GBTA Foundation has quizzed US corporate travellers on the hotel technology they use when staying away for business.
As well as the usual findings on wifi, travellers were also asked whether they have hotel chain apps on their phones and what they use them for.
The findings reveal 61% business travellers have had an app of one of the seven major hotel chains on their mobile phone in the past year and 54% have had at least two apps from major chains.
The majority of business travellers say they mostly use the apps to check the status of a reservation (43%) or manage loyalty points (43%) while almost 40% use them to book a stay.
The apps are less likely to be used to discover restaurants or attractions with only 25% of travellers using them for that purpose and only 10% use them for room service and less to contact hotel employees.
The findings might surprise the startups that have emerged in the hotel app space in recent months to help drive guest engagement as well as some of the bigger players such as Booking.com which recently launched a chatbot service.
The Best Western-sponsored study, carried out in conjunction with GBTA, also looks at reasons why business travellers have not installed hotel apps on their phones in the past year. More than a third of respondents say they can find the same services online or in person while 28% say they don't see the benefit of the apps and 21% say its not worthwhile downloading the app as they don't stay at the same property enough.
In addition to apps, respondents were also asked about other new hotel technology they would like to see.
Despite investment from hotels in initiatives such as mobile check-in, kiosks and keyless entry, business travellers say they're more interested in power and USB outlets (35%), streaming services (34%) and in-room chargers (32%).
27% expressed interest in mobile room entry, 22% in online or mobile check-in and check-out and 18% in hotels building guest profiles for a more personalised stay.
Many major hotel groups are quite far down the road in terms of keyless entry and others have been working on personalisation with Hilton announcing its Fun Finder functionality on mobile earlier this week. The idea is to look at guest profiles to decide the most relevant offers and messages to send.
NB: Hotel technology image via Joana Lopes for BigStockPhoto.