In Q4 2022, business travelers averaged 4.13 nights per hotel stay. This reflects a 55% increase in trip length over the same quarter in 2021. Compared to Q4 2019, however, it shows an 8% decrease in trip length. The number of hotel reservations is up 89% over Q4 2021 but still 45% lower than in 2019.
Emburse announced today the results of its Q1 2023 SpendSmart Travel Trends report. This quarterly report tracks how much organizations spend on travel, as well as trends for booking volume and trip length, and compares it to the previous year and the previous quarter.
In Q1 2023, business travel measures changed as follows:
- Volume of domestic flights booked: 52% up from Q1 2022 and 29% up from Q4 2022
- Amount spent on domestic flights: 85% up from Q1 2022 and 42% up from Q4 2022
- Volume of international flights booked: 178% up from Q1 2022 and 1% up from Q4 2022
- Amount spent on international flights: 285% up from Q1 2022 and 21% up from Q4 2022
- Volume of car rentals booked: 53% up from Q1 2022 and 22% up from Q4 2022
- Amount spent on car rentals: 60% up from Q1 2022 and 21% up from Q4 2022
- Volume of hotel reservations booked: 49% up from Q1 2022 and 5% up from Q4 2022
- Amount spent on hotel reservations: 59% up from Q1 2022 and 11% up from Q4 2022
Despite news that organizations are tightening their belts, the Q1 2023 SpendSmart Travel Trends report shows that these macroeconomic concerns have not dampened the momentum of the business travel industry. The number of domestic and international flights, hotel and car rentals, and spend across the board all increased as industry events like CES returned in full and executives sought a sense of normalcy in the new year. While international flight volume only grew by 1% against last quarter, that follows a 998% annual increase in the quarter prior, indicating that organizations are continuing to spend on international travel.
“Finance leaders may be surprised to see continued growth for business travel in the first quarter of this year given market conditions and budget cuts,” said Eric Friedrichsen, CEO of Emburse. “Our data show that employees are instead finding ways to travel more efficiently. For example, length of stay in hotels saw a dip while car rental durations increased over the previous quarter as employees are taking more multi-stop trips to maximize their travel time.”
Hotel
As the hotel industry continues to rebound from pandemic losses, in Q4 2022, business travelers averaged 4.13 nights per hotel stay. This reflects a 55% increase in trip length over the same quarter in 2021. Compared to Q4 2019, however, it shows an 8% decrease in trip length. The number of hotel reservations is up 89% over Q4 2021 but still 45% lower than in 2019.
The average nightly spend on hotels for business trips was up $138, compared to $184 in Q4 2021. Reservations overall cost 16% more than the previous year, but were down 13% from the previous quarter, Q3 2022.
Access the Q1 2023 SpendSmart Travel Trends report here.