Filed under: North America, Hotels and Accommodations, News
Years ago, hotels would have women-only floors targeted at women traveling alone as a way of increasing their female clientele by promising safety through exclusivity by gender. Of course, that was thrown into obsolescence after being considered sexist and discriminatory. However, hospitality marketing gurus have managed to swirl around the "women-only" floor idea into one of "women-friendly" floors. Some rooms on such floors have special items for women (a Victoria's Secret bathrobe, a blow dryer, vanity mirrors), and yoga stuff for women who want to work out, but, to avoid the sexist tag, the floors and facilities are not exclusive to women.
Hmmm...so what makes them special? Some facial creams and nail-polish that the other rooms don't have?
In other words, hotels are out of ideas to market their services, so they take an old idea, tweak it to sound like a new one when it's really not an idea at all. Then they sell it as a novel service for a niche audience and get some press.
Hotels such as the Crowne Plaza, the Hilton, and the Hampton Inn have been successful with this marketing gimmick, that too outside the Middle East -- so who am I to criticize it. Time will tell how much female customers succumb to this marketing ploy.
An ending note for hotels: your customers are smarter than you realize.
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