Silicon Valley Business Traveler’s Needs – Information

Business travel in the 1980’s

Back in the early 1980’s, all of the information about your airline flight, hotel reservation and people you might need to contact, had to be written down on a piece of paper. You could not store the information on your smart phone because there was no such technology at the time. You did not have the option of using a paperless airline ticket, but had to make sure you did not lose the paper ticket in your coat pocket.

After your plane landed, if you wanted to call your office or contact your hotel, you had to go through a process. First you had to find the phone numbers that you had written down on your information sheet. Then you would have to wait until you could find a pay phone that was not being used. Next, you had to fumble through your pockets to find change. Finally, after you dialed your number and connected, you had only three minutes to talk before you had to put another dime or quarter into the phone.

Silicon Valley business travelers

Silicon Valley is like a magnet for business travelers. If you run a hotel in Silicon Valley today and want to be successful, start by paying close attention to the needs and desires of the business traveler. Whether you are located near the Google complex in Mountain View, out in Cupertino by Apple headquarters, or anywhere else in this region of Northern California, a good portion of your revenue will be generated by providing accommodations for the business traveler.

You need to give the business traveler what he or she wants

While it is impossible to meet every need of every hotel guest, hoteliers can take steps to make their guest’s stay a more enjoyable and relaxing one. Having the right information about the typical business traveler will allow you to put into action a strategy that will meet most, if not all, of their needs. The more you can do from the moment your guest walks through the front door of your hotel until the time he or she checks-out, the better.

While a hotelier should do all he or she can to see that all of their guests are satisfied and happy, it is even more crucial to pay close attention to each and every need of the Silicon Valley business traveler. Business travel surveys, polls and research all provide good information and insight on the things that are most important to the frequent business traveler.

By providing those services and amenities that satisfy those needs, your business guests are much more likely to have a pleasant experience at your hotel. Guests who make frequent trips back to Silicon Valley will tend to stick with the same hotel as long as they had a pleasant experience. They might also encourage their company to use your hotel when other employees travel to Silicon Valley. Associating your hotel with large companies that do a lot of business travel to your area is very good for business.

Business Travelers need easy access to information

People who travel frequently for business do not have the same attitude toward travel as those who board a plane for a week of sun and fun in Hawaii. They have to be more concerned about meeting schedules and making presentations than worrying about where they are going to have lunch or if the weather is sunny so they can get a tan out by the pool.

Websites and web tools make it easier

Technology has given travelers the ability to do many things, but sometimes it can be overwhelming and hard to manage all of the information that you can get out of the cloud on the Internet. Trip it helps organize the multiple confirmation emails you get when you book travel online. It provides a simple way where you can see, in chronological order, your car rental, airline tickets and hotel reservations as well as digital maps and all of the other essentials that you would need when visiting a new city. A traveler can save time by storing all of their addresses, phone numbers, reservation numbers and even the local weather forecast in one convenient place.

Getting around in an unfamiliar town or city is easy when you rely on such websites like Wikitravel, Lonely Planet or Trippy. All of these sites help connect you with the restaurants and attractions in the places you are visiting and also have a social feature that allows you to interact with friends and helpful strangers who can recommend the best places to eat and have fun in while you are visiting.

One of the things that can get real annoying is when you have a problem and need to call the company for help. You often have to go through a ten minute menu of options and then wait on hold to actually talk to an operator. GetHuman.com is a website that tells you how to bypass those long menus and get connected to a live person in customer service with very little waiting time. If you are a frequent flier, having this app as well as the apps of all the major airlines on your smart phone will help you avoid the frustration of reaching customer service.

If you want to avoid those long security lines most people have to go through before they can get to their gate at the airport, try registering for Clearcard, a helpful tool, that for an annual fee of less than $200, will allow you to go through the fast lane at many international airports. The service uses biometrics like fingerprint identification and eye scanning to verify that you are a safe passenger.

Other ideas for making air travel easier

Today’s business traveler has learned to pack only what they need. With all of the baggage charge fees and hassle of retrieving your luggage from the carousel in the baggage claim area, it makes sense to take a duffle bag or small carry-on so you can store it above your seat in the overhead compartment.

Everyone knows that you should get to the airport about two hours before your flight so you can have time to check-in and go through security. The smart air traveler will take the stress out of the process by giving him or herself more time. Instead of fighting rush hour traffic, why not arrive five hours before your flight, stake out a good spot in the lounge and catch up on some work or just relax before you have to board the plane?

A convenient and worry-free hotel experience

Give your corporate guests great accommodations and provide them with the conveniences that will help make their stay pleasant and problem-free. If you are so situated near an airport, you could offer free shuttle service. Following are a few things that every business traveler will appreciate.

• Free WiFi
• Free Breakfast
• Business center
• Comfortable chair and big desk to do work in their room
• Charging station for their wireless devices

Provide information & services through the front desk

While not every hotel has a health spa, fancy gym or full-service restaurant on site, a knowledgeable front desk clerk can assist guests looking for those or other features. Business travelers want to look good when they go to their meetings and appointments. You may not have a barber, beauty shop or dry cleaner on site, but you certainly can connect your guest to a local store in the neighborhood.

Whether you have an official concierge service or rely on your front desk staff to fulfill the needs and wishes of your corporate guests, you should have an easy to reference list of places, addresses and phone numbers of local restaurants, attractions and other types of businesses that guest might like to know about.

In case one of your guests needs to have a prescription filled during their stay, you should have several nearby drug stores and pharmacies where they can go. People also like to take a break when they have a few hours of free time so you should be prepared to tell them all about the local points of interest. You are not far from wine country no matter where you happen to be in Silicon Valley. There are plenty of great places to send your guests shopping and they may even be interested in visiting one of the area’s interesting museums.

Meeting the needs of business travelers means paying attention to what is most important to them. Everyone wants good value for the money they spend whether they are staying in a five-star hotel and dining at fancy restaurants or they are staying in a moderate hotel and eating dinner at a diner. Provide friendly, fast service and always give your guests a little more than they expect and you will get the positive reactions you want.