Rico
COSTA RICA EXTRA – It used to be that hotels were open to everyone, but nowadays there are categories: for naturists, gays, adults only, etc. It appears to be advantageous for hotels to devote themselves to niche groups because the trend has been growing for years.
The Copacabana Desire hotel in Jacó, for instance, offers several “adults only” venues where guests — far away from the cries and overwhelming energy of little kids — can find time for themselves and rest in peace and quiet.
The same hotel group also runs the and Hotel Desire Costa Rica in the mountains of Heredia, 20 minutes north of the San José airport. This hotel even goes one step further: the hotel is not only adults only, but women only too. That is, upon request, female guests can book a villa and turn it into a “man-free zone.”
Around the world, the Spanish hotel chain Barceló, runs hotels of this type in the Dominican Republic and Spain, where even the aesthetics of the rooms, according to the news site Mallorca Confidencial, are intended to be “feminine.” So what do women want from a hotel that they’re missing elsewhere?
For starters, the rooms have “all the little details that make life easier for women,” Mallorca Confidencial writes. Those include, among other things, full-length mirrors, padded clothes hangers, curling irons, scented candles, women’s magazines, and make-up bags.
Women who book the special package can look forward to both R&R and entertainment. The day might begin with yoga and pilates on the hotel’s roof terrace with its “breathtaking panorama of the bay.”
Thus utterly relaxed, it might be on to the spa for a manicure and foot treatment included in the package. Then anybody not getting what they need from in-room hair dryer and curling iron can move on to some professional styling by an in-house expert.
Why leave this paradise? To shop, of course, but even here the Illetas Albatros plays its part: Its women-only package includes a “shopping VIP” service with a personal shopper on hand to show guests the best stores and offer their expert advice.
The crowning touch of the day is a pajama party with champagne. If this isn’t enough, there are movies on hand that, apparently, “no woman ever tires of watching” — e.g. The Devil Wears Prada.
Is this really what women want? Or it just some tourism official’s idea of female fun? Well, perhaps both. Because the notion of reserving hotels or sections of them just for women isn’t entirely new, and many of the packages look a lot like what Illetas Albatros offers. So it’s obviously a concept that works.
Anyway, if curling irons, padded hangers and man-free pajama parties aren’t your thing, you can always book one floor down.
