Millennials, people who were born between 1981 and 1996 are now the largest segment in the workplace. Recognized as highly tech-savvy, millennials prefer things to be simplified and to have the world at their fingertips.
They are also traveling for business more often than before, as reported in this study. One of their common traits for business traveling is they prefer to book their accommodation on their own and without the help of travel agents.
Their preference and the growing number of business travelers among millennials present an opportunity for hotels and vacation rental owners.
How Business Travelers Can Benefit You?
Aside from the fact that they now occupy a large segment of the workforce as mentioned above, there are also other reasons why you should be attracting them to stay at your property.
They Stay Longer
These young employees are known to extend their work trip to spend some time exploring the destination. A report shown that when the business trips take longer than 3 days, business travelers is 30% more likely to extend their stay.
On top of that, they usually travel mid-week and not during the weekend. This will help you improve the occupancy rate of your property during the week.
They Don’t Come In Large Number
Business travelers normally don’t come in large pax. Usual case is they will travel alone or in pair for their business trip.
This will benefit you if your vacation rental is rented by a business traveler. Your property will be better taken care of as compared to renting it to leisure guests with large pax (less possible damage and less effort to clean!).
How To Attract Business Travelers To Your Property?
1 – Convenient Service – Seamless Booking Process
Business travelers especially the millennials are known to be online almost 24/7 and they prefer to book on their own at their convenience, no matter at what time. High chance they will look for accommodation during midnight!
Having a working booking engine on your website is the key but it should not stop there. You need to consider they could also come across your property on social media especially Facebook. You might also want to consider having a Book Now button on Facebook to direct them to your booking engine.
2 – High Speed Wi-Fi
If you’re thinking to tap into this customer segment, you need to make sure that your property is equipped with high speed Wi-Fi connection. Not just high speed, but lightning speed kind of Wi-Fi connection.
This article mentions a study conducted that reveals the main contributing factor for business travelers is the availability of a good reliable Wi-Fi connection. That’s not worrying. What’s more worrying is the study also highlighted that if business travelers experienced disappointing Wi-Fi connection at a property, they would not want to come back the second time.
3 – Business Friendly Amenities
If you seriously want to attract business travelers to stay at your property, win their hearts by providing them business-friendly amenities. Put some thoughts into what could a business traveler need and appreciate when staying at your establishment.
Could they be a tea or a coffee person? Provide them both options as well as a coffee maker / heater so that they can make their tea or coffee when they want. A business traveler will also appreciate a work space; a desk and a chair for them to do their work. Other than that, you could also provide an iron and ironing board for their work attire.
4 – Loyalty Program
After you have sorted out point 1 – 3, the next step is to craft a loyalty program. If you have already had a business traveler staying at your property before, reach out to them to offer them a discount for their next stay.
If you haven’t hosted a business traveler and would very much like to do so, start by offering a corporate rate or special discount and have it shown on your website and social media. Note that business travelers often talk to each other on their stay experience, if they like your property they will most likely recommend it to their fellow colleagues.
Read also: How to Create Promo Code on Softinn Extranet (with Examples)
Business travelers used to occupy hotels but the rise of vacation rentals has in a way shifted their accommodation preference. Options are now in abundance, it is up to them to decide where they want to stay.
Not all vacation rentals are fit to host business travelers, but if you think yours is suitable and you would like to tap into this market segment, consider implementing the points elaborated above.
One last thing but the most important is after you have tuned your property to be business travelers friendly, do not forget to include in your listing description; either on your website, listing page on OTAs or your social media site because if you don’t get the words out, they wouldn’t know that you want to welcome them to your property.
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