As recently pointed out by travel tech website Tnooz, travellers are becoming more and more discriminating about what they look for in a hotel stay, but this can benefit smaller properties, like B&Bs, inns and guesthouses, rather than big chains.

Amongst other things, Tnooz makes the point that the Internet has become a particular issue for travellers: “People nowadays lead wired lives, connected for most of their day to the internet, and, for example, now expect free WIFI (or reasonably-priced) when on a trip. […] So, perhaps the real innovation in the accommodation sector is in the smaller operations that can innovate much more quickly and easily. They can do this because their managers or owners are much closer to their customers, often meeting and greeting them and sometimes stopping for a chat, understanding some of the concerns and requirements of guests. These small business owners have their fingers on the pulse and don’t need to pass ideas back through levels of local or overseas management committees to innovate, they just do it.”