Business travellers are paying less for flights and more for hotel rooms than they were five years ago, but at least one of those trends may be shifting, according to the 2018 Business Travel Index from Ovation Corporate Travel.
The average price paid for domestic flights in the US is at or near a five-year low, according to the annual report from travel management company Ovation Corporate Travel, while the average price paid for a hotel room continued the slow but steady annual increases seen over the same time period.
However, Ovation saw airfare prices “spiking up notably” in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to executive vice president Michael Steiner. “Internationally, we saw a similar, though not as definitive spike in average airfare prices paid,” he added.
No major changes were reported in terms of class of service booked for business travel or in domestic versus international travel.
“On the hotel side, we continue to see domestic hotel average room rates paid increasing, for the most part, year over year, while international hotel average room rates paid increased less steadily,” said Steiner.
The report also tracked negotiated hotel rates by city, noting that rates rose the most in Denver over the past year (4.5 per cent), while rates in Beijing experienced the greatest average decline (2.95 per cent).
