By Andrew Dyer, vice president of global supply

Happiness matters. That’s why making sure business travelers have the best possible experience is important to travel managers. Now they can both rest easy — this year’s Egencia Top 100 Preferred Corporate Hotel award winners exceed travel managers’ needs and consistently delight business travelers. Each of the hotels in the Egencia Preferred Rate Program understands what corporate travelers want and actively works to go above and beyond their expectations.

An elite group that caters to business travelers

Hotels earning a spot in the Top 100 went the extra mile in learning the unique needs of business travelers. We analyzed their promotions, booking popularity, points programs, breakfast availability, and customer rating. In 2019, the winning hotels served more than 110,000 travelers in 16 countries, offered nearly 125,000 room nights with breakfast and offered over 75,000 with points. Adding to those remarkable accomplishments, the Top 100 hotels also received a perfect rating from Egencia business travelers. Maintaining a 100 percent rating isn’t easy — how many ride share users do you know with a 5.0 score?

That’s what makes the 100 percent customer satisfaction rating achieved by each of the winning hotels all the more impressive. While discount programs are one of several factors Egencia considers when determining the winners, this isn’t a list of hotels based solely on the lowest rates. The Top 100 Preferred Corporate Hotels relentlessly strive to understand business travelers and specifically tailor their customer service programs to best serve them.

How the Top 100 helps your travel program

After duty of care, a travel manager’s main priority is to ensure a frictionless experience so business travelers can focus on their work ahead. Travel managers can rely on the Top 100 Preferred Corporate Hotels to deliver duty of care and traveler experience. When travel managers recommend a Top 100 hotel to travelers, it’s also an opportunity for them to remind employees about travel policy and share other helpful information.

Travelers and travel arrangers know they have a trusted global resource when booking their stay. And arrangers managing executives’ bookings know that no time will be lost due to an inefficient check-in and that if an issue does come up, it will be taken care of efficiently. The same factors — booking popularity, preferred rates, value-added amenities — are taken into account during all hotel searches on the Egencia platform and app, so travelers can book confidently.

Hotels with the winning combination

For hotels hoping to join next year’s Top 100 list and current winners looking to repeat their success, Egencia is always here to support our best suppliers. We have the tools, team, and experience to help customer-centric hotels serve the millions of active Egencia corporate travelers. And this goes for hotels of any size. In most cases, the formula for providing customer-centric service is the same whether the hotel is large, small, independent, or part of a larger group.

Though robust point programs are obviously an attractive feature for business travelers, we know that’s not always an option for a hotel. The key is establishing a unique experience for the business traveler. Creating an environment that’s built around the corporate travel audience and doubling down on the areas where your property shines will always be a winning combination to forge a foundation of trust with travelers and their corporate teams.

We’re proud to endorse suppliers that cultivate a customer-centric environment and share our commitment to building a trusting relationship with corporate travel managers. We truly appreciate hotels that work with us in order to provide the best experience possible. There’s nothing more valuable to our customers than knowing that their travelers are staying somewhere that delivers on duty of care, value, and amenities. Congratulations again to the winners.