Bleisure or blended travel? Whatever you call it, it can boost an independent hotel’s bottom line

After a challenging few years, the hospitality industry has been yearning for some good news. Bleisure travel might just be the reason things change for the better. “Bleisure” refers to the combination of business trips with leisure travel and is a positive trend that’s taking the travel industry by storm. 

The blending of leisure and business travel isn’t new, but as leisure travel continues to show strength and business travel continues to recover, the blended traveler concept is on the uptick. This represents a potential opportunity for those independent hoteliers that choose to seize the moment and adapt their services to accommodate this rapidly resurging trend, which has seen a very healthy increase of 25% year-over-year, according to Travel Edge Network. 

This welcome upsurge opens the door to new opportunities in hospitality and has helped create a shift in the mindset of many business travelers. Technological advances and new attitudes adopted during and after the health crisis has made the possibility of enjoying a blended stay much easier and it’s become more accepted (even encouraged) by business leaders. According to a study by Expedia, US bleisure travelers spend 3.7 nights on the business portion and 2.6 nights on the leisure portion of their trips, for an average stay of more than six nights.

Put simply, bleisure travel is on track to take over traditional business travel. The changeover creates a new type of traveler — not a road warrior focused on closing the next big deal, nor a happy camper on their way to see the sights, but rather a combination of both.

Hoteliers need to understand that the connectivity needs of these travelers are generally more demanding than the average guest; to accomplish the business objectives of their stay, they need to have fast, reliable connectivity that can handle accessing content in the cloud. They expect WiFi strong enough for video conferencing calls while simultaneously supporting multiple browser tasks and applications. Bleisure travelers will also expect a desk in their room with an ergonomic chair, plenty of outlets and chargers within reach, and frictionless check-in and out capabilities

Beyond that, they also expect better entertainment and connectivity options for themselves, and their traveling companions, to better accommodate the leisure portions of the stay. 

Independent hotels, from large luxury resorts to smaller boutique hotels, can capitalize on this growing segment of guests by improving connectivity, and offering new services and amenities that ease the transition from work to fun, and back again. The time is also now to transform and modernize the underlying digital infrastructure that makes it all work seamlessly. Network modernization can control costs, enhance security, improve visibility into system performance, all while reducing demands on IT teams and hotel staff — all of which can positively affect a property’s ability to deliver a five-star guest experience.  

Network Modernization is mission-critical

Modernizing legacy networks has become a mission-critical priority for hoteliers as they work to increase occupancy and revenues in the wake of years of disruption and uncertainty. Unfortunately, many hotels still rely on a patchwork of networks that include legacy connections and equipment. These legacy services often require constant and costly hardware upgrades. In addition, up to 95% of network changes are still handled manually, resulting in operational costs that are two to three times higher than the cost of the network.  

What the modern independent hotel needs

Cisco estimates that guests will be bringing along an average of 3.6 networked devices per person by 2023. Fast, ubiquitous WiFi is crucial for satisfying these guests’ connectivity needs, and, in turn, encouraging guests to return for future stays. A dedicated fiber connection combined with a managed WiFi solution can enable you to deliver consistent connectivity to guests throughout your property.

Another imperative for modernization is the ability to scale phone services as needed, as well as provide features that enable collaboration — such as chat, voice, video call and desktop share — and can help improve efficiency and reduce costs. These features are beneficial for your bleisure guests, as well as for your hotel employees. Look for a turnkey voice solution that offers rich collaboration features such as a soft client that runs on laptops and mobile phones, instant messaging and presence, video calling and desktop sharing that lets your team members, and your guests, collaborate from any location. 

IT modernization and transformation should extend to the in-room TV experience, as well. Hoteliers should consider leveraging their TV system for more than just entertainment by viewing it as an in-room technology platform. Consider a solution that provides guests with digital access to services, such as the ability to order room service. 

In a modern hotel, the in-room TV platform should offer an immersive entertainment experience that seamlessly integrates with the property management system (PMS) and allows guests to control their unique experience through interactive digital services. Further, they expect an increased ability to access content, such as the ability to access over 200 channels, including sports and international options, and have a healthy range of content on demand including today’s most popular programming. 

The time to act is now, as Hospitality Technology reports that 70 percent of hotels have active IT projects around various aspects related to increasing operational efficiency, modernizing and adding new capabilities. These projects are directed at opportunities that will create a better customer experience while also reducing operating and asset management costs.

How Spectrum Enterprise can help

Managed Network Edge for Hospitality, from Spectrum Enterprise, elevates your WiFi experience while providing hoteliers with hospitality-specific features that drive revenue and promote your hotel brand, while enabling your guest to stay connected as they travel across your property.  You can also improve the guest experience by enabling expert technical assistance for your guests with 24/7/365 WiFi customer support. In addition, we enhance layers of security for hotel owners and guests alike, by isolating network traffic between guests and hotel operations, protecting users and guests from unauthorized wireless access points joining your wireless network and by encrypting wireless traffic at each access point.

Spectrum Enterprise offers complete, secure and scalable networking solutions for independent hotels. This allows hotel owners and operators to switch providers with confidence and quickly modernize their networking technology. The outcome? Hoteliers will be able to better serve bleisure travelers and traditional guests, find operational efficiencies, and drive revenue.

Learn more about how hoteliers can deliver a 5-star guest experience and exceed expectations with always-on connectivity.