Corporate Guests In Your Hotel – A Hotelier’s Guide

The year is 2021, the pandemic is receding and there has never been a better time to get corporate guests at your hotel.

As the world of business travel begins to open up, hoteliers should be aware of the present-day needs of your clients. What makes them tick? How can you impress corporate guests to bring them back? 

And just how important are they to your hotel?

To get corporate guests at your hotel requires a lot of criteria. Maybe they are not your customer segment, and that’s okay. You can analyse your particular customer segments to define your best marketing strategy.

However, if you can get them, business travellers pay off.

Big Boost for Business – Corporate Guests In Your Hotel

Business travellers make a huge customer segment. And best of all they do not have an off-season. While happy holiday makers are splashing around in summer seas under a scorching sun, corporate travellers are busy:

• Closing deals
• Speaking at summits
• Giving lectures
• Negotiating with firms
• Developing projects
• Inspecting sites
• Investigating opportunities

All the while, looking for an ideal location. Namely – your hotel. 

They are not just limited to one field either. The top-spending industries for corporate travel cover everything from civil servants, to rubber manufacturing, to food production. With year-round opportunities for hoteliers to get corporate guests in your hotel, it’s a bad idea to ignore this vital customer segment.

Bleisure has Increased

While not a new concept, the terminology certainly is. High-stakes projects and deals are stressful, so it is no surprise that after the business part of the trip has ended, many corporate guests tend to stay on a while longer to experience the leisure part of their trip.

Hence, bleisure was born.

This only added to the value of business travellers. Especially considering that a report revealed that 43% of business travellers make sure they indulge in bleisure. After their official allotted time, these guests look to blow off steam, get pampered and enjoy themselves.

And who is going to spend more in a hotel bar than a corporate guest after successfully closing a big deal?

The Expectations of Corporate Guests in Your Hotel

The term corporate guest is very much an umbrella term. While we do have a list of universal needs that every business traveller looks for, some personal research will always be required.

For example if your hotel is near the location of companies with big chinese affiliations you would never host corporate guests in room number four.

But let’s take a look at the best-selling points so you can market your hotel to corporate guests.

Location

Loyalty Schemes

Transport

Wifi

Technology

In-house Service

Catering

Professionalism 

Facilities 

Social Media Marketing 

Location

Corporate guests travel too much – so the last thing they want is to book their hotel knowing that they will be forced to get up earlier for more travel.

That’s why your location is a top priority for your hotel, especially if you are near offices, big business or locations used for summits. If you do not promote your hotel on Google how will corporate guests (or their secretaries) know that you are a convenient location for a business trip?

No location = no booking.

Loyalty Schemes

Corporate guests make the same trips over and over again. They oversee projects, manage business relationships and attend meetings in the same location repeatedly. If your hotel has everything a corporate guest needs, then they will look to come back.

That is where loyalty schemes come in. Simple but flexible loyalty schemes attract recurring business travellers time and time again.

Transport

For corporate guests, time is money. While location is vital to their decision-making process when they book a hotel, they will doubtlessly desire convenient transport.

That means close relationships with high-level taxi companies and knowledge of train stations, airports etc. 

Wi-fi

You might think that we are stating the obvious here, but it still happens.

Corporate travellers need good wi-fi!

Not all work is done in the office. They keep their staff updated via e-mails, Google Meet and Zoom calls. They process research and draw up plans. 

Excellent wi-fi is the essential tool that your hotel needs, especially for corporate guests. If you have it, then you can attract corporate guests in your hotel again and again.

Technology

Personalised service does not always mean the human touch. In fact, travellers of all customer segments are beginning to prefer mobile apps due to their more efficient nature.

Seamless check-in and check-out service done via mobile apps streamlines the entire process. No more waiting and no more hassle involved, especially if your corporate guests are tired and cranky from an exhausting flight.

In-house Service

Business guests – nothing suits them like a suit.

But only if those suits are not crumpled and creased. The danger of travelling is that your clothes will always become slightly battered, so in-house services are a huge selling point for potential corporate guests.

Cleaned and ironed. It isn’t difficult or strenuous. But make sure that your hotel provides this service, and that potential business guests know this fact.

It could be the deciding factor between your hotel and another.

Catering

With corporate guests in your hotel, it is important to cover their catering options. Their needs vary depending upon age and profession, but you must make sure that:

• Early breakfast options are available
• Your hotel can provide a packed lunch
• Healthy options are available
  • This is because most corporate travellers actually try to eat healthier when they are on business trips!

Eating is a pastime that corporate guests do not want to waste brainpower on. If you ensure that these wishes are covered, you are providing top-notch accommodation for corporate guests.

Professionalism 

Noone respects professionalism like other professionals. 

In business, organisation is key. Therefore you must make sure that your hotel is presented as organised.  

Aside from booking confirmation emails, you must ensure that your hotel sends pre-arrival, in-house, and check-out emails as well. You can prepare requests, respond to queries and solve issues with zero problems.

Professionalism is also required in the pre-booking phase. If your booking engine is underdeveloped (or worse – you don’t have one at all) then you are less likely to receive that booking.

Facilities

A gym, a spa or a massage parlour can be an enormous selling point for your hotel. Especially to corporate guests who want to live healthily, but also wind down at the end of the day.

Don’t have these? No problem.

All you need to do is arrange for close relations to a nearby location. As long as you brand yourself in collaboration with a nearby venue and perhaps even negotiate a discounted price for guests, you can still use them as a marketing tool!

Social Media Marketing

Obviously you are using Google to promote your hotel. On top of that you are also geotagging your hotel to increase the odds of extra bookings.

But are you using the right social media marketing?

Instagram may be the top place to attract potential holidaymakers, but is it the best place to bring corporate guests in your hotel? 

LinkedIn is a media platform that hotels often overlook, and yet it is also one of the platforms designed specifically for professionals in industry. If your hotel can specifically target corporate guests – then LinkedIn is a resource that you cannot afford to miss out on.

Ready to Bring Corporate Guests In Your Hotel?

Business travellers are a resource that can pay off all year round. If your hotel has the opportunity to target this particular customer segment then yesterday was the best time to begin your marketing efforts towards them.

Today is the second best time – so get started!

Remember, if you are concerned about your hotel’s online presence, we offer completely FREE audits for hotels. So contact us and arrange a free consultation at your leisure! We will provide you with information about your hotel’s digital weak points, as well as the fixes that you can employ!

 

Until then – stay busy!