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UK: Research from apartment booking platform Homelike says a third of UK travellers prefer to stay in a furnished apartment over a hotel for stays of over 30 days.
Business travel spending is expected to top US$1.7 trillion globally by 2022, with the UK being the fifth biggest market – spending more than $50billion on business travel in 2017 alone.
Homelike surveyed 1000 business travellers in the UK who had experienced business trips in a city away from home which were more than seven days in duration.
A quarter of business travellers stay in cities for more than 30 thirty days and the 30 per cent of long-term travellers are responsible for booking their own accommodation. Just 17 per cent rely on a travel manager, and 19 per cent on a PA or office manager.
The top factor impacting accommodation choice is a central city location (43 per cent), followed by the quality of the property (42 per cent) – that it is well kept, modern and has high quality furnishing – and cost (36 per cent). Other important factors were property size (24 per cent) and proximity to green spaces (21 per cent).
Other findings included:
â—Ź The most disliked part of long-term business travel is homesickness and missing family and friends (32 per cent). This is followed by feeling unhealthy, namely eating out, drinking and not having access to a gym (17 per cent) as well as general stress (15 per cent). This could be a contributor to the fact that mental health issues cost UK businesses ÂŁ35 billion in 2018.
â—Ź Female business travellers rate social life higher than men (24 per cent want their family or partner to live with them while travelling versus 13 per cent of men; 11 per cent want to be allowed to host friends in their accommodation versus eight per cent of men).
â—Ź Men prioritise their health (11 per cent want to be located near a gym versus seven per cent of women; 18 per cent want their accommodation to have cooking facilities versus 15 per cent of women).
â—Ź Nearly half of Baby Boomers aged 55+ (40 per cent) and Gen Z (41 per cent) travellers would choose a furnished apartment over a hotel.
● Millennials are most invested in creating a “home away from home” when travelling: 29 per cent want to be located near a green space, 23 per cent want to be able to host their family and partner and 21 per cent want to take their pets with them.
â—Ź Baby Boomers appear to suffer from homesickness when travelling for long periods more than other generations (52 per cent).
Dustin Figge, CEO and co-founder of Homelike, said: “We founded Homelike because we were fed up with travelling for business and either having to live long-term in a hotel room or attempt to book an apartment through providers that predominantly work offline. Our research proves what we already knew, that people are moving away from booking a hotel for 30+ night stays and are instead looking for a higher quality, more comfortable experience when travelling long-term for business. The market needs to evolve to reflect that.”</p
