The Future of Corporate Travel for Hoteliers

Deloitte just released their predictions for the future of corporate travel as it relates to meetings, events, hotels, and more.

We did the hard part of reading through and analyzing the important trends for hotel sales professionals, so you don’t have to. 

Based on a survey of 150 corporate travel managers between Feb. 10 to 18, Deloitte found the following: 

• Leisure travel is booming. With business travel, we’ll see a rise over the next several months, but a full recovery, matching the pre-pandemic occupancy rates, is years away.
• Companies are recalling their workforce back to the office after two years of working remotely.
• Long-delayed team meetings have been rescheduled, and conferences are slowly shifting from online to in-person events.
• Nontraditional lodging, like Airbnb and other short-term rentals, is siphoning off a small percentage of hotel room nights as companies seek unique ways to get their workforce out of their homes, off of Zoom, and back to in-person business practices. 
• Corporate spending per in-person meeting, event, or conference has risen above pre-pandemic levels by 36%. By the end of Q2 2022, that number will jump to 55%.
• On the contrary, these same companies are stalling the long-term growth in the business travel sector. Corporate travel will remain slow as three out of 10 companies expect to reduce travel budgets between 11% to 25% by 2025. 

So let’s digest these pain points:

• Now that travel restrictions have eased, and the pandemic hangover is drying out, we’re finding that companies are flying their employees to warmer locations, where they can rejoice with their colleagues as they return to normalcy.
• However —  between now and Q4 — C-Suiters will aggressively pull back the reigns on all travel expenses. Corporate travel budgets will be based on the why rather than the what.
• Business travel is coming back at a slower pace, but the per-person spend is above pre-pandemic rates. That means that when companies are traveling or hosting in person, their budget is larger due to doing this less often. When you do have a group booking, you can find that their budget may be higher than they would have typically planned. 
• Finally, with inflation and fuel prices on the rise, instability in the geopolitical landscape, and the constant fear of another COVID variant, CEOs are looking to stockpile their travel budget surplus from the past two years. They will do their best to employ the old rally cry, “We have to do more with less!”

While corporate travel is on the rise again, it’s still unknown how individual companies will allocate their travel budget. We’re seeing an increase in travel spending, but the amount of travel companies are doing is a bit more restricted. Either way, there is no better time than now to ensure your property has a sales and catering solution that will help to manage your group bookings, room blocks, and incoming leads more efficiently. 

Get the right software in place at your property

Having a more efficient way of managing groups will help your team upsell so you’re getting the most out of each group at your property. Having all your documents and information in place with custom email templates makes it easy to send information in seconds, with a few clicks, from anywhere you are. 

Tripleseat is the modern-day answer to the more archaic legacy hotel software. Tripleseat’s sales and catering platform for hotels, built by hoteliers for hoteliers, will enable your property to capture leads seamlessly, reduce the time it takes the sales team to close group business, and streamline the planning process for your entire team. 

Your guests and team will thrive together within Tripleseat’s unparalleled sales and catering booking experience. Are you ready to learn more? Book a 15-minute demo to learn how Tripleseat can increase your group sales.