'What Women Want' is a survey conducted by ixigo.com, an Indian travel planning and search engine together with Lemon Tree Hotels – India's third largest hotel company by owned rooms. It found Indian women travel as frequently as once in two months (50%), with 44% stating spending quality time with family as their common reason for travel.
The survey also confirms that women have become very tech-savvy, with 43% booking their hotels online and 76% agreeing they only read user reviews to make their final choice.
"With women climbing the corporate ladder and becoming more independent, travel is becoming an intrinsic part of their lives. Also, only women travel groups offering interesting holiday destinations and packages are luring women to take up travel. It is interesting to note that our survey indicates 26% women travel with their girl gang to explore new places," said Saurabh Srivastava, VP marketing & product strategy, ixigo.com. "Mobile apps are also clearly the way to go with 56% women using smartphone apps to find information about their destination and plan their trip."
"The Lemon Tree Hotel-ixigo survey confirms our view that ladies prefer hotels that incorporate features that are women-centric," said Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director, The Lemon Tree Hotel Company "At Lemon Tree Hotels we have created a women's wing at all our properties with a host of women friendly amenities and services that aim to pamper our lady guests during their stay with us. Being a mid-scale brand we are also happy to know that the survey reveals that mostly mid-range priced hotels (50%) feature as the top choice among women."
Top considerations while choosing a hotel
Facilities and services were the top considerations for choosing which hotel to book for 41% of the women surveyed, while location, cost and security came out as the other important ones.
On the amenities front, 24×7 room service was named the most important one (24%), while Free Wi-Fi (18%), gym, swimming pool, spa and restaurants are some others that made their stay memorable.
What can make the stay safer and more comfortable?
While 34% women would prefer to have female hostesses for room service, offering call screening facility (20%), women driven cabs (19%) and separate floors for women (18%) are some of the other suggestions given by women to make their stay comfortable and safer.
Making women feel special
When asked about exclusive redemption options offered on loyalty programs, shopping vouchers emerged as the favorite (27%), closely followed by room nights (24%) and spa therapy (22%) clearly indicating that special benefits and exclusive offers go hand in hand with women.
More than 550 women across metros took part in the ixigo-Lemon Tree Hotels online survey.
