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:
● 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 £35 billion in 2018.
● 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).
● 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).
● 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.
● 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
