The Capital Hotels and Apartments highlights the latest trends in business travel – and just how far it’s come from the ‘bad old days’
This time of year, it’s always good to look back on what’s been, and to anticipate what’s to come, and the business travel industry has more evidence than most that ‘things just aren’t what they used to be’.
But that’s infinitely for the better, according to Marc Wachsberger, managing director of The Capital Hotels and Apartments, not least because business travellers are more in control of their experience than ever before.
“Fewer intermediaries are required as technology makes it possible for everyone to curate their own experience, keeping costs under control and also avoiding the unnecessary and invisible fluff and frills that were part of business travel before,” he says. “Personalisation is key to the future of business travel, as is a seamless approach to customer service.”
The Capital Hotels and Apartments has created this retrospective and future-gazing showcase that reveals just how (wonderfully) business travel has changed.
Then | Now |
| Making or changing a booking was a time-consuming process that involved third parties. | Bookings can be made or changed directly via their website or mobile app. |
| No expense spared – what execs wanted when they were away on business wasn’t questioned | Tighter budget controls, with more accountability for spending |
| Freedom to choose any hotel in proximity to business meetings | Procurement departments investigate and manage a portfolio of approved options, based on best value for money and execs’ comfort. |
| Procurement departments incentivised by global hotel groups to choose their properties, regardless of value added | Procurement departments are more invested in identifying the meeting point of cost efficiency and value for money |
| Stock-standard hotel rooms with no space to relax in private during long stays | Apartment hotels that include a kitchen and lounge area, in addition to a comfortable bedroom and luxurious bathroom |
| Hotel ‘business centres’, where execs are crammed in trying to use slow, expensive wi-fi and share cramped desks | Hotel-wide, free high-speed Wi-Fi, with apartment hotels including a spacious desk for business travellers |
| Expensive convenience stores with a limited choice of sweets, chocolates and sugary drinks | Grab-and-go health bars, with snacks to suit every taste |
| Turn-downs at night-time, complete with a chocolate (that nobody eats) and a gown and slippers (that never fit) | Privacy in your apartment or suite, and a focus on the things you’ll use and value |
| Pricey laundry services, charged by the item | Free laundry |
| Having your family join you at the end of a business trip for some down-time meant packing up and moving hotels | Apartment hotels are easily adaptable to welcome your family for some fun after the work is done – and you don’t have to pack up your things and move |
| Travel with business colleagues meant spending down-time with them as well, with execs never able to ‘switch off’ | Apartment hotels mean that execs can retreat to their own spaces – or invite guests of their choice once the business day is done. |
“Memorable events have always been a part of the business travel world, but it’s the meetings and conferencing venues that offer event planners and organisers the free reign to create remarkable experiences that will welcome repeat business in the future,” Wachsberger says.
“The Capital Hotels and Apartments, with its 8 properties across South Africa, has kept its finger on the pulse of the developments in business travel both locally and abroad.”
