What women need and what men want (in the hotel)

The analysis of 50 million hotel reviews from around the world has shown the differences between women´s and men´s perception. Is her review from Venus while his one is from Mars? Learn the results of TrustYou´s research.

Close your eyes for a moment and think of your last visit in a hotel. Oh! You´ve got it. What was your first association with the service received? If you are a woman, you will probably answer that it was friendliness of the staff (or lack of it). If you are a man, you will consider their professionalism. A research was done to explore the expectations of satisfying visit at the hotel. So many as 50 million hotel guests of either gender took part in that survey.

Although the criticism scale was comparable (women turned out to be unjustifiably regarded as malcontent), the researchers noticed significant gender differences in the evaluation of the hotel stay.

Hotel and staff:

    While evaluating the destination and service quality, women pay more attention to the atmosphere in the hotel and friendly staff attitudes. Male guests focus rather on professionalism of the service as well as general hotel maintenance. As far as women are concerned, they usually estimate: ambience - 11% more often than men, friendly atmosphere  - 10% more frequently than male visitors.

On the other hand, men evaluate mostly: hotel equipment - 40% more often than women, hotel maintenance - 26% more often, professional staff - 10% more frequently.

The results of the latest Cornell University´s research point up clearly that women are more likely to rely on emotional factors when estimating the hotel. They therefore pay so much attention to the feeling of comfort and being pumpered.

Amenities:

When talking about the hotel, women recall most often: desserts - 57% more frequently than men, entertainment - 34% more frequently, the pool - 16% more often, the minibar - 11% more often, shopping - 11% more often, alcoholic drinks - 10% more frequently, the bar - 8% more often, food - 5% more often, SPA/wellness facilities - 5% more frequently.

The first thing men recall commenting on the hotel is the Internet/Wi-Fi - 49% more often than women. Next, they mention TV - 35% more often, the price/quality relationship - 29% more frequently than women, the parking prices - 28% more often.

What affects such differences? The simplest answer would be: women and men just expect different things of the hotel stay. Factually, the variance between men´s and women´s opinions may originate from the way the households plan the travels and what role representatives of both sexes play in the preparations. Several researches demonstrate that women are much more often responsible for making decisions referring to holiday planning. One of them shows that women plan vacations on travel portals more frequently than their partners. Another research confirms that it is women who make up to 70% of all decisions regarding family voyages.

Bearing the responsibility for holiday planning, women focus mostly on learning and evaluating hotel features associated with leisure and recreation. Typical of them is to combine business travels with leisure. The research of Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sport Management in New New York show that 44% of women travelling for business take into account recreational experiences. What´s more, 20% of women travelling for business take a few days off to extend their hotel stay. Although the price/quality relationship is mentioned more often by male guests, that aspect is important for both men and women. It was also proved in MMGY Grill´s research - it is women who find it crucial if the price is adequate to the quality. Obviously, they also appreciate free Internet access.

What does it mean to hoteliers? They can draw conclusions from those studies so as to meet needs of all their guests. For instance, the staff can be trained a wat to know what to emphasise when serving women or men. Furthermore, management can also take those results into consideration when creating new offers and additional benefits for hotel guests - free welcome drink or spa package may be more tempting for women, while free parking and Wi-Fi may attract men more successfully.

Based on: TrustYou