In the UK, business travellers miss their bed more than their children when travelling for work, Egencia, the business travel arm of the Expedia group, revealed in its 4th edition Business Travel and Technology Survey.
Globally, children and beds are equally missed, with 36 percent of the surveyed agreeing on this. But in the UK business travellers miss their beds more than their children. In France, it’s the reverse, with 42 percent of business travellers missing their children and only 28 percent missing their beds.
Top of the list globally are spouses who are most missed with 50 percent of those surveyed missing them the most when travelling for work, 55 percent in the UK – highest ranked from all countries surveyed after France.
It’s no surprise then, given that spouses, beds and children are missed most, that the companies choose to offer time off as compensation over other travel-related perks. After all, it’s a better way to make up for missing home than free wi-fi.
However, given the focus on work-life balance in these findings, globally travellers still value non-stop flights, class upgrades and in-flight wi-fi more than extra time off when it comes to improving their satisfaction during business travel.
In parallel, productivity doesn’t seem to be affected by more time with children and spouses – only 26 percent of business travellers in the UK – and even less globally – think extra time off would help them stay productive.
There’s little doubt that missing spouses, beds and children (maybe not even in that order!) will continue to be a mainstay of business travel. But perks such as inflight wi-fi and non-stop flights have become more valuable than ever to business travellers as companies and their travel management providers continually look for ways to make travellers’ lives easier, and business travel more productive.
