After an unstable 2020 and the false dawn of 2021, we move into 2022 with optimism for the temporary accommodation sector. Business level are rapidly returning to pre-pandemic levels and the broader travel industry has been exposed to the various and wide-ranging benefits of serviced apartments. With change comes opportunity, so we have outlined our forecast for the promising year ahead.
Sustainability
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSR and ESG commitments have come under increasing scrutiny - with businesses keen to reduce their environmental impact as a top priority and governments exerting increasing pressure on corporate activities. Reported reductions in pollution during the first major lockdown brought attention back to a topic around which many major businesses have been tentative. Recent years have seen a gradual shift towards sustainability-focussed corporate travel and the pandemic unquestionably brought this sharply into focus.
With flights accounting for roughly 90% of business travel emissions, airlines have naturally become the focus for much of the attention regarding carbon usage. In late 2021, many of the world’s most prominent airlines agreed to redouble their efforts to tackle climate change. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) are targeting ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2050 – in accordance with the 2015 Paris accord.
Many property operators have acted accordingly, adapting both their practices and their physical spaces to reduce their carbon footprint. This is set to continue in earnest throughout 2022, with the aforementioned government pressure filtering down to operators’ bottom lines.
Sustainability is sure to become a fundamental commercial advantage for the serviced accommodation sector over traditional accommodation providers like hotels, and one that the business savvy will surely adopt early. Corporates will demand measurable, transparent, and formalised strategies in this regard – with emissions benchmarking and standardisation across the supply chain key to providing demonstrable environmental progress.
Stakeholders throughout the supply chain are keen to minimise any inadvertent environmental damage, and it’s clear that there is an opportunity for the sector to capitalise on the virtues of serviced accommodation. This was illustrated in our recent LinkedIn poll, where 61% of respondents said that sustainable considerations will have an essential role to play in influencing corporate travel decisions in 2022.
Duty of Care
One of the (admittedly limited) positives to be taken from the past two years is a universally renewed focus on guest well-being. It has led to a re-evaluation of the traveller journey, with stakeholders on all sides keen to ensure safe, responsible corporate travel.
With Health and Safety compliance now firmly on the corporate accommodation agenda, property operators are more conscious than ever of their guests’ well-being. First-rate hygiene standards have become – and will remain – a staple SLA. The formation and formalisation of new, exacting Health and Safety measures in 2020 are not only here to stay but will continue to foster new business for the serviced accommodation sector – as Travel Managers seek alternatives to traditional accommodation. Compliance and accreditation in this regard will lead the way in restoring confidence in regular international travel.
With every passing year we are seeing the sector become more robust both in terms of supply chain and cohesion, a process which has been necessarily expedited by the adversity of the pandemic. Communication throughout the supply chain, as well as collaboration among peers and perceived competitors, will be essential to the continued rise of serviced accommodation within the travel industry. Business opportunities will be plentiful in 2022 and the degree of operational transparency displayed by service providers will go a long way to determining the extent to which the serviced accommodation sector takes advantage of the new corporate travel landscape.
Third-party accreditation has proved to be a viable and vital way of demonstrably meeting client expectations and demands – be they legal requirements, government directives, or client preferences. These accreditation bodies can provide a robustness to the supply chain that has, in the past, held the serviced accommodation sector back.
Live traveller tracking will play a huge role in affording travellers and their travel managers control and flexibility throughout every stage of the traveller journey. Features like Travel Risk Management are already beginning to demonstrate the critical value that evolving technology solutions are bringing to the sector – and the peace of mind they grant clients.
This sentiment is echoed by SilverDoor’s Quality Assurance and Compliance Officer, Toby Roberts, who said:
“Third party certification provides the perfect stamp of approval for all involved. A key trend during the pandemic has been the need for increased flexibility of the operators to meet the new expectations of the traveller, examples being offering contactless check-ins, shopping delivery services, and enhanced cleaning measures. These ‘trends’ are no doubt here to stay.”
Technology
The further integration of technology has bolstered this flexibility, providing clients with the unfettered control over every stage of the traveller journey that they are beginning to demand. Alongside this, we are seeing an increasing number of business travellers taking control of their own travel plans.
Advancements in technology are allowing companies to adopt a more dynamic travel policy, with real-time changes via up-to-the-minute travel data. Business travel policies can now operate more adjustably through live booking. Business travel programmes can now remain flexible around the safety and security of individual travellers while still complying with agreed SLAs.
All-in-one booking and travel management platforms assist this process further still, consolidating each phase of the booking process, traveller journey, and traveller stay into one centralised and data-secure space. Clients are increasingly demanding up-to-date market data, financial reporting capabilities, and detailed travel analytics.
Comprehensive filtering capabilities prior to booking will be widely requested, especially those which pertain to the health of both the traveller and the environment. We expect to see more and more clients wanting to filter properties by Health and Safety accreditation and carbon emissions output, as well as many other similar fields.
Add to this the clear safety advantages of automated checking in and out processes and these features are undoubtedly going to help attract a larger share of the overall corporate travel market to the serviced accommodation sector.
Nomadic Travel
For many, the ‘work from anywhere’ movement has become an enticing and practical means by which to conduct business around the globe. What started as an unconventional trend for the professionally bold has become a seismic shift toward remote working. In 2020, 11 million people in identified as digital nomads in the US alone.
We are now beginning to see both businesses and governments acknowledging this new style of working, and we will likely see more countries allowing short-term visas in the name of nomadic business travel. The end of 2021 saw the Spanish government introduce a bill seeking to join the likes of Barbados, Costa Rica, Germany, and Norway among many others in offering Digital Nomad visas – most of which allow for up to a year of residency.
As we outlined on our blog last year, business travellers are taking fewer – but longer-lasting – journeys. It is digital nomads who function on the end of this spectrum, and if the trends we are seeing continue as we expect them to, then significant policy changes will be made to business travel programmes to accommodate their growing number as we move through 2022.
Adapting to these long-term travel trends will ensure the continued rapid growth of the corporate travel sector. The innate well-being benefits of serviced accommodation combined with an ever-fortifying supply chain, advancing technology and a flexible, mobile business workforce means that the corporate market will favour accommodation operators who act decisively, proactively, and transparently on sustainability initiatives and these other key areas of consideration.
