globalEDGE International Business Blog

In recent months, there has been a huge cutback in business travelers staying in luxury hotels. With thousands of workers having been laid off, companies who sent their executives to 5-star hotels were being attacked. Since companies have been under scrutiny for unnecessary spending, business travel has been cut back and downgraded to the bare minimum. Now, the international hospitality industry is trying to bring back luxury business travel.

Major cities around the world have thousands of hotel rooms that cannot all be filled with leisure travelers, and business travel is expected to fill the rest. The recent drop in business travel has hurt the luxury hotel and airline sectors. To combat this, the hospitality industry has invested in advertising specifically targeting business travelers. The ads are attempting to encourage businesses to go back to the way of meeting with their customers face to face, rather than recent more inexpensive options. British Airways has even offered 1,000 free airline tickets to businesses who won their essay competition in hopes that this will encourage future profits.

Meeting customers in person is certainly the ideal way to do business, especially internationally. If there is a language barrier, or if you are simply dealing with different cultures and customs, it shows a great deal of respect to actually put forth the effort to meet with your customer. This has been more difficult with the recent economic downturn, but hopefully business travel will bounce back soon.

It may take some time for businesses to go back to sending their employees to 5-star hotels, but there are some truly amazing (and expensive) ones. Check out these 10 outrageous hotel rooms!