Are You in the Book?

Abstract

As corporate travel departments become more assertive about managing employees' travel behavior, knowing how a hotel can be included in the company's travel directory becomes increasingly important to hoteliers. Since each hotel offers a different bundle of features, hotel operators should find it useful to know the relative value of those features to corporate travel managers. A pilot study of such travel managers tested their preferences of hypothetical combinations of hotel attributes, including negotiated rates, guaranteed rooms, and business amenities. While special rates substantially increase the likelihood of a hotel's being approved, rates are not always the deciding factor. Travel managers seemed to consider trade-offs among various hotel features, with such items as flexible cancellation policy, guaranteed last-room availability, and convenience to the workplace as being notably valuable. The research also found that the type and size of a company influences which factors are particularly salient in a firm's decision to approve a particular hotel.