Short-term healthcare travel lodging needs can vary significantly depending on the specialty of the provider and the focus of the staffing agency. Additionally, it has shifted over the last several years.

According to Grand View Research, the global healthcare staffing market is projected to reach $44.65 billion by 2025 — with the most significant growth coming from the U.S. However, there is a shortage of healthcare professionals to fill the open roles. By providing valuable, easy-to-use travel resources, it can become simpler to attract healthcare professionals to these travel-based roles.

With the diverse landscape of healthcare staffing (i.e., nursing, allied, locum) and quantity of lodging resources available, many nursing and allied agencies have decided to offer housing stipends — or per diems — rather than handhold the lodging needs of their travelers like locums agencies often do.

Agencies that have shifted to a stipend model have found relief with risk and cost reduction when assignments aren’t fulfilled, but this model can put their traveler at risk to secure lodging that they aren’t happy with upon arrival — which effects the success of their assignment and contract.

Like most business travelers, healthcare travelers have to decide what type of housing they want and then scour hundreds of hotel-booking websites and short-term housing platforms to find the best fit accommodations.

Once they think they’ve found the right property, they rely on reviews to understand the quality and location of the property they’re interested in. This takes a lot of time and creates stress, especially when considering healthcare travelers are going to an unfamiliar area and working at a facility where they have never worked before.

Premium healthcare travel lodging tools without the cost

One-way agencies are helping their providers who elect for a housing stipend by giving them access to Hotel Engine — a private, members-only platform that offers an average of 26% off publicly available rates. Hotel Engine is trusted by many healthcare agencies for business travel, and they can also offer Hotel Engine as an employee perk for personal travel as well.

Our private platform equips traveling healthcare professionals with:

• More than 200,000 hotel properties to choose from
• A Walk Score for every property that helps travelers understand how close they will be to entertainment
• A rewards program to help save even more on every reservation — no matter the brand
• A mobile app that helps travelers book on the go
• User reviews from Google for each property

Because we’re a private platform, Hotel Engine is able to offer deeper discounts than other hotel-booking sites out there — and our HE Rewards program only adds to your savings!

By leveraging Hotel Engine as a stipend resource, agencies are showing their providers they care about their personal well-being and wallet while staying hands-off. And what person doesn’t enjoy free valuable resources that make them feel cared for?

Click here to learn more about the premium lodging management tools that Hotel Engine provides healthcare companies like yours.

This article was written by Jordan Epstein, Senior Account Executive at Hotel Engine.