Business travellers are the most inconspicuous guest segment in short-term rentals: they arrive midweek when tourists do not, often stay several nights, do not throw parties, rarely ask for discounts and leave sober, generous reviews. Set one unit up specifically for them and you fill exactly the nights that otherwise stay empty — Tuesday to Thursday, all year round. The effort is manageable, but the requirements are non-negotiable.

What business guests actually need

The expectation is not luxury, it is reliability. Four things decide almost everything:

  • Internet that holds up. Not "wifi available" but robust enough for video calls. Test the speed where people actually work and state the figure in the listing. An ethernet cable or a second access point solves more problems than it costs.
  • A real workspace. A table with a proper chair, legroom, a socket within reach and a light source that does not glare from behind. The dining table by the balcony door does not count as a workspace once someone sits at it for eight hours.
  • Sleep. Blackout that deserves the name, and quiet. A guest presenting the next morning forgives a lot — but not a sleepless night.
  • Independent arrival. Flights and meetings shift. Offering only an in-person handover effectively removes you from this segment.

The details that make the difference

After that come the small things that are felt daily and show up in reviews: a washing machine for stays of three nights or more, an iron and board, enough hangers, a kettle and coffee that works without instructions. Multi-sockets by the bed and the desk. A mirror you can see all of yourself in before a meeting.

What you can skip: decoration, welcome gifts and anything that looks like a holiday flat. Business travellers evaluate function, not atmosphere. A tidy, plain interior with good lighting beats any arrangement on the coffee table.

Location matters too. Proximity to business parks, hospitals, exhibition grounds, public authorities or large employers counts more for this group than proximity to the old town. In regions such as Bamberg, where tourism and mid-sized industry sit side by side, the same city can carry two entirely different demand patterns — depending on the street.

Pricing and minimum stay

Business demand behaves differently from leisure demand, and serving both with one pricing rule loses on both sides. Leisure guests book early and cluster on weekends and holidays. Business guests book late — sometimes days ahead — and fill the middle of the week.

In practice that means: for Tuesday-to-Thursday nights it rarely pays to discount as aggressively as for an empty weekend, because that demand is less price-sensitive and arrives late. Conversely, a three-night minimum stay midweek can exclude precisely the bookings you want. If you use dynamic pricing, treat weekdays and weekends as separate cases rather than applying one blanket rule.

Longer stays are the second lever. A project worker staying four weeks means fewer cleans, fewer arrivals, less downtime. A meaningful weekly or monthly discount often pays off here because operating cost per night drops sharply — provided you check in advance which tenancy-law and tax rules apply from which length of stay. Those thresholds are not a detail, and the answer belongs with a tax adviser or lawyer, not in a rule of thumb.

Invoicing and the booking route

One point where many otherwise solid listings fail: business travellers need a correct invoice made out to the company, and they need it promptly. Send the PDF only after the third reminder and you will not be booked again — regardless of how good the apartment was.

Practically: ask for the billing address and, where relevant, a purchase order number before arrival rather than after. And automate the sending once more than a handful of units are involved — in our operation invoice preparation runs through CENTCOM, because it is the process step most reliably left undone.

The second point is the booking route. Part of this demand comes through the usual platforms, part through company contacts, HR departments and direct enquiries. A page on your own website stating weekly and monthly terms plus how invoicing works costs little and answers exactly the questions an assistant will ask.

Start with one unit

You do not need to rebuild your portfolio. Take the unit with the best internet and the quietest location, add the workspace and blackout, set separate pricing rules for midweek and weekend, and watch Tuesday-to-Thursday occupancy for one quarter. If the middle of the week picks up, you will know which unit to convert next — and which one is better left as a holiday flat.