Capita Travel & Events and Maiden Voyage Join Forces to Make Hotel World More Female-Friendly
Capita Travel and Events, the UK’s specialist in travel, meetings and event management and Maiden Voyage
the world’s leading provider of female business traveller safety solutions have joined forces in a unique deal to
certify and showcase hotels that are ‘Female Friendly’.
Maiden Voyage sets the standard for female friendly, hotels based on a strict set of criteria looking at both
safety and comfort. With employers becoming increasingly aware of their duty of care obligations, an informed
choice takes away some of the guess-work when selecting hotels and of course, hotels deemed female
friendly are also just as suited to male travellers. Capita Travel and Events will be inspecting hotels across the
British Isles and incorporating those that qualify into their hotel programme.
Leigh Cowlishaw, director of supplier partnerships, Capita Travel and Events, said “We asked travellers
whether or not they ever feel at risk when travelling and 67% of women said yes, compared with 19% of men.
Our data also tells us that female travellers form a large proportion of our customers’ travelling population – a
trend which varies between customer industries. Traveller wellbeing, for all travellers, is an important part of
our Smarter Working proposition, so it made sense for us to join forces with a company which is changing the
way in which hoteliers approach the needs of individuals. At the same time, Maiden Voyage saw the
opportunity to use our UK hotel market expertise to help source the types of properties which meet its
identified criteria – Maiden Voyage research shows that women business travellers want to be treated
appropriately, not necessarily differently.”
Carolyn Pearson, chief executive officer and founder of Maiden Voyage said “We are delighted to be working
with hotel experts, Capita Travel and Events, on this initiative and we know that the female business traveller
community will thank us for helping them to identify hotels that meet their specific needs. With 51% of female
business travellers having reported feeling vulnerable when staying in a hotel we know that there is a genuine
need for a trusted standard. Our strict inspection process is based on hard criteria unlike other initiatives we
have seen and is far from subjective. We look at physical security elements, walk the area to assess the hotel
location and we expect our hotel partners to adhere to certain security measures such as not announcing
room numbers out loud. With a number of high profile cases of sexual harassment and assaults in hotels we
expect this partnership to drive change across the industry and we are already seeing hotels such as the
Leopold in Sheffield and Hotel du Vin in Birmingham making adjustments such as adding a second door lock
to the hotel bedrooms”.
-ENDS
MEDIA ENQURIES
07903 738383
carolyn@maiden-voyage.com
capitatravelevents.co.uk
Notes to editors
About Capita Travel and Events:
Capita Travel and Events is not your average travel management company. We’re a forward thinking travel, meetings and
event management company. Supporting a range of UK based organisations, we use innovative technology, valuable
insight, and the expertise of the best people in the industry to help our customers challenge behaviours, and reduce and
control costs, whilst putting travellers’ welfare at the heart of any travel and meetings programme.
We strive to achieve this by living by our company vision: To revolutionise business travel, meetings and events services
through our knowledge, curiosity and innovation to enable every customer to realise the value of smarter working.
Capita Travel and Events Limited.
www.capitatravelandevents.co.uk
@CapTravelEvents
About Maiden-voyage.com
Maiden-voyage.com is the global specialist in the female business travel market. With over 12000 members and over 80
local ambassadors, Maiden Voyage provides organisations with duty of care solutions and training to support their female
business travellers. In 2011 Maiden Voyage, with the help of its community set the global standard for ‘Female-Friendly’
hotels which drives contracting decision for both employers and travel management companies alike.