LONDON: “I have a carefully honed system, and it doesn’t involve talking,” a seasoned business traveller deadpans. “Once I’m in my zone, I barely even change my facial expression.”
His is a sentiment that could be held by any of the hundreds of people quietly coursing through Heathrow’s departures terminal at 4.30am.
Queues of smartly dressed solo business travellers flow through the airport, dispersing and reforming through its familiar series of stops and checks. Barring the occasional bleary eyed holidaymaker, it’s a well-rehearsed demonstration of efficiency. For many, the mark of a smooth travel experience is measured in time, and in how few words are required to complete it. Technology helps.
Travellers armed only with a passport and a smartphone check in hours before their Uber-drivers deliver them to the airport. In the next country, another driver from the popular taxi app will be summoned from arrivals after the flight. In the meantime an airline app holds the boarding card and automated self-scan e-passport gates handle border control.
Last year Gatwick completed the final phase of the world’s largest self-service bag drop zone to give travellers the option to use auto baggage drop kiosks. Passengers scan their boarding pass, put their bag on the luggage belt, take a tag, and receive their confirmation. This can take less than two minutes.
The travel industry believes that this is only the beginning of what is possible. Demand for tech-based travel solutions is high among the millions of frequent flyers who still view the process as a stressful experience.
Only a third of business travellers feel positive about business trips, according to recent studies, and the biggest stresses stem from the logistics of their travel, with a staggering nine out of 10 feeling stressed at some point on their journey. With business trips now making up a fifth of all travel, the stampede to capitalise on the desire for further efficiency in this lucrative market is well under way.
Booking.com sells over a million room nights every 24 hours in 95,000 destinations around the world. But last year the world’s largest travel booking site slowly began trialling a business offering, after discovering that almost one in five of bookings were made for business travel.
“It’s the next horizon and it’s a huge market,” says Ripsy Bandourian a director at the travel giant.
Booking.com for Business includes a free platform for company travel managers and assistants to book on behalf of others. It also highlights accommodation frequently used by other business travellers by combing through some 60 million guest reviews to pinpoint the amenities which rank as most essential — typically free WiFi and business meeting facilities.
By using the site’s app, travellers can view their booking confirmation, pre-book a taxi driver to meet them outside the arrivals gate and complete a paperless check-in with their hotel on arrival.
“People have become used to travelling with increased efficiency and flexibility and having the choice of which tools they use to do so. Technology has really put choice into the hands of consumers and there’s no reason why a business travel experience should be any different,” Bandourian says.
The key to successfully tapping this market is recognising that the standard idea of a business hotel room could be made redundant as long as the executive’s basic needs are met, she says.
“It’s not so easy anymore to say exactly what a business booking looks like. It could be a large well-known hotel chain, a B& B, or even someone’s home. But there are common needs which consistently come up in the criteria selected by business users. The first is location, because no one wants to trek across an unknown city when you’re on your way to a business meeting. A convenient breakfast is another key need for similar reasons. And, of course, high-speed Wi-Fi — which at this stage is like water in terms of necessity.”
Some hotels are going even further. In the Polish town of Poznan, equidistant between Western Europe and Russia, business travellers are on the rise. Instead of room keys, guests of the quirkily named Blow Up Hall 5050 hotel are handed iPhones which have an app to navigate users to the correct room and unlock the door. In Munich, guests of the Novotel are not only welcomed by a real concierge, but also a virtual one. Large touch screens stand throughout the hotel, offering flight information, weather updates and the quickest routes to local attractions.
Hotel solutions group HRS says its market research shows that business travellers in particular are looking for a home from home experience when it comes to technology. Almost half would like the availability of a tablet compared with 23pc who want a laptop in their room.
Jens Luik, a director with HRS, adds: “Hotels are certainly starting to respond to customer demands and recognising that busy business travellers want the latest technology and best gadgets available during their stay to ensure that they have the best experience.”
Booking.com for Business has not ruled out moving into flight bookings to offer a full end-to-end travel experience.
“It’s definitely a possibility, but our research shows that this end-to-end booking doesn’t usually happen at the same time. People tend to book their flights immediately and then later do research before booking somewhere to stay closer to when they leave. It’s not something people seem to want to do at the same time.”
In the meantime the airlines themselves are jostling to corner this lucrative market. As business travel across Europe becomes more frequent executives are opting to forgo business class seats offered by legacy carriers in favour of short-haul flights on low-cost carriers.
easyJet says that around 20pc of its passengers travel for business and the number of passengers climbed by 6pc to 12.5 million in the year ending in September. The company expects these numbers to increase by around 25pc over three years after the number of corporate accounts held with easyJet surged by a quarter in the last year alone.
The success of its business travel segment is in part due to its route network which links more of Europe’s top 100 primary routes than any other carrier, but its business-specific offerings share a familiar focus on efficiency and flexibility to lure executives.
In March last year the low-cost carrier rolled out its invitation-only Flight Club which targets high frequency flyers, usually business travellers, by offering a programme of benefits including free name changes on tickets and free booking changes which are managed by a dedicated customer support team.
Sales of the so-called Flexi fares carry a greater yield premium for easyJet and jumped 14pc over the year. easyJet is currently consolidating its two terminals at Gatwick, which in the past was often a point of confusion and inconvenience for travellers. By moving all its flights to the North terminal by the end of the year, it hopes to deliver an improved experience for business and leisure travellers alike. For the business travellers, it could be the first point in an altogether more efficient journey.
