Date published: 2005/08/08
The BBC says:
A hotel is to open a wing which will be available to women only.
Males will be banned from the 68 rooms of the new section of the five-star Grange City Hotel in central London.
Even room service staff will be female in the seven-storey building that will open at the end of August.
The Grange Hotel Group offered the service after research showed half its customers were women, many of whom felt vulnerable when travelling alone.
It said the rooms would contain "female-friendly" features such as illuminated wardrobes, a backlit make-up mirror and extra-powerful hairdryer.
And for security every room will have a spy-hole and chain lock.
Barry Wishart, from the Grange Hotel Group, said: "We noticed that our women travellers were frequently asking for the same things.
"Traditionally hotels have always been male-centric, particularly business-class hotels."
He admitted the ban on men could not be fully enforceable if, for example, a guest wanted to invite a man to her room.
Obviously this is just intended to get some free publicity for the hotel (and it worked), because it is a mostly silly story. OK, perhaps women travelling alone need extra security. But why should women travelling alone (or with other women, presumably) be deemed worthy of an "extra-powerful hairdryer" (etc.) but not women travelling with men? Being sexist in a stupid fashion is no better than being male-centric.
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