Women-led hotels tempt female travellers

Looking into a research that shows 87 per cent of woman travellers would give preference to a woman-led hotel and almost 50 per cent of them would pay more, travel metasearch website WayAway for the first time has launched a new category on its maps and listings called ‘woman traveller approved points of interest’, which caters to the needs of woman travellers.

TT Bureau

Travel metasearch website WayAway recently introduced a new category on its maps and listings called ‘woman traveller approved points of interest’. These points of interest could include the fact that the owners, founders, or senior management of a hotel or restaurant or shop are women – or simply that the point of interest has a focus on women.

For example, a museum or monument celebrating women. More than 100 points of interest were included for the recent launch and WayAway aims to increase them by the year-end. Examples of inclusions might be hotels such as the Carpenter Hotel in Texas or the Peter & Paul hotel in New Orleans or the Saint Claude Social Club also in the same city, all of which are owned by woman founders.

Commenting over the initiative, Janis Dzenis, Director of PR, WayAway, says, “By launching the woman traveller approved points of interest service we hope firstly to open the door to those who wish to support woman-led businesses, but more importantly to allow woman travellers – whether they are from the Middle East or anywhere in the world – to choose travel experiences that are not only more relevant to them, but also make them feel safe, particularly in the case of solo female. This is the feedback we hear regularly receiving from the Middle East and other markets around the world: not enough solo woman travellers feel safe when travelling when compared to men.”

Dzenis added, “We would also like to point out that this is not only morally very important, but also that businesses that are able to provide a relevant and authentic appeal to woman travellers would be tapping into a market that represents half the world’s population – and an audience that is chronically underserved by the travel industry currently in the Middle East and elsewhere. In other words, there is money to be made here, woman entrepreneurs (and those lending money to them!) take note. We are working hard to expand the female traveller approved points of interest listings as quickly as we can – with over 200 on-the-ground WayAway representatives around the world, including in the Middle East looking out for more already – and hope to have around the low thousands of inclusions by the year-end.”

What women look out for WayAway has launched this new feature as a direct response to feedback from woman users, including a recent survey on its Instagram account that showed that

• 87 per cent would ‘very likely’ choose a hotel labelled woman-led over one where the ownership is unknown
• 67 per cent felt ‘safety’ would be the main advantage
• Nearly half would pay 10 per cent more for a woman owned or managed hotel