Advito’s hotel expertise and BCD Travel’s expansive hotel data enrich findings of Business Travel News’ 2017 Corporate Travel Index, a compilation of business travel spending data around the world. BTN’s 33rd annual index draws on BCD Travel data about average hotel and car rental costs for corporate clients. Advito, BCD’s consulting arm, analyzed the data.
One key assessment: U.S. rates in corporate-negotiated hotel programs are up on average from 2016, but not sharply so. “In general, what we saw overall in the sourcing programs for the 2017 season is that it’s still a supplier-driven market, but it’s not quite as much of a supplier-driven market as the last two years were,” Bob Brindley, Advito principal and vice president, told BTN.
“Demand is still growing; it has a slow trend up. There’s been a little bit more additional capacity in the market, and that’s tempered some of the rate increases,” Brindley said. Nonetheless, hotel rate increases were strong enough to overcome slight drops in rental car and dining costs and push the average U.S. per diem up 1% for 2016.
Corporate Travel Index articles also explain how political uncertainty is shifting per diems, even in traditionally stable markets; London’s drop to No. 2 among Europe’s most-expensive business cities (succeeded by Zurich); the tumultuous Latin America market; and Tokyo’s rise in per diem costs. The index also details and ranks per diems for U.S. and non-U.S. cities frequently visited by business travelers.
Other research for the index came from BTN, which collected hotel taxes and surcharges, and New York University School of Professional Studies students, who surveyed restaurants to gauge meal price trends.
