Plan Your Meetings

Marriott tops business traveler survey for second year in a row

More than half of American business travelers (53 percent) often tie leisure time into business trips, and the biggest pet peeves across the board are flight delays and cancellations (53 percent), according to TripAdvisor’s annual survey of more than 1,500 business travelers worldwide.

The survey’s top-ranked hotel chains for business travelers were (in descending order) Marriott, Hilton, Holiday Inn and Sheraton (tie), and Best Western and Courtyard by Marriott (tie). Thirty percent of respondents cited a hotel’s location/proximity to meetings as its most important feature, followed by high-speed Internet access (26 percent), and onsite dining and room service (19 percent);  favorite hotel luxuries are deluxe bedding and high-end bath products.

Respondents counted New York City, Chicago, London, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., among the best cities for business travel. Although nearly a quarter of those surveyed (24 percent) said their business travel is always based on the lowest fare, they admitted to spending more on food and drink when the company’s footing the bill (34 percent) and tipping better than they normally would (36 percent).