Corporate Booking Channels are a big driver of profit for hotels. In a recent PhoCusWright survey it was found that 30 percent of business travel is managed travel, which accounts for 30.7 million Americans or 13 percent of the adult population. 30 percent of managed business travelers said they work for a company that has policies on which booking channel they can use when making hotel reservations. All this to say that a substantial amount of bookings are managed through TMC’s (Travel Management Companies) and/or Corporate Self Booking Tools (SBT).

Many companies subscribe to a single SBT and for the most part business travelers conform to the use of this ‘channel’. The PhoCusWright study found that managed travel programs like this are more likely to be in place at large companies. In fact, 67 percent of companies with 5,000 or more employees have managed travel programs as well as 41 percent of companies with 500 to 4,999 people.

Interestingly the study concluded that corporations are actually more concerned with which channels/tools employees use to book with than which hotel brands they book. For hoteliers, this means finding a way to stand out and engage shoppers with relevant content to their needs on these Corporate Booking Channels is an opportunity to increase bookings amongst this market segment.

Most companies are brand agnostic so the business traveler has a choice of brands he can stay at within his/her prescribed rate plan. This is an opportunity for hoteliers’s to better market and/or merchandise their hotels on these Corporate SBTs and Channels. Understanding what motivates business travel shoppers to choose one hotel over the other should be the focus of a hotelier’s merchandising efforts.

Using VFM Leonardo’s VBrochure is a strategic way to show off your hotel’s qualities on Corporate SBTs, it will definitely help you stand out from the crowd. With the ability to tell your hotel’s “business traveler” story with rich-visuals and narrative within an easily navigable website from within a Corporate SBT will allow shoppers to see all your hotels details – giving, business travel consumers the information they need to book your hotel!

For a glimpse of this read our white paper, or to learn more about the PhocusWright survey, click here.

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