Hotels don't recognise their business guests

Hotels may have to work harder to keep the loyalty of business travellers, according to a survey by consultancy firm Accenture.
More than two-thirds of business travellers surveyed believed that
the hotels they stayed in did not recognise them as frequent customers or offer them any kind of special service.
More than half (57%) said hotels they stayed in often failed to recognise them at all, and 13% said they were recognised only by name. Only 22% said their basic preferences were acknowledged.
But Michael Hirst, consultant for CB Richard Ellis Hotels, believed hotels were already doing their best. "Most hotel companies recognise the value of their highest-paying guests," he said. "They pay the most and use the fewest facilities and it would be foolish to disregard the loyalty of the business traveller."
Hotel industry consultant Melvin Gold agreed: "Most hotels would be horrified to hear that their regular guests were not happy."
The problem may lie with the hotels business travellers use. Only 18% of those surveyed use five-
star hotels as their primary accommodation for business travel, with most using mid-range or budget chain hotels.
"Most five-star hotels use customer recognition technology," Hirst said. "Some midmarket chains may not, and developing it might be the next thing to do."
Another problem could be the timing of the survey. Hirst said that
in the past few years hotels had tended to market aggressively towards the leisure traveller, so business travellers might currently feel marginalised.
The online survey asked 451 business travellers in the UK for their views in February this year.
A spokesman for Accenture said respondents were chief executives from both small and larger corporations.