Business travelers in the wake of a pandemic - booking.com recommendations

Within a few short months of the pandemic starting, all hotel booking patterns had altered* drastically, this led to the requirement of rapid adjustments in cancellation policies and other significant changes. 

Profitroom adapted quickly to this change in behaviour by providing new functionality, marketing and revenue tips, these were and are regularly presented in webinars and directly to its clients via their dedicated Customer Success Manager. 

During this time Profitroom’s partner, Booking.com, highlighted the business segment of travel and offered solutions aimed at increasing the volume of bookings among guests travelling on business (as well as its continued advice across all markets).

According to data by Booking.com, business guests cancel as much as 57% less frequently than leisure travellers. However, due to the current situation, they expect extreme flexibility and the ability to make changes up until the moment of arrival. In addition, business guests book 19% more frequently on a weekday than leisure guests, therefore designing the right rate/package can help maintain and increase sales throughout the year.

To provide all possible booking options, booking.com encourages using occupancy-based pricing meaning that each room can be priced according to the number of people it accommodates. Using this feature, a 4-person room, when priced appropriately, becomes available for sale to one, two, or three persons as well as the maximum, increasing the revenue opportunity while enhancing the visibility of the property. Applying this solution to a higher category of rooms will also increase the chance of their sale and allow you to reach a larger audience. 

Profitroom Channel Manager allows this type of configuration of roompricing, so it will not need to modify on booking.com. 

Booking.com and Profitroom further recommend making cancellation policies more flexible, given the uncertainties of the current situation, by adding possibility to cancel from 0 to 6 days before the arrival date. For business guests, booking.com additionally facilitates the search for rates with the most flexible booking conditions, the shortest cancellation period will attract more bookings via this search. 

Being a member of the booking.com risk-free reservations program allows for risk-free cancellation policy to be more flexible - in the event of a cancellation, booking.com will try to find a new guest. If this proves unsuccessful, it will cover the cost of the original booking. 

Profitroom, encourages hotels to opt into its functionality which allows guests to change their booking into a voucher, to be used in the future, instead of cancelling the stay, this protects the booking and helps build a positive image of the hotel. 

Both of the features mentioned above can be used as incentive for guests to make reservations. 

Do you have any questions? Contact our specialists at team.rm@profitroom.com