An independent hotel chain in Aberdeen has become the first in Scotland to offer ‘female friendly’ accommodation after winning official accreditation.
Skene House Hotel Suites believe the initiative will prove to be highly attractive to the increasing numbers of professional women and female leisure travellers who are visiting the city.
As well as providing enhanced security such as double locking doors and a 24/7 manned reception, guests will be able to enjoy a host of feminine touches including portable powerful hairdryers, beauty lighting and mirrors and a selection of the latest glossy magazines.
Skene House Hotel Suites is the first hotel group in Scotland to win accreditation from Maiden Voyage, an award winning global business travel network for professional women, to join its exclusive portfolio of ‘Female Friendly’ hotels.
The hotel group’s popular Whitehall and Holburn locations had to meet the stringent criteria to ensure female business and leisure travellers feel safe and well catered for.
Melissa Gilchrist, Director of Operations said: “Skene House Hotel Suites has always looked to differentiate the service we offer to Aberdeen’s hospitality sector.
“Research shows that the number of lone female corporate travellers is growing each year, driven in particular by the number of women who work in the North East’s oil and gas sector. We also know that the numbers of female leisure travellers, both from the UK and Europe, remains a strong market.
“Since the early 1990s we have offered female travellers a better alternative to hotels as our style of accommodation addresses many of the concerns females have when travelling on their own.
“For instance our suites’ fully equipped kitchens means that guests can cater for themselves or order in, which for female travellers makes for a far more relaxing evening compared with dining solo in a bar or restaurant.
“By working with Maiden Voyage, we have further enhanced our female friendly offering to increase security and comfort and we look forward to welcoming their members.”
The Maiden Voyage suites at the two Skene House Hotel Suites are located on the lower floors because these are seen as offering the most secure and safe accommodation because of their proximity to the permanently manned reception.
Each Maiden Voyage guest will find a pamper hamper in their suite containing a combination of essentials and home comforts for guests’ use during their stay, with a few added treats.
Additionally, Skene House Hotel Suites offers day passes for a nearby gym and a visiting beauty therapist, for an additional cost.
Maiden Voyage is a multinational social platform which connects women who frequently travel on business and has a current membership of more than 2000 women from all over the world.
It allows its members to network with fellow travellers to recommend products and services and exchange safety and travel information, as well as find members who are in the same city to socialise and network with.
Members can also access a directory of individually vetted accommodation deemed to be female friendly, with 22 hotels currently on the list, 15 of which are in the UK.
Carolyn Pearson of Maiden Voyage said: “It was particularly important for me to find genuinely good female friendly accommodation in Aberdeen after a pretty horrendous stay I had in the city.
“With the oil industry largely male dominated, it can be particularly daunting for a woman travelling alone to find herself in a hotel predominantly occupied by men so I was delighted to receive a recommendation for Skene House Hotel Suites from a fellow business-travel executive.
“The team at Skene House Hotel Suites have a natural affinity with female business travellers and their needs so we are delighted to recommend them to our global members.”
Skene House Hotel Suites have been operating in Aberdeen for more than 30 years and provides 198 four star, one to three bedroom Hotel Suites (serviced apartments plus hotel services) at three city centre locations – Skene House Rosemount, Skene House Whitehall and Skene House Holburn.
Since October 2011, TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel review website, has scored Skene House Whitehall No 1 out of the 66 hotels listed in Aberdeen.
