Below, we take a look at what makes a good hotel for a business traveller.

Location – When you have meetings in any area of the country, it is frustrating to end up in a hotel that is miles from any transport connections or from your meetings. It is vital that the hotel has good road, bus and train links so that you can easily use the hotel as a base and get from A to B, quickly and cost effectively. There is no point paying for a really cheap hotel yet being 20 miles away from your meeting if you are going to get a taxi or then have to travel even further, so it’s important to weigh up location and cost when booking your hotel.

Price – If you are on the road regularly for business then you know the cost of the travel can soon mount up, especially if you require hotels for the majority of the week nights on your away trips. You need a hotel that is affordable and can maybe offer you some sort of discount for multiple nights when booking and also a hotel that doesn’t really hit the single traveller with supplements because they are on their own.

Comfort – After 3 hours on the road, 3 hours in meetings and then a train ride to get to your hotel, you don’t really want a bad nights sleep before you do it all again in the morning. The least you want is a comfortable bed and a clean room, with maybe some luxuries like a nice TV and tea and coffee ready to settle in for the evening. Even if the hotel is cheap, make sure you read the reviews online to make sure it’s clean and will give you a decent night’s sleep.

Facilities – It is vital for most business travellers to have free WIFI and other types of facilities, including somewhere to eat and maybe even a sneaky drink or two to relax in the evening. Most business travellers have to work on the road after a long days drive, typing up notes and getting orders back to headquarters, so its vital that any hotel a business person stays in has WIFI that is freely accessible throughout the hotel and its premises.

Parking – If you are a regular business traveller then you will know how often you have turned up to hotels and really struggled to park, which drives you not only mad but also makes the cost of your trip even more expensive. Having a hotel with free or very cheap parking is a must for most business travellers, because you need to know you won’t be hunting around for hours at the end of a long drive trying to find somewhere to park.

Richard Johal runs the Java Hotel in Nottingham.

Conveniently located at Junction 25 of the M1 and only 10 minutes from Nottingham, Derby and East Midlands Airport, the Java Hotel offers everything you need for a comfortable, yet affordable, night’s stay.

Not every hotel is geared for business travelers. Some are simply meant for holiday travelers, and focus on leisure features. Some hotels offer rooms geared for business travelers, with a stress on committed work areas. Once you’ve found a potential hotel, call the front desk directly and speak to the concierge or to a well-informed front desk clerk. Inquire about the facilities provided by the hotel such as internet accessibility, conference rooms; transportation etc. if the hotel has the features out lined below then you will definitely have a successful business trip.

Essential features of a great business:

Location: Hotels that are positioned near an airport or located in a city’s business quarter generally cater to business travelers. Airport hotels rarely offer views, but they make up for it with expedient location. Location is why many recruiters characteristically plan interviews in airport hotels. It is easier to fly in, meet numerous applicants, do some work in the business center, and fly back home.

Internet Access in the Room: Most hotels offer some form of Internet access whether it’s use of the business center’s computer, high-speed access in the room, or wireless. The business travelers need to know where the next high-speed Internet fix is coming from, so he can stay productive on the road.

Speedy, Customer Service: Hotel specialists are in the business of providing good customer care. Business hotels make the important difference of offering good customer care quickly and proficiently. A guest’s requirements must be met speedily so that he or she can concentrate on the professional reasons they are there primarily.

Business centre: It is absolutely a must for a hotel to have this facility. It should also be equipped with the latest technologies and state-of-the-art office equipment, services include tele-videoconferencing, high-speed Internet access, high-speed duplicating, printing, colour printing, colour copying, scanning and document processing, as well as courier, secretarial services, telex and fax.

Conference Rooms: Conference rooms or boardroom and a meeting room are a must if you plan to hold meetings seminars, promotions and exhibitions. These rooms must be equipped with audio + video conferencing facilities.

Easy Transportation: Business travelers need to be places punctually and with minimum hassle. Good business hotels more often than not offer transportation shuttles to all key business areas, or aid travelers with hiring taxis or private cars.

Restaurants & Bar: Business travelers need to be able to have the facilities of in hotel restaurants, to be able to meet associates over drinks, lunch or dinner. It’s best to have at least two types of specialty cuisine restaurants and a bar in the hotel itself.

100% Effort:Good business hotels allow travelers to concentrate on their jobs by working out the small and big stuff (taking care of problems like misplaced luggage etc.). The extra level of service in a good hotel is a boon to the traveler.

The veteran road warrior must have been in this scenario at one point or another, but picture this anyway. You are in town for yet another meeting; it must be the nth time you have been here this year. Whenever you are in town, you stay in this particular hotel because you like it there. Because you are already a familiar face at the hotel and have booked your stay prior to arriving there, the hotel staff greet you very warmly and refer to you by your name. The bellhop escorts you to your room, and upon opening the door, you are automatically greeted by the room’s sound system with your favorite number from that old Randy Crawford album at just the right volume. Your eyes are sensitive to light, so you are surprised to find the lights of your room dimmed to the proper degree that will not hurt your eyes. The room is the exact temperature you would have it: cold, but not too cold. The mini-bar carries your favorite brand of soda and a stash of your favorite black chocolates.

You still have a few hours before you meet your colleagues for dinner, so you decide to rest and freshen up. The water in the shower is deliciously warm and the soaps, shampoos and toiletry are exactly the brands that you prefer using even at home. While you dress, you turn the TV on in the hopes that the hotel may have the channel that airs your favorite early evening comedy. Lo and behold! They have it, so you giggle at the characters’ antics while you prepare yourself for that dinner with the colleagues.

How did the hotel know all the preferences of their guest? It is simple: the room the guest stays in is “smart,” meaning it is wired with sensors that feed the hotel’s central computer inputs as to what temperature the guest set the air conditioner and the water heater, how dim the lights, the repertoire on the sound system, the channels watched, the food taken from the mini-bar, among other things. The central computer stores this data so upon the guest’s return, he or she will have a room that will be to his or her exact liking.

To quote this article from the International Herald Tribune:

“The backbones of these smart rooms are the data networks that hotels are installing to carry phone calls, video and Internet connections.

These networks, for example, make it possible for hotels to offer Internet TV services that store programs and let guests watch shows on demand. (A guest from Chicago, for example, could watch a Cubs baseball game in London as easily as in Tokyo.)

These networks also allow hotels to connect the lights, air-conditioners and other room devices to a central computer so they can be remotely monitored or controlled.”

Neat, isn’t it? The issue of the guests’ privacy was, of course, brought up, but hotels give their assurance that they only use the data they have gathered to serve their guests in a better manner.

SOURCE: Author’s blog: http://biz-trips.info/

Anna Lynn C. Sibal has worked with traveling business executives for the past seven years, providing them with close personal and administrative assistance. Along with her innate interest in travel, this experience has given her many insights on how traveling executives think and what they need.

Anne is a journalism graduate from the University of the Philippines, the leading state university of that country, as well as one of the premier academic institutions in Southeast Asia. Aside from travel, Anne also displays a keen interst in literature, the cinema and the Internet. She has written and contributed actively to various student publications and has managed an in-house publication for a real estate association in the Philippines. She has also won an award for her screenplay from the Film Development Foundation of the Philippines in 2001.