Women on Their Way (Wyndham’s new microsite)

As hotels begin to harness the power of social media they are realizing the value derived from interacting with their guests. In January 2007 Marriott Hotels led the way among the major franchises as Bill Marriott and his team set up a blog geared more towards promotional press releases and brand shaping than getting actual guest feedback.

Women On Their Way Microsite

However Wyndham Worldwide is taking online guest interaction one step further by adopting a more targeted approach. Their newly launched “Women on Their Way” microsite is a “soft sell” forum for Wyndham to not only subtly advertise female-friendly trip packages but gain valuable insight about guests’ actual trip planning processes and holiday desires.

Organized as a community, members can chat about travel ideas and share opinions about destinations, events and of course, hotels. Conversational topics have been suggested, such as Girlfriend Getaways, Destination Weddings, GLBT-friendly vacations and Voluntourism (See our recent post about Ritz-Carlton’s take on this). In the future the site will also feature two blogs oriented towards the female business traveler and family vacations.

Catering to the preferences of female guests is an ongoing trend (as discussed with our post on women-only guestroom floors). So what do you think – will Wyndham’s investment in granular marketing pay off? And would setting up a male-oriented microsite be considered sexist?