Mobile hotel booking in business travel

Not a day passes without an article regarding the ”mobile revolution” the travel industry is predicting for the coming three years. Many studies and blog entries contain advice on what individual hotels and hotel chains should do in terms of mobile presence. One of the discussion points is whether to focus on mobile optimized websites or applications. Regardless of which, brand only apps and mobile optimized sites do not allow comparison outside the brand selection, which would suggest that exploring alternatives is done elsewhere.

What experts seem to agree on is that mobile devices will change travel distribution and marketing significantly during the next few years. Booking business travel via mobile devices is somewhat different compared to exploring alternatives for leisure travel – security, travel policy compliance, corporate rates and reporting are key issues.

According to preliminary results from a recent study by Hotelzon, only 17% of the participating companies have a company-approved mobile application in use for booking business travel. However, more than 50 % of the respondents state that they are considering  a mobile application for hotel bookings or have already made the decision to implement one in the near future. According to the study, the main reasons for implementing a company-wide and controlled mobile hotel booking solution are to “gather more bookings to a booking channel that is within company control” (71%), “the ability to offer new means of booking to the business travelers” (64%) and “responding to the increasing work-related mobile device usage in general” (53%). When asked about the features a mobile hotel booking solution should have, the respondents state that the two most important features are to have access to all company negotated rates (94% of respondents assessed this as very important) and that all bookings are reported and tracked as a part of the total booking data (a full 100% of respondents assessed this as important or very important).

Hotelzon launched its first mobile booking application already six years ago and will continue to develop cutting edge mobile solutions for business travel needs.