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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Targeting Women
Err Travel · November 14, 2000

The number of women traveling on business is growing. Working Woman magazine puts the number at around 17 million. This lucrative market is not being overlooked by travel related businesses - nor by criminals.

Delta Air Lines and American Express have a special Web site for women business travelers. Wyndham's Women On Their Way program has an advisory committee of women who frequently stay at its properties and provide advice to the management to make the hotels more female friendly.

Indeed, women can now expect to be assigned to special rooms where they can find amenities ranging from Q-tips, cotton balls, bubble bath, illuminated magnifying mirrors, high-powered hair dryers, and satin bathrobes to nail varnish towels, cleansing cream, bath salts, body milk, hand creams, nondrying soaps, and back scrub loofahs. They can also expect to be shuffled off to "special" rooms designated for women traveling alone. Here's a sampler.

Barcelona, Spain
The Meliá Barcelona has reserved 18 rooms specifically for women.

Birmingham, Alabama
The Winfrey Hotel has set aside its entire third floor for single women.

Mexico City, Mexico
The Meliá Mexico Reforma has 12 specially selected rooms for single women.

New York, New York
At the Millennium Broadway Hotel women are likely to be assigned to rooms in the newer tower where rooms were designed with women in mind.

San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Caribe Hilton has 39 rooms and suites specifically earmarked for women traveling alone.

Sao Paulo, Brazil
At the Gran Meliá Sao Paulo, women traveling alone are assigned to rooms that are close to the elevators.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Women checking into the Meliá Purosani Hotel are escorted to the fourth floor.

By targeting single women travelers, these hotels have made special provisions that must seem like silvery retreats to those guests.

To criminals who also target lone women, these provisions must seem like gold! Imagine: Rooms pre-designated for women traveling alone. How much easier can this get?

Sure, some of the hotels also offer escorts and increased security patrols, but these are little more than nuisances for crafty crooks who know right where to go to find their loofah-scrubbing victims.

My advice to women traveling alone: If you find that you are being assigned or "upgraded" to a room in a women's-only section of a hotel, ask for a reassignment. Request instead a room on the floor where visiting SWAT teams stay when in town.

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority. His column appears on Wednesdays. He is author of the popular book Travel Can Be Murder. Visit his site at http://www.appliedpsychology.com or e-mail him at terry@ticked.com.