" Show me your smartphone and I'll tell you what kind of business traveller you are"... That's the gist of this new study published by the GBTA Foundation, which is based on the following principles explores the relationship between hotel chains, new technologies and business travel. The results show that mobile applications are still essential for professionals on the move. A comfortable majority of business travellers (61%) have downloaded an application from at least one of the seven US hotel giants. In 54% of cases, the smartphone is equipped with two applications of this type.
In the majority of cases, these mobile applications are used to enquire about the booking status (43%) and points accumulated under the loyalty programmes set up by these hotel groups (43%). Visit booking a room comes in third place (39%) according to this study by the GBTA foundation, which nevertheless highlights generational differences. The " Millennials "(aged 18-34) would be more likely to use the hotel's mobile app to check out the services offered in the establishment, in order to order room serviceor to contact hotel staff. Monica Sanchez, Director of Research at the GBTA Foundation, points out that " hotels have room for manoeuvre when it comes to developing the possibilities offered by their mobile applications and promoting these functionalities "to business travellers. She adds: " In the future, hotels may invest in innovative new technologies, but they must also continue to focus on improving existing servicesespecially Wi-fi, which remains crucial for business travellers ".
This study by the GBTA Foundation, published on 7 September, also highlights the technological innovations most sought after by corporate customers. Above all, business travellers expect more power sockets and USB ports (35%), a relatively basic service in the final analysis, closely followed (34%) by an offer that is still fairly rare: the TV streaming services, such as Netflix. Clearly, recharging mobile devices is more than ever a thorny issue for travellers, who also hope to find in their rooms laptop chargers and for mobile phones. There is now considerable interest in integrating mobile technologies into the school's infrastructure. This is because, room opening via smartphone (27%), access to smart" televisionsbecause they are connected to the Internet (27%), and self check-in kiosks (24%) are now well established in the hierarchy of business travellers' expectations.
