Berggruen sees prospect in women execs on the move

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: How often do companies have to put women executives up in more expensive hotels than their male counterparts who are entitled to the same allowances, only because of personal security concerns?

Quite often, it appears. New York-based Berggruen group, which is launching the first property of its global budget hotel chain at Thiruvananthapuram next week, feels there is a pot of gold in creating safe, budget-class hotel facilities for women, which would save cost for corporates, and avoid protocol issues related to junior women execs being allotted rooms in more expensive hotels than their male counterparts of the same level.

���For lady executives traveling alone on work, hotel stays have been a little tricky from the security point of view. Often, companies have to incur that extra spend to let them stay at expensive hotels so as not to compromise on security. We see a big opportunity here, considering that about 10% of business travelers in India are women���, Partha Chatterjee, chief marketing officer of Berggruen Hotel���s Keys brand of hotels told ET.

���In the first focus group of those we surveyed as part of our market studies, we asked single woman travelers and we got this feedback from them regarding the challenges they faced on official travel���, says Mr Chatterjee.

Based on the research findings, the Keys property here has set aside an entire floor of about a dozen rooms exclusively for lady executives and other single woman travelers, and have thrown in additional features to woo what the group feels is a very lucrative market segment.

Besides a strong surveillance system on the ladies��� floor, single lady travelers will also have gender-friendly features like full-length mirrors in their rooms, and the first of the group���s properties happens to be ready for launch in Kerala, the only major state in the country that has a sex ratio in favor of women.

US-based Berggruen Holdings has launched the Keys brand in India with an initial equity of $ 100 million, and is in the process of establishing hotels, resorts and serviced apartments at 17 locations across India, while also attempting to take the brand globally, learning from the India experience.

Berggruen���s target is to have a chain of 38 hotels with an aggregate inventory of 4,200 rooms by 2012, and the Thiruvananthapuram property is its first greenfield venture.