6 Top Amenities Business Travelers Need at Their Hotel
Intro:
Finding the best business hotel can be a challenge.
Of course, location and price are two vital metrics to look at before clicking the ‘reserve now’ button.
But don’t discount the value of awesome amenities either.
Sometimes, amenities can make all the difference. They can even make a 2 or 3-star booking feel like you’re getting a 4-star value!
But, as usual, the devil is in the details.
Amenities may not always be obvious at first glance.
This is why you may need to dig deep, and actually either ask a sales rep or visit the website to make sure that they’re offering the types of amenities that’ll actually add significant value to your stay.
Here are 6 to start with.
Finding a hotel that offers these 6 things is a great sign!
1. Free Wi-Fi
You’d be surprised at how many hotels don’t ‘technically’ offer free wi-fi.
Yes, most hotels offer some form of wi-fi.
But sometimes, the free wi-fi is only available if you’re a reward member, or if you’re in the lobby.
Therefore, checking to make sure that you’ll have access to this amenity in your room is actually important.
2. Continental Breakfast
Starting every day with a healthy, delicious breakfast will certainly give you a boost.
And many hotels offer a complimentary breakfast as an included amenity—though it’s also important to ask about it.
Not only can this be a convenient and beneficial perk of your business lodging—it can also actually save you a lot of time.
3. Onsite Office Space
On-site office spaces consist of ‘public’ office spaces that you can utilize while traveling.
They generally include individual workspaces equipped with computers, phones, fax machines, printers, wi-fi, and pretty much anything else you’d expect to see in a standard office space.
If you need to catch up on some last-minute paperwork before your next meeting, this can be a very important amenity to look for.
4. A Laundry Service
If you plan on staying for more than a day at any given business hotel, laundry service may really come in handy.
And no, this doesn’t mean simple access to coin-operated washers and dryers—or even access to a laundromat.
This means a full-service laundry service, complete with dry cleaning.
When you’re engaging in important business while traveling away from home, you’re going to be pressed for time—and waiting for two hours while your laundry washes and dries isn’t necessarily always an option.
Therefore, making sure that your hotel offers this as a full-service amenity (even if it isn’t free) will save you a ton of time, and really give you some advantages in terms of efficiency and time management.
5. Transportation Services
Hotel Engine talks about transportation services at great length on the Travel Experience Blog.
Here’s the thing.
When you’re traveling abroad and away from home on business, you’re probably not always going to have the most convenient access to local transportation.
Therefore, a hotel that offers a shuttle service to and from the airport, or even a shuttle service to different places around the city, is super handy for filling in the gaps.
You may plan on getting a rental car.
But in the interim, transportation services are really helpful for helping to make your trip as worry-free and efficient as possible.
6. 24-Hour Guest Reception
At larger business hotels, this will usually be a given.
But it can be a problem when you start to book those smaller boutique hotels, inns, and local lodging establishments.
Imagine this:
You’ve just come in from a 6-hour flight.
You wait for 40 minutes for an Uber to take you to your hotel—only to walk into the front office to find the front desk deserted, with nobody in sight to check you in.
It’s 2:00 AM. You have a meeting at 8:30 AM, located one 30 minute drive away.
You wait.
20 minutes go by. This turns into 45 minutes. Finally, an hour later, the front desk person comes by, with rubber gloves on and a cleaning bucket in tow, and apologizes for the wait.
“Sorry, I’m the only one here at this time of night. I was cleaning the bathrooms. Did you need help with something?”
See—it actually really pays to make sure that your business hotel has real 24-hour guest reception.
Conclusion
That’s it.
6 of the most important amenities to make sure you’re getting before booking any business lodging.
Need a more exhaustive list to go even deeper? Consider checking out this list by 2ndkitchen.com.
Happy trails! We’ll see you on the other side.
Finding the best business hotel can be a challenge.
Of course, location and price are two vital metrics to look at before clicking the ‘reserve now’ button.
But don’t discount the value of awesome amenities either.
Sometimes, amenities can make all the difference. They can even make a 2 or 3-star booking feel like you’re getting a 4-star value!
But, as usual, the devil is in the details.
Amenities may not always be obvious at first glance.
This is why you may need to dig deep, and actually either ask a sales rep or visit the website to make sure that they’re offering the types of amenities that’ll actually add significant value to your stay.
Here are 6 to start with.
Finding a hotel that offers these 6 things is a great sign!
1. Free Wi-Fi
You’d be surprised at how many hotels don’t ‘technically’ offer free wi-fi.
Yes, most hotels offer some form of wi-fi.
But sometimes, the free wi-fi is only available if you’re a reward member, or if you’re in the lobby.
Therefore, checking to make sure that you’ll have access to this amenity in your room is actually important.
2. Continental Breakfast
Starting every day with a healthy, delicious breakfast will certainly give you a boost.
And many hotels offer a complimentary breakfast as an included amenity—though it’s also important to ask about it.
Not only can this be a convenient and beneficial perk of your business lodging—it can also actually save you a lot of time.
3. Onsite Office Space
On-site office spaces consist of ‘public’ office spaces that you can utilize while traveling.
They generally include individual workspaces equipped with computers, phones, fax machines, printers, wi-fi, and pretty much anything else you’d expect to see in a standard office space.
If you need to catch up on some last-minute paperwork before your next meeting, this can be a very important amenity to look for.
4. A Laundry Service
If you plan on staying for more than a day at any given business hotel, laundry service may really come in handy.
And no, this doesn’t mean simple access to coin-operated washers and dryers—or even access to a laundromat.
This means a full-service laundry service, complete with dry cleaning.
When you’re engaging in important business while traveling away from home, you’re going to be pressed for time—and waiting for two hours while your laundry washes and dries isn’t necessarily always an option.
Therefore, making sure that your hotel offers this as a full-service amenity (even if it isn’t free) will save you a ton of time, and really give you some advantages in terms of efficiency and time management.
5. Transportation Services
Hotel Engine talks about transportation services at great length on the Travel Experience Blog.
Here’s the thing.
When you’re traveling abroad and away from home on business, you’re probably not always going to have the most convenient access to local transportation.
Therefore, a hotel that offers a shuttle service to and from the airport, or even a shuttle service to different places around the city, is super handy for filling in the gaps.
You may plan on getting a rental car.
But in the interim, transportation services are really helpful for helping to make your trip as worry-free and efficient as possible.
6. 24-Hour Guest Reception
At larger business hotels, this will usually be a given.
But it can be a problem when you start to book those smaller boutique hotels, inns, and local lodging establishments.
Imagine this:
You’ve just come in from a 6-hour flight.
You wait for 40 minutes for an Uber to take you to your hotel—only to walk into the front office to find the front desk deserted, with nobody in sight to check you in.
It’s 2:00 AM. You have a meeting at 8:30 AM, located one 30 minute drive away.
You wait.
20 minutes go by. This turns into 45 minutes. Finally, an hour later, the front desk person comes by, with rubber gloves on and a cleaning bucket in tow, and apologizes for the wait.
“Sorry, I’m the only one here at this time of night. I was cleaning the bathrooms. Did you need help with something?”
See—it actually really pays to make sure that your business hotel has real 24-hour guest reception.
Conclusion
That’s it.
6 of the most important amenities to make sure you’re getting before booking any business lodging.
Need a more exhaustive list to go even deeper? Consider checking out this list by 2ndkitchen.com.
Happy trails! We’ll see you on the other side.
