Business travelers today are in the midst of one of the great evolutions of travel service delivery. Suppliers have taken advantage of travelers' near-unanimous adoption of mobile technology to deliver products and services—mobile boarding passes, complete mobile itineraries—that even a decade ago would have been hard for those travelers to imagine. And there's more to come, with services like expanded location-based offers and the ability to unlock a hotel room door with a phone in the works.
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By and large, these mobile-based services have been embraced by travelers eager to streamline the travel-booking process and sidestep a long line or two. But what remains clear, according to the results of Business Travel News' Traveler Service Quality survey of travel managers and travelers alike, is that no amount of technological innovation outweighs the basics of traveler service—an on-time flight, a clean room, an easy rental car return process, and polite staffers who know the answers to questions.
BTN this year asked hundreds of travel managers and frequent business travelers to detail the services provided by airlines, hotels, car rental companies and travel management companies that were most important to them, and how effectively their primary suppliers delivered those services.
Buyers and suppliers alike generally indicated that the services most important to them are those that for decades have been suppliers' main value propositions: airlines that promptly deliver baggage; comfortable, well-lit hotel rooms; accurate travel documentation and friendly employees. While there are some nods to modern living—travelers and buyers both consider free in-room hotel Internet access to be more important than just about anything else, for example—the survey found that it's the fundamentals that matter most.
And how have suppliers fared in delivering their core services to the respondent buyers and travelers? Generally speaking, decently. Both categories of respondents were asked to rate on an ascending scale of one to six their primary travel supplier's delivery of individual service aspects, and the average response of both respondent categories for most services fell between four and five, with most in the upper half of that range. There certainly is some room to grow for suppliers in terms of travel managers' and travelers' perceptions of their ability to deliver on their promised services, but such scores as an aggregate representation of hundreds of respondents is not bad. Suppliers likely will be happier to see that wide majorities of travelers—in every category, at least 85 percent of them—indicated they would recommend their primary travel supplier to their fellow business travelers.
Methodology & Demographics
Business Travel News' Traveler Service Quality research report was designed to elicit the opinions of travel managers and business travelers as to which services of four categories of suppliers—airlines, hotels, car rental companies and travel management companies—were most important to them, and how they felt about the delivery of those services by their primary suppliers.
Business Travel News from July to October 2013 conducted the survey through Equation Research after developing questions for it earlier in the summer.
A direct link to the online survey was emailed to members of The BTN Group Advisory Board and some subscribers of Business Travel News and sibling publication Travel Procurement. Equation invited members of its own database of business travelers to participate.
The survey included multiple-choice questions as well as requests to rate the importance of specific travel supplier services on an ascending scale of one to six (with one meaning "not at all important" and six meaning "extremely important").
Respondents also were asked to rate their satisfaction with the delivery of specific travel supplier services by their primary supplier, again on an ascending scale of one to six (with one meaning "falls short of expectations," and six meaning "exceeds expectations").
Travel manager respondents and traveler respondents were offered different options for rating, although some options were identical.
Neither travel managers nor traveler respondents were asked to identify their primary suppliers in any category, nor were they asked to rate individual suppliers' services.
Equation tabulated all responses. A total of 166 travel managers, buyers and others who indicated they hold travel management and/or purchasing responsibilities as part of their job functions responded to the survey, as did 368 business travelers.
Not every respondent answered every question; partial survey responses are included in the tabulation.
All 368 business traveler respondents indicated that they within the prior 12 months had taken at least five business trips by air. About 44 percent of the total indicated they had taken at least 10 business trips within that time frame, and about 9 percent indicated they had taken at least 30. About 57 percent of all respondents indicated they worked for an organization that had a travel department and/or a travel manager, while 41 percent said they did not, with the remainder indicating they did not know.
Among buyer respondents, 31 percent indicated their organization's 2013 U.S.-booked air volume was less than $2 million. About 13 percent indicated that volume was between $2 million and $4.9 million, with 15 percent indicating it was between $5 million and $11.9 million. About 17 percent of respondents said their organization's 2013 U.S.-booked air volume was between $12 million and $20.9 million, with 8 percent indicating it was between $21 million and $29.9 million, and 16 percent indicating it was more than $30 million.
Business Travel News editors discussed some survey findings as part of interviews with buyers, travelers and suppliers conducted in September and October; those interviewees may or may not have participated in the survey.
Business Travel News thanks all of those who participated in the making of this report.
This report originally appeared in the Oct. 27, 2014, edition of Business Travel News.