Catherine Hamm of the Los Angeles Times published an article about The Women’s Travel Group’s unique room share guarantee. She asked me why women would share and how do we explain this guarantee when women call us.
Here goes: more women share today than ever, because of the rising cost of hotels and related cost of single supplements. Hotels will not waive this cost so the discussion of getting rid of supplements is a poof in no one’s ears.
We guarantee everyone who asks for a share, that she will get one. If there is a uneven number, a lucky woman will get the free single. No other women’s tour company does this.
Rules about sharing are simple, they are below. From breakfast until after dinner you are with the group, you are only in the room to sleep, reorganize. read and shower. You are not obligated to spend waking hours with your room share. But many women like the idea of not being alone in a hotel room anyway.
I remember meeting my college room mate on the first day at Tufts University. We were total strangers, and have remained life long friends because we shared space during a significant time. We were both happy to have an instant companion. Since then I have shared on The Women’s Travel Group trips with a woman whose family owned a plumbing business; she fixed our dripping toilet in Italy. And another much older woman in Costa Rica who kept me laughing all week. And a third Canadian woman in India who was so quiet it felt as if no one was even there. Plus all the others who helped me save $$$$$.
For Ms. Hamm I called it a sharing of ‘real estate’. But it is really a sharing of savings and experiences….. and we hear all the time…that women make important travel pals either with their room share or others on the trip.
So follow these simple rules:
Be considerate and quiet in the room.
Arrange bathroom times if you need to.
Keep your belongings neat.
If only one key, work out an arrangement to leave it at the Front Desk.
Do not charge anything to the room, or set aside ten minutes to work out the bill for hotel extras.
If you need to work and make calls to your office, do it when convenient to your share not when only convenient to yourself.
Talk to each other about any minor annoyance and get it over with NOW.
Here are some of the things you can buy in Morocco with your savings: Airfare is higher but we can take a few more on our Christmas trip.
Spend that savings on great stuff.
