How to Get Business from Business Travellers
Looking to tap into a market beyond the usual holiday makers and tourists? Business travellers have money to spend on accommodation and just as much need of a clean, friendly place to stay. Here are 5 top tips to make your B&B attractive to business travellers, both for your marketing and for making them feel at home once they arrive.
Workspace
Aim to provide an adequate workspace, either a desk, table or a unit where your business guest can stack their papers and files and rest a laptop to catch up meeting notes.
Complimentary stationary
Providing handy stationary adds a nice touch – it doesn’t have to be much and it doesn’t have to be personalised with your B&B’s name, just leave a notepad and pot of pens and pencils on the side and you’ll probably save your business guest from scrabbling for something to write once during their stay!
WiFi or internet access
This is a must in today’s more times and, ideally, there should be access in the guest’s room so that they can work in private.
Well-stocked welcome tray
A welcome tray well stocked with tea, coffee, fresh milk and a few sugary biscuits will make a guest feel at home whilst they work – and if they are intending to work late, this will be much appreciated.
Early bird breakfast
There is a good chance that your business guest will have an early start and it’s worth thinking about their breakfast needs, too. Offer an earlier breakfast sitting at their convenience – with advance notice on their part – or simply provide a small tray of goodies that could be kept in a room fridge overnight. Yogurts, cereal, fresh fruit and a muffin will help a guest face the business day.
Image: Thanks to RyAwesome on Flickr.com
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Category: B&B Customer Service, Bed and Breakfast Marketing
[...] be used by owners and property managers to ensure that you are meeting the needs or your guests.How to Get Business from Business Travellers Adding a workspace, complimentary stationary, WiFi, and an early bird breakfast are just a few [...]
Internet access is the foremost of all services that you can possibly think of providing business travelers with.
what drives me mad is when they come (and I do put free WI-FI signs everywhere on the web site etc) Oh you don’t possibly have wi-fi do you? in the tone that suggests they don’t think there is any chance. I don’t know any B&B in my town that doesn’t and its FREE! We are a conference town with approx 100,000 business travellers a year we would be dead in the water without it!
Also business travellers tend to travel more often so want a hassel free experience ie as smooth and sleek as possible, eg fill in as much of their registration documents as possible so all they have to do is sign, breakfast times relevant to when they have to be in the office. I allow free parking for my business regulars as a perk which saves them about £15 ($30) a day. Business people in a lot of ways are easier to have as guests as they don’t generally need or want a lot of attention.
That’s really interesting Kim. It could even be worth B&B owners looking at adding transfers to their list of services for business travellers who don’t have transport, and promoting those services on their websites. Internet is a must too!
Offering shuttle services can be quite expensive if you try to do it on your own. Partnering with other hotels or maybe a private shuttle business in the city will be worthwhile. Even making arrangements with an independent cab company which can guarantee flat fares to major destinations is worth exploring.