How Hotel Owners Can Effectively Target Solo Female Travellers

While solitary travel has undeniably been on the rise for years, it’s becoming more and more evident that women are diving headfirst into traveling alone. The future of solo travel might well be female!

Search interest in ‘solo female travel’ has increased six-fold during the lasts four years. Not only this, but 70% of hotel website visits are carried out by women as standard, and women make the overwhelming majority of bookings, whether that’s for themselves, families, friends or parents and colleagues.  

Women are the influencers that should matter to you as hoteliers. 

So, it makes sense that your services as hotel owners are delivering on what women want, especially when it comes to solo female travellers.  

We’ve explored several idea kick-starters you can use to ensure you’re meeting those demands and being as inclusive as possible when it comes to your accommodation. 
 

Understand What Solo Female Travellers Look For In Their Destinations 

A study carried out by Solo Female Travelers in 2020 found that traveling solo was a choice, not necessarily a ‘lifestyle’, with many respondents choosing to travel alone for the flexibility that it provided and the ability to adhere to their own schedule. 38% said it was to ‘challenge’ themselves. 

Within their chosen destination, many women said that cultural sightseeing, immersion, and nature and wildlife experiences are important for them during their stay – along with the eco-friendliness of businesses they support. 

However, 73% still said that safety was their main concern, and 42% of female travellers who hadn’t yet traveled solo cited this as the main reason they’d not made that leap yet. 

Some factors that might be of consideration for female travellers looking to set off alone:

• Whether the country or region is a major tourist destination.
• How good the tourism infrastructure is as a consequence.
• What the crime rate of the destination is.
• What online review sites, blogs, friends and family and social media groups say about the safety of the country or destination – many suggested that TV and online ads were not as trustworthy.
• How affordable the destination is for a solo trip – especially considering accommodation.
• The overall reputation of the country and how it treats women.

It is important to consider these against your current facilities, location and offerings for this traveller type. How have you positioned yourself in the market for women travelling solo? How are your competitors conveying themselves to this segment, in a way that's different to you?

It is worth being aware of what solo travel for women means, especially when travellers are in the crucial decision-making process and the smallest detail about how your hotel is presented could determine whether they book their stay with you or not.

Cater For The Luxury Solo Female Traveller 

In the last several years, women taking solo trips within the luxury travel sector have increased significantly, and we think this is a prime opportunity to understand and accommodate, this important audience to boost your success as a travel agency and ensure you’re as inclusive as possible for today’s traveller. 

For example: 

• Scott Dunn, a leading UK luxury tour operator, reported that they’d seen a dramatic uplift in solo bookings in the last three years, and that of those, 60% were women. 
• Up Norway, a company that curates high-end excursions through Scandinavia, suggested that bookings from solo female travellers were up 40-50% compared to 2019.
• Bespoke tour operator Morocco by Design revealed that a full quarter of its bookings now came from women traveling alone. 

Not only are women looking to explore the world alone more frequently, but many solo female travellers are looking to travel within the luxury sector, with bespoke trips curated specifically for their preferences.  

The industry is starting to take note of this increase in demand for luxury solo travel, so it’s important that as hotel owners you are aware of the opportunities out there!  

From ‘Alonemoons’, offering solo travellers the deluxe experience a couple on their honeymoon might enjoy; women-only group travel; to tour operators and travel bookers offering amenities catering specifically to women traveling solo, there are many ways that the industry is providing opportunities when it comes to solo travel for women. 

Ensuring that your hotel is accessible and appeals to women travelling alone is a sure-fire way to begin capitalising on this growing audience and keep your hotel front of mind when tour operators are upselling their clients on these experiences.  

The first step is gaining maximum visibility to the right traveller at the right time! Over 66,000 travel providers all over the world have exclusive access to our portfolio, from which they can offer the very best accommodation to in-market travellers across even the most hard-to-reach markets thanks to our global network.

This means that hotels who make it clear they acccommodate to women travelling alone are top-recommended in our AI-driven Booking Engine when travel sellers are booking this type of client!
 

Gather Crucial Audience Insights  

There are numerous ways that you can gather more understanding of what existing and new customers want when considering booking solo trips, including: 

Existing Audience Research 

Send out an email to existing customers within this demographic – ask for honest opinions on their travel with you. Incentivise this with a small discount or offer that makes your existing customers feel like they’ve given you valuable feedback and received something in return.  

Create social posts for your social media platforms – whether you create a poll, a post inviting comments, or ask customers to get in touch via email, organic socials are a great way to see what your audience expects of you. 

Set up market research discussions – bring together a control group of women interested in traveling alone, or who have in the past, to evaluate your current facilities and destinations and offer in-market feedback. 

Competitor Research 

Review trusted blog websites – Solo Traveler World and Solo Female Travelers are examples of valuable, trusted platforms where insights, shared experiences and customer-centric recommendations are shared by women for women looking to travel solo.  

Keeping a close eye on platforms like this can provide interesting insights into how other hoteliers are catering for the growing audience of solo female travellers. 

Organic competitor research – identify your most direct competitors and scope out how their facilities compare to yours: what services are they offering that you aren’t? Have these competitors made specific accommodations that would attract more female solo travellers, and how might you incorporate these into your own business model?  

Review Relevant Travel Forums 

Considering that a study conducted by the aforementioned Solo Female Travelers found that 76% of women trust relevant solo female travel groups Facebook groups more than they trust the recommendations from friends and family (73%), reviewing such travel forums and social pages can be invaluable. 
 

Avoid The Single Supplement 

In many cases, the single supplement can mean that solo travellers are still paying double occupancy, because many rooms, tours and cruise accommodations are packaged in a way that they are priced per person based on double occupancy. 

This charge is one of the main turn offs for solo travellers – especially considering that female millennials are considered the thriftiest – so if you want to cater for more solo travellers you need to start focusing on ways to avoid or reduce your single supplement. 

Here’s how: 

• Consider absorbing some of the cost of a single room into the cost of a double room by amending this in your business model. 
• Waiving the single supplement during the shoulder seasons (between peak and low) as standard – as solo travellers tend to be more flexible around when they travel – this would also be a great way to encourage customer loyalty! 
• Consider waiving this single supplement charge on any unsold hotel rooms to encourage last minute bookings. 
• Host ‘matching’ services, which brings together solo travellers who are happy to share a room for a section of their journey to work around this fee. 

How Maxiroom Can Help

Of course, one of the best ways that you as hotel owners can ensure you're aware of, and meeting the needs of this high-value segment is by working with a global distribution partner like Hotelbeds

As our partner, you'll gain exclusive access to our intranet, Maxiroom, which offers you all the tools and resources you need to maximise your occupancy rates, including the option to create bespoke rates and fees that can be offered to travellers all around the globe on a more individual basis.  

Maxiroom also offers:

• A fully interactive calendar - to allow easier amendements to availability and rates across room types.
• An intuitive content manager - maximise the quality of your content with our user-friendly interface. 
• The ability to make numerous updates at once - using our integrated update tool means you can quickly update your availability and prices across multiple rate and room types.
• A global dashboard - so you can easily review current arrivals, bookings and cancellations, as well as comparisons between your competitors.

Sign up to gain access to this time-saving resource, and begin optimising your occupancy rates today.

Consider How Your Services Reflect What Solo Female Travellers Want  

Understanding what solo female travellers want is the first step – evaluating this against your current facilities is the next.  

The key here is that you don’t have to only cater to women travelling solo, just make it clear you accommodate them. This means that you don’t have to restructure your business model or revamp your packages completely – unless you want to!  

Just make it obvious that you are aware of what women want when they travel and that you can deliver on this. 

Practical ways you can cater for solo travel for women:

• Consider implementing women-only floors – the Four Seasons Riyadh and the Dukes Hotel in London are already doing this! 
  • Som Dona in Mallorca has gone one step further and made this location women-only which has proved incredibly popular. 
• Ensure that you have up to date information regarding your facilities on your website and any profiles with distribution partners (like our Booking Engine) – i.e., up-to-date CCTV coverage, information on women-only or inclusive timeslots in your leisure or spa facilities. 
• Set up 24-hour receptionists and door security. 
• Stage inclusive social events to encourage solo travellers to interact with like-minded people while away. 
  • Turn the lobby into happy hour, organise women-only or inclusive activities to help travellers feel part of a community and to combat loneliness.  
• Add more transfer options with trusted providers for women travelling solo – especially after-dark airport transfers! 

With a connected community of other hoteliers, and access to over 66,000 travel sellers around the world, combined with a fresh approach to data intelligence, working with Hotelbeds is one of the best ways that you as hotel owners can reach your desired audience and curate the ideal experience for your guests.

Why not consider signing up as one of our valuable partners today?

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