The title For Women Only: You Will Be Floored By This! is probably the best way to get men to read this article as well; but imagine a hotel property where one floor is reserved for women only — complete with its own lounge and amenities. Would you pay extra money per night for a room on this floor?
For Women Only: You Will Be Floored By This!
One hotel property invites you to “enjoy enhanced experiences designed to elevate your stay featuring a fresh-air allergen-free floor, a women’s only floor, and premier guestrooms for extra space to stretch out in” with a further explanation:
Our Notable Women of Georgia floor, requiring keyed entry, is supported by the Chelko Women’s Art Empowerment Foundation, where each room is dedicated to an honored, remarkable woman. With our Celebrate Notable Women of Georgia Package, upon check-in, guests receive L’Occitane products, including healing hand crème, soothing face cream, lavender air spritz, lip balm, soothing eye patches, refreshing wipes, sugar cube for bath, and a dual pocket mirror — all in a beautiful cosmetics gift bag. Guests also receive a special miniature-sized heart art piece designed by Chelko Foundation.
That hotel property is the historic Ellis Hotel, Atlanta, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel by Marriott as one of its enhanced experiences that this boutique hotel offers. The idea was reportedly created by female business executives who regularly stay at the hotel property and go to their offices across the street. They wanted a place to call their own; so some fun elements were added — such as the aforementioned gift bag of amenities upon arrival — and equipped the rooms with a curling iron, a flat iron, and other items with which the women claimed were a pain to travel so that they did not have to pack these in their luggage. Only females are permitted to stay on this floor, as no males — not even male spouses — are allowed to stay there.
On the other hand, the JW Marriott Grand Rapids hotel property in Michigan attempted to possibly be the first hotel property in the United States to reserve a floor exclusively for its female guests back when it opened its doors to the public in autumn of 2007. Access to those rooms would have cost a premium of between $25.00 and $30.00 per night over the standard rates of approximately $229.00…
…but due to negative publicity and a public outcry, the hotel property would offer special amenities “with the female traveler in mind” to any women who check into — and pay more for — a room on any of the four concierge floors instead of offering a completely separate floor for women.
The Bella Donna floor of AC Hotel Bella Sky Copenhagen is the seventeenth floor of the hotel property which is specially designed for women. The Bella Donna floor was originally designed to be for female guests only with no male guests permitted as the first hotel property in Europe to offer such an option when it opened its doors to the public in 2011; but a court in Denmark ruled in 2014 that the Bella Donna floor was illegal and discriminatory — so this hotel property in Denmark also welcomes men on that floor as well.
Final Boarding Call
Although all three examples of hotel properties which reserve a floor for female guests that were illustrated in this article are all part of the brand portfolio of Marriott International, Incorporated, other hotel properties do exist in the world with a similar arrangement. For example, capsule hotel properties in Japan typically provide separate floors for men and women — which can only be accessed by key cards — as a general standard.
Would you pay extra to stay on a floor that is reserved exclusively for women — or men, for that matter?
The Atlanta Streetcar — about which you can read more information in this review — passes right by the Ellis Hotel, Atlanta, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel by Marriott on Ellis Street in Atlanta. Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
