A study on European business traveler preferences offers new insight on booking behaviors across age groups and country.
According to the report by travel loyalty app Wanup, two in five frequent business travelers, or about 41%, book hotels for themselves directly, as opposed to bookings overseen by their companies.
Italian consumers lead direct bookings at 46.5%, and self-employed travelers book direct most frequently at 49.5%.
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Generationally speaking, there isn’t much of a distinction between booking habits of millennials and Gen Xers, though the latter, 38.5%, claim they book direct without company interference compared to 28.7% of millennials.
The study also finds that 64.8% of Spanish business travelers opt for chain hotels, a preference they carry over into booking for leisure, as well, at 48.3%. (Italians, by contrast, prefer independent or boutique hotels for leisure travel at 42.6%.)
To obtain more personalized services, more than 70.6% of European travelers said they are more likely to share their consumer habits. Italian and Spanish travelers, 78.8% and 78.4%, respectively, are most willing to share their info, while Germans hover at just 56.2%.
Millennials are the most willing among age groups, with 74.2% willing to share their habits compared to 67.1% of Gen Xers.
The millennial set is also more likely to use mobile, with 12% higher usage compared to those in Gen X.
More than 70.3% of millennials book transit via app, and more than half use chatbots to communicate to hotels. Email, meanwhile, is the preferred method of hotel communication for Gen X at 43.3%.