Business Travel Trends: Post COVID Business Travelling

The world has changed so much since the pandemic began. Travelling has been one of the things that have been affected with both leisure and business travelling seeing a significant decline as people stayed at their desks and in some cases in their homes. 

Video calls became a regular outing instead of face-to-face meeting. But 2022 is seeing a new normal as everyone tries to get back to some normality with their travels. In fact, companies are seeing a high increase in the number of people booking business travel in 2022 with the numbers already exceeding the figures for 2021.

As we look at business travel in current times, here is our guide to the latest business travel trends and how post-COVID business travel has changed.

Longer stays for business travels

Pre-covid, lots of people would travel for business for an overnight stay or a weekend at the most. They would have their short stay and then would return home. But now in post covid times, the trend is to stay for a longer duration. If they are going to do business travelling, they might be staying for a week or even a month or longer in some circumstances. It enables them to be situated near their new work base for longer periods. 

Or if they are taking part in important meetings or connecting with new clients, they have somewhere they can stay for a longer time. In fact, more than a third of business travellers are now opting for longer stays which is the highest its been in recent years. This means their accommodation has also changed as they need somewhere adequate for a longer stay which leads us to our next point.

Serviced apartments are gaining popularity 

Hotels have long been a popular form of accommodation for business travel. The business traveller can rest their head for a night or two in the hotel with room service and a convenient location for the job at hand. But the latest business travel trend is longer stays with now more appropriate accommodation which tends to be serviced apartments and homes. These have been gaining popularity in recent times with many business travellers opting to stay in these instead of hotels. For one thing, they are a lot more spacious than hotel rooms. You often have a living area and a kitchen so you have everything you need to stay for a week or two. 

This type of accommodation also offers more reasonable rates than you get at a hotel with short-term lets a cheaper way to stay for the long-term. While you might pay a nightly rate during your business travel at the hotel, you will pay a better rate for a short-term let. You also will find that you will have everything you need on hand with a lot of serviced apartments having restaurants, gyms and pools on the block. So it makes your business travel a lot more comfortable, safe and convenient. 

Combining leisure and business

Before COVID, a lot of people would have separated their business and leisure travels. They would have their necessary business travel and their leisure travel with family and friends would take part at a different time. But "bleisure" stays are now becoming a trend when it comes to business travels. A lot of people are going on business travel which combines leisure travel too. They are heading away for a week or more and having a break with their family while conducting any meetings and work as necessary during their trip away.

They might have a few days dealing with work activities and then spend the rest of the time going to the beach or exploring with friends or family. With longer stays more popular, these combined trips offer a great way to get away with multi-purpose in mind. A lot of people are taking holidays and then working during the trip too. It ensures they don’t need to go away unnecessarily and also means they can work while enjoying a new change of scenery too.

Wi-fi is now a necessity, not an extra

With more people now than ever working on the move, it’s essential for business travel that they have Wi-fi included. A lot of business travel accommodation knows that their guests will have to work while on the move so have Wi-Fi now as an essential. Also, the Wi-Fi is at the top speed possible to make it convenient to work while away.

Whether they need to check in with the office, send work across or undertake a remove meeting, this is a must while on business travels so now you will find this is available in the accommodation. Short-term accommodation is also popular for this reason as they have Wi-Fi and often additional space for business travellers to work with some even having desks in the living space. 

Business travel is often now visiting the office 

More people than ever are working from home in current times. Remote work became a must during the pandemic and this has stayed the same with a lot of companies realising the benefits that comes with this type of work. So now a lot of business travel is employees visiting their offices for short periods. This enables them to check in, conduct any training and catch up with everyone before returning to their homes to work. It’s a great way to still keep in touch with the office.

This is becoming highly popular as it ensures everyone still has a connection with work while still enabling them to work from home most of the time. Doing this a few times a year is a great way to get all the employees together at the company’s headquarters and ensure everyone is still working well in that position.