Executive Travel : Hotels Get Down to Business on the Road

Hyatt Hotels Corp. this week became the latest hotel chain to revamp services to accommodate the changing needs of business travelers.

The days when business trips were a perk of the job and a luxury to be enjoyed are gone. Today, business travelers are feeling more pressure than ever to produce while on the road. Hyatt’s Business Plan, with 24-hour access to printers, copy machines and office supplies on the same floor as one’s room, as well as a large workstation with a fax machine in the room and no telephone access charges, is aimed at making it easier to get work done, Hyatt spokeswoman Carrie Reckert said.

The Business Plan is available in 30 of the chain’s hotels, including three in Los Angeles and one in Long Beach. The Hyatt in Anaheim will offer it beginning Feb. 15, and by March it will be available at 80 hotels. The package of business services costs $15 on top of the regular room charge.

Chicago-based Hyatt is not the first to revise its marketing strategy toward business clients. Other chains have already begun tinkering with amenities and services to find the combination that attracts and keeps working guests.

Radisson Hotels International, for example, offers business-class rooms with computer hookups, phones without extra access charges and fax deliveries to the room. Some ITT Sheratons now have built-in computers, printers and fax machines in some rooms. And Hilton Hotels Corp. has a BusinesSavers package that includes free calls and faxes.

Hyatt’s move, however, shows just how much the business travel climate has changed with the recession. The new plan resulted from discussions with hundreds of business people about their pet peeves on the road and their needs, Reckert said.

Here are some findings from Hyatt’s survey:

* Of the 500 respondents, 72% said they feel more pressured on business trips today than they did five years ago, and 58% said they spend more time working in their hotel rooms than they did five years ago.

* A free continental breakfast and a desk telephone free of access charges were the features most desired by working guests. A lounge work space outside the room and the availability of rental computers ranked last.

* Two-thirds of the respondents said they would inconvenience themselves if it meant reducing the cost of a trip to save the company money. Younger travelers were less willing to do so, however. Only 55% of those younger than 35 said they would put the company’s profitability above their own convenience.

* Almost a third (31%) of those surveyed said productivity was most important on the road. Just 13% said having free time was most important. Again, the younger the traveler, the more likely he or she was to value free time over getting work done.

* The respondents seemed to feel they worked harder than someone else. A majority (83%) of employees said they worked harder than their bosses, and a majority (85%) of supervisors said they felt they worked harder than their staffs.

These results show a decidedly different attitude emerging among travelers, Reckert said. Studies conducted by Hyatt five years ago, for example, found that baby-boom generation travelers expected adventure and excitement from business trips. Now they expect to get work done.

Jay Hokoyama, president of Los Angeles-based Leadership and Education for Asian Pacifics, a nonprofit public policy institute, is typical of the new executive. He travels extensively on business--about 90,000 miles on 20 trips or more a year.

“I think with the advent of the laptop computer, it’s almost like you have no excuses (for not getting work done) anymore,” he said. “You can basically take every file and everything you’ve ever written with you anywhere.”

To save money on air fare, Hokoyama said, he makes his trips longer and less frequent. Longer trips also mean having to get more work done on the road.

“I don’t even think about the swimming pool anymore,” he said.

Hyatt initiated the most recent study out of a sense that hotels weren’t keeping pace with this type of business traveler, said Jim Evans, senior vice president for sales and marketing. “Every time we picked up the paper we saw companies cutting back,” he said.

“In this particular recession . . . it was a white-collar recession. We had begun to see business travel weaken.

“And for the first time, we saw top management involved in travel planning,” he said. That meant employees were required to fly certain airlines and stay in certain hotels. It also meant fewer trips.

“Part of the ‘90s, for sure, is people in general are doing more with less,” Evans said. “Most bosses are saying, ‘We can’t allow you to travel as frequently as in the past, and when you do travel, you’ve got to keep pace with what’s going on back here.’ ”

Many of those who travel on business have seen their peers lose their jobs to corporate reorganizations. They don’t want to lose any productive time.

Five years ago, the amenities hotels were looking at putting in business travelers’ rooms were magnifying mirrors, oversize towels, hair dryers and shoe-shine kits, Evans said.

“Now they’re telling us, ‘When I have those two hours in the room I need the tools of my trade at hand.’ ”