Why do you find a razor in a hotel bathroom and not a sanitary towel?

Talk with Valerie Hoffenberg has a sense of enlightenment. That is, it allows you to see many small things that we did not notice before. Things we take for granted must be this way, just for the simple reason that they have always been this way. And that they can change. Do you wonder if the hotels we frequent, of any level, forget about the needs of their female customers? Read this and the answer will ring in you loud and clear: “Yes”.

Valerie Hoffenberg she is an entrepreneur, a diplomat, an expert in gender equality who has traveled all over the world and in every hotel in the world. And did you understand that hotels – which are designed and run predominantly by men – they often forget about women’s wishes. She has collected her considerations together with those of many other women, she has launched a large survey on women traveling in 5 countries of the world, he put together each piece of advice and translated it into 70 criteria, which are what make up his travel certification: is called SHe Travel Clubwhere «SHe» is the acronym for «Safe & Happy everywhere» and to date it is awarded to 300 hotels in 37 different countries.

«Security and happiness is the promise we make to female travelers and to the many women who travel for work who need to have adequate hospitality. The truth is, we’re so used to fitting in and being content that we don’t notice we’re doing itsays Valerie, but women account for 64% of those who travel!».

Valeria is an active woman with great energy: «I’ve always wanted a change in the hotel industry, and instead of waiting for it, I started it», she says. And she adds that hers it is also a story that tells how a 58-year-old woman can get involved and change her life. Here’s what she told us.

How was SHe born?
«Women represent 64% of global travelers, yet 9 out of 10 women think that the hospitality sector does not take their needs into consideration. This is the result of a survey of 5,000 women we carried out in France, Great Britain, the United States, Brazil and China. The first aspect to consider in order to change things is safety – and I want to underline that due to the difficulty of traveling in some countries of the world, women are sometimes forced to give up their careers – but then there are the comforts, the service, the food. With our certification we don’t want to create hotels for women only, but hotels that give women the same attention they give to men. We want corporate travel policies to integrate gender equality: all B Corporations are working on gender equality, except the world of travel!».

Give us examples of what should change
«Speaking of safety, the hotel must always guarantee safe transport from the airport, there must be someone at the reception 24 hours a day and women must be given information on the safety of the neighborhood in which they are located. There are often long, dark corridors in hotels, but women feel more comfortable in brightly lit rooms. The doors to the rooms must be able to lock from the inside and there must be a safety chain. Even the peephole on the door is important: how can I open it if I don’t know who it is?».

What else?
«In terms of comfort in the room, if a man forgets his razor he often finds it in the hotel, but if we forget a sanitary towel or make-up remover water we will never find it. Instead we want hotels with SHe certification to have a bag with the necessary products, but also a hand shower and not just with the pan on it, to be able to wash without wetting our hair, perhaps a real hair dryer and not the ones attached to the wall , and a high mirror to look at oneself whole».

In short, the hotels we have had up to now are designed for men
«Hotels in most cases are designed by men and managed by men. Women often eat in their room for dinner, rather than alone in the restaurant, but only burgers and heavy meals can be ordered in the room, while a varied menu is needed, perhaps with healthy and light dishes. I have met hotel general managers who said that she would have liked to create a welcome more within reach of women but their proposals were to create “more pink” environments or to put “more flowers”. There is no awareness, the staff is not trained to manage the needs of female customers, both from the point of view of safety, but also for “trivial” advice: the concierge always knows where the bar is to watch the match, but he rarely knows how to indicate a good hairdresser”.

Why is such a project born only now?
“We are so used to being treated badly that we adapt. But with SHe we want to move the sector and tell it: “the world is changing, you must change too!”. Our certification, which is achieved both through a customer certification process and through self-certification, is reaching more and more hotels. We make agreements with chains and with those who organize business trips, and it is important that it involves all the hotels, even the 3-star ones, so that we have basic requirements».

What step will you take in the future?
«For Women’s Day SHe Travel club will debut with the “Best Hotels for
Women” which will reward hotels that are committed to gender equality, both towards female customers and female employees. In the future we will also include in hotel ratings some questions about how the female employees who work there are treated. We want to start a chain of solidarity: happy women at work make happy travellers. And in the meantime we continue to expand: now we have 300 hotels but according to my calculations we will reach 1000 by the end of the year»
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