Being an avid traveler myself, I follow various members from the traveling community on Instagram. Of those, solo female travelers always intrigued me.
The reason is simple, as a guy I do have second thoughts before going on a solo trip, like how can I reach, if the hotel is not proper, what about the safety aspects, and whatnot. And, I’ve seen women overcome these issues and embark confidently on solo trips.
When a woman recognises her strength, even the horizon bows down.
Manasi Shah
To boost their confidence and encourage them to take more such trips, the hospitality industry can make a vital contribution. How?
Simple by ensuring that every property adopts ways to be a female-friendly hotel. If you are wondering what those steps are, this blog gives you the answer. But before that, let’s understand…
Why Do We Need Female-friendly Hotels?
Women safety is of uttermost importance these days. Moreover, with solo traveling in picture, it’s important for hotels to make their property female-friendly.
As per the statistics shared by Condor Ferries,
Around 84% of women prefer traveling alone, of which 76% felt unsafe while they were on a solo-trip.
One of the prime reasons for this is the accommodation facility. Luxury hotels invest in various steps to ensure female guests have a comfortable stay amidst safe and secure surroundings.
This is where budget hotels lose their bookings. Trust me when I say this,
“Women don’t hesitate in shredding an extra amount for booking a luxurious property that is safe, hygienic, and can provide facilities required by female travelers.”
How to Become a Female-Friendly Hotel?
Converting your property into one of the known female-friendly hotels needs a strategic approach. All you need to do is understand what women want.
Ok, now that may seem impossible; but, what I mean here is paying attention to their expectations from a hotel and trying to deploy them at your property.
It could be anything like a hygienic environment, safety measures, or something else. Let’s discuss them one by one.
1. Focus On Safety and Security First
Start with implementing safety measures on your property. This includes installing CCTV cameras in every nook and corner of your hotel, deploying security guards especially at night, and putting enough light in public areas.
Moreover, you can invest in female personnel for brisking and security checks. Apart from that go for double locks to ensure maximum safety. However, don’t forget to keep a master key for such locks to help you in emergency situations.
Additionally, you can dedicate female staff for providing services to female guests. This will address a sense of security among women travelers.
Note: This does not mean that your male staff is incompetent. It’s just one of the most sought after requests by many female travelers.
2. Offer Pick and Drop Facility For Female Travelers
One of the prime problems which many travelers face is commuting to the hotel. The situation becomes critical when they are bound to check-in late at night.
In the case of female guests, you need to pay special attention. All you need to do is arrange a pick up and drop facility for them.
This simple gesture is appreciated a lot by them. It helps in three ways.
- The driver can be trusted and you will be having all his details like cab number, driving license, and GPS location.
- The guest will be paying fair charges and they won’t need to bargain for hours at different places for the right fare.
- The guests will reach the hotel safely without any hassles. And they would be impressed even before arriving at your property
This is an important step from the security point of view and is one of the sought factors in female-friendly hotels.
3. Maintain a Hygienic Surrounding
I’ve worked in the housekeeping department before, and let me tell you from my experience that the first thing women check is whether the place is clean and hygienic. Be it a food outlet, movie theatre, or a hotel.
Talking about your property, ensure that you’ve maintained a regular cleaning routine, especially for deep cleaning. Women can find even the tiniest particle of dust, even if the place may seem clean to you.
Don’t believe me? Try cleaning your room and ask your mom to inspect it. I’m pretty sure she will find ‘n’ number of spots left uncleaned.
Here’s a yarn from my hotel diaries which I’m sharing with you. We had a female-guest arriving at our property, and the housekeeping department was instructed to keep her room spick and span.
Being an intern, I was given that task, and unfortunately, I left a strand of hair on the escutcheon plate. I can still remember the ruckus it created. Trust me, I had to clean the room twice, till it met her expectations (Told you earlier, it’s difficult to meet their expectations, but not impossible).
Well, long story short, I would say keep your property clean, sanitised, maintain a hygienic environment, and place premium quality toiletries.
Pro-tip: Pay special attention to washrooms. Keep them clean and specifically the public washroom. As unhygienic and unkempt could result in an infection.
4. Dedicate a Special Floor or Rooms For Female Guests
I’ve seen many hotels keep either a separate room on every floor or dedicate an entire wing for female-guests. And let me tell you, those are the most beautiful rooms I’ve ever come across.
In fact, the hotels I worked in had them too. The rooms had a light coloured background, fancy curtains, a minibar loaded with chocolates, plush toys (teddy bear, puppy, or mascot of the hotel), and a plethora of amenities. Moreover, some of them were suites and had double locks.
You can take a cue from this and allocate certain rooms for female travelers only. Once done, find out what all you can update in those rooms to make them more comfortable.
5. Keep Amenities That Cater to Female Travelers
No hotel is complete without amenities. When it comes to female guests, ensure you have everything to help them at any point of time.
If you’d ask me which ones to be included, I’d say sanitary pads, hair dryer, nail filler, hair straightener, curler, and concave and convex mirrors in the bathrooms. Also, keep your area’s map and a guide to aid female travelers in exploring local surroundings.
If you need a bit more help, I’d advise you to ask your female staff. They’d give you more detailed insight. Keeping accessories that can cater to women travelers is one of the most recommended strategies in becoming a female-friendly hotel.
6. Train Your Staff On Treating Female Guests
Hospitality industry is all about treating guests with respect and courtesy. It works on one simple principle, “Guests are God”. That’s true indeed.
Talking about female guests, they should be given special attention. Why?
First of all, rude behaviour puts a dent on your hotel’s reputation. Secondly, it raises a sense of insecurity among female guests and makes them feel unsafe.
This inturn impacts their experience at the hotel and fetches you a negative review. Moreover, it questions the kind of staff you’ve employed in your property.
In order to avoid such a situation, train your staff in soft skills. If required, try specialising them in treating women and kids.
This will improve your guest satisfaction score as well, and can make you one of the recommended female-friendly hotels.
Note: Pay attention to how males guests treat female travelers residing at your property. If you notice any man in your hotel misbehaving with fellow women guests, come forward and take necessary actions.
7. Include Female Only Activities
Last but not least, invest in activities specially designed for female-guests. No, I’m not asking you to invent new games or adventure sports. What I meant is to create tours and packages dedicated specifically to women travellers.
It could be a girls night-out party theme, female only group trips, dedicated slots for women to use the pool, or a discount for ladies in bars. You can use social media to find out any such parties happening in your town and offer special passes to solo female travelers.
Ladies appreciate such gestures, and this in turn can aid you in highlighting your property as one of the female-friendly hotels of the town.
Conclusion
Women are already strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.
G.D. Anderson
Women are the most beautiful creation of God. To be honest, the world cannot evolve without females. They might look delicate and fragile, but are strong, independent and courageous.
If I were to list the qualities of women, I would fall short of words. And it’s no secret that they need to be treated with care and respect.
With women empowerment in picture, we can see females achieving new heights in each and every field. Be it going in space, winning medals in Olympics, or solo traveling to an offbeat destination.
With that being said, the hospitality industry saw an exponential rise in female travelers over the past few years. You as a hotelier can contribute to this and give a boost to women empowerment. How?
