In what might be seen as another swipe at online travel agents this week, Holiday Inn is targeting travellers from small businesses with a direct booking incentive.
The brand, part of the InterContinental Hotels stable, has carried out some research revealing that it takes travellers from small businesses up to nine different steps to book a hotel.
In addition, these travellers visit hotel websites three times on average before choosing a property.
Holiday Inn says its 'Inn Business' promotion makes booking less complicated as well as giving them rewards through its loyalty scheme.
According to the brand travellers from small businesses often feel they end up paying more for travel and find it more difficult and time consuming to book 'affordable travel.' A third also feel they are not treated as well as travellers from larger businesses.
Results of the Holiday Inn Small Business Traveler study also show that the main 'pain point' when on business is the stress of travel according to 56%.
Holiday Inn is just one of a string of big hotel brands which are trying to entice travellers to book direct rather than through OTAs. Marriott unveiled its #ItPaysToBookDirect scheme a year ago while Hilton launched its 'Stop Clicking Around' initiative in February this year.
Booking.com former chief executive Darren Huston described the moves as "annoying" back in March during a session at ITB Berlin.
The Holiday Inn study was conducted over two weeks between March 23 and April 8, 2016 with the participation of more than 1,000 travellers from small businesses, aged between 25 and 65.