.g., decision-makers worked across all areas, including sales, marketing and accounting departments).

Planning Begins in the Fall

Research also showed that in the fall, companies review the number of hotel nights they’ve booked in the past year and evaluate whether or not their preferred and/or partner hotels will receive requests for proposals (RFPs) for the upcoming year. The goal is to make sure that their supplier lists are complete by January.

Employee feedback is considered at this time, which means that hotels are sometimes removed from lists for not meeting expectations. It’s also standard practice for companies to have multiple partners, including competing brands across mid-scale and upscale segments, as well as independent hotels.

“Our engineers and project managers need to travel to the site we are developing and stay for a few days.”—Callosum Study Participant

Day-to-Day Reality Determines Travel Needs

Does your company have branches, factories, stores or production facilities that team members need to visit?

Is your company expanding its footprint into new areas?

Does your sales team conduct quarterly sales meetings in different territories?

How your company operates will dictate how often your employees need to travel, which ultimately determines corporate travel policies.

What Business Travelers Want:Location, Location, Location.

Companies first and foremost look at a hotel’s location. Convenience trumps all other criteria when companies choose a hotel for their business travelers. Price is second and free breakfast, a close third. Almost 50% of the surveyed companies cite the importance of onsite parking and 33% cite safety as a concern for their female employees. As expected, cleanliness, a comfortable bed, and free Wi-Fi are seen as standard services.

The Top Five Criteria for Choosing Hotels:

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“What we look for in a hotel is location—it has to be convenient and accessible for our employees. Location is everything.” —Callosum Study Participant

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Corporate Contracts Offer Advantages

All of the companies interviewed for this study made it loud and clear: negotiated, corporate contracts provide the greatest advantages, including:

• Cost control

• Consistent room availability (with associated peace of mind)

• Long-standing relationships between employees and local hotels

• Less administrative tasks with easy-to-reserve booking methods

• More employee perks, including corporate rates on holidays

Four Steps to Selecting a Corporate Hotel Partner

Choosing a corporate hotel is all about finding a location that’s central to the company’s needs—at the right price. Callosum’s research confirmed this decision can be simplified to four steps:

Company Travel Needs

Hotels selected in proximity to

place of business

If frequent enough, negotiate corporate contract

Mid-scale hotelsUpscale hotels & high end

or mid-scale hotels

Where to?

What price range?

Mid-management and lower levels

Executive level

Who travels?

How often?

“We really appreciate the fact that there is no paperwork involved in reserving a room with our ‘preferred’ hotel.” —Callosum Study Participant

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Next Steps

Whether you’re establishing a new corporate travel policy, or rethinking your entire approach, the following factors should play an integral part in your decision:

• Find a hotel partner that is located everywhere you do—and will do—business

• Consider price and room availability to keep your budget in check

• Match the right family of brands with the preferences of all employees, top to bottom

• Make sure the reservation process is easy and readily accessible for everyone

• Realize the business amenities and cost benefits of mid-scale brands

• Track down a compelling rewards program that compensates your employees quickly

• Ensure incentives are in place if you happen to exceed room-night volume requirements

“There is so much personal time in travel that it’s good for employee motivation when they can benefit from points.” —Callosum Study Participant

Rewarding Your Employees Callosum’s findings show that successful companies are aware how taxing travel can be on their employees and that it’s in a company’s best interest to let their employees book at preferred/partner hotels and be rewarded for their stay. Reward programs are seen as an essential bonus for the time the employees spend traveling.

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About Callosum

Callosum is a Montreal-based marketing research agency that works on behalf of national and international clients across a wide variety of industries. With extensive experience in both qualitative and quantitative research, Callosum’s consultants combine analysis and creativity to deliver insights that inspire marketing strategies and improve advertising campaigns.

About Choice Hotels®

Choice Hotels™ International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the world’s largest lodging companies. With more than 6,300 hotels franchised in 35 countries and territories, we represent more than 500,000 rooms around the globe. Our company’s Ascend Hotel Collection®, Cambria hotels & suites®, Comfort Inn®, Comfort Suites®, Sleep Inn®, Quality®, Clarion®, MainStay Suites®, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel®, Econo Lodge® and Rodeway Inn® brands provide a spectrum of lodging choices to meet our business and leisure traveler needs. Visit us at www.ChoiceHotels.com for more information.

© 2015 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved. 15-565/10/15