Female-friendly hotels: nonsense or necessity?
The requirements of the female traveller differ from those of male travellers. Safety and comfort have been considered, but careful attention was also given to their design. Virgin’s Richard Branson, from Virgin Records and Virgin Air, will be catering for this market with his new chain of hotels.
Designed for women
In a female-friendly hotel, the hallways are always well-lit to give the female guests a sense of safety during the day and at night when walking to their hotel rooms. At Virgin, the room can also be divided in half. This separates the bedroom from the dressing room, bathroom and the entrance hall. The bathrooms in the female-friendly hotels are equipped with larger showers and feature a bench and a make-up table with a large mirror and flattering lighting.
Mutual differences
It is not only Branson and his Virgin hotel that are focusing on the female traveller. A variety of hotels around the world offer female-friendly rooms. Amsterdam has its own female-friendly hostel called Hostelle. While the Netherlands does not yet boast a female-friendly hotel, such hotels can be found in other major cities such as New Delhi and Los Angeles. But there are a few differences. While one hotel has a female-friendly design, the other hotel only allows female guests.
A necessary development?
Is this trend a logical and necessary development? Research by Amadeus Asia Pacific has shown that the numbers of female travellers will increase exponentially in the next few years. They predict that in 2030 the number of female business travellers in Asia will have quadrupled. Considering this increase, female-friendly hotels appear to be a suitable development. Nevertheless, I do question whether well-lit hallways are not par for the course in any hotel. All the other facilities are fun little extras, but I do wonder if women will deliberately chose to stay at a female-friendly hotel because of the flattering light of the make-up table.
What do you think? Are female-friendly hotels necessary or are they an unnecessary luxury?
