PERSPECTIVE
DATA PAYS
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINNING AND LOSING AN ACCOUNT OFTEN HINGES ON THIS.
By JOANNA ABRAMS, CEO, AND ANDREA FOSTER, EVP DEVELOPMENT – HOSPITALITY, MINDCLICK
E
arlier this year, HOTELS published Amadeus’ playbook for standing out in corporate travel RFP season. Joerg Schuler, EVP of hospitality commercial at Amadeus, made a notable point: start with data. His three closing principles— show up informed, stay visible, never stop paying attention— are how top sellers work an account. We would extend that to the column growing fastest on the corporate buyer’ s scorecard: health and wellness, environmental responsibility and impact.
KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER Leading with data starts before the negotiation with understanding what the account values. Corporate buyers increasingly publish their own health, wellness and environmental commitments. Read them closely: they are a specification brief hiding in plain sight.
We saw this at a branded hotel in a major U. S. metro market, where Mindclick supported a renovation that specifically targeted a nearby, high-value account, which published language on“ new standards in health, wellness and sustainability.” Rather than invent criteria, we renovated to the client’ s own words, category by category.
The metrics are real: Ten of 14 guestroom categories responsibly sourced and 60 % of the FF & E budget verified for health, wellness and responsible sourcing. But they are only the entry point. It is the choices behind those numbers that capture a buyer’ s attention. Touring the property, the account’ s VP singled out alignment: carpet woven from reclaimed fishing nets mirroring the recycled-content standard her own company specifies and active air-cleaning in every room. Data starts the conversation; the verified health and wellness story of how the hotel got there brings it to life.
WHY TRAVEL BUYERS ARE ASKING This is not a niche preference but a procurement requirement driven by several forces at once.
Regulation is one. Corporate buyers’ RFP criteria are increasingly shaped by the EU’ s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive( CSRD), which pushes global companies to account for value-chain emissions— business travel among them— and to ask their hotels for the data.
But the pull runs deeper than compliance. Wellness is now a roughly $ 7 trillion global business, and travelers are buying it, especially in lifestyle, upperupscale and resort segments. Companies and their customers expect the spaces where they sleep, work and meet to support well-being and that’ s the story verified data allows a hotel to tell.
Distribution is another. OTAs and search surface hotels’ environmental performance( Booking. com and Google display it alongside price and location) and agentic AI travel search will accelerate it.
Procurement platforms are a third. The Alō index, a sustainability rating a Fortune 500 company uses for employee travel
44 hotelsmag. com September 2026