Global Hotel Brand For Gays Launches

Attitude Hotels seeks to become a niche consortium.

-- Hotels, 5/1/2008

Berns Hotel in Stockholm is a premium member of Attitude Hotels.

ZÜRICH—Not long ago, gay and lesbian travelers in many cities of the world were forced to choose between hiding their sexual preference or staying in designated “gay friendly” hotels that were often dingy and disreputable. Society largely has become more tolerant since then, and longtime tourism marketing professional Pedro Castro believes the time is right to launch a global hotel brand for gay travelers.

The consortium-style Attitude Hotels brand guarantees a welcoming atmosphere and a high level of service tailored specifically to the needs of gay and lesbian travelers, described by Castro as being more authentic and “gay natural.” Member properties vary widely in sectors and styles, categorized by “premium,” “comfort” or “value.”

Gay and lesbian travelers are as diverse in their preferences for hotels as is the general population, and Attitude properties will thus run the gamut of star ratings and service scales. The brand further classifies member properties as primarily targeting gays, lesbians, both or as “straight friendly.”

Prospective member properties are evaluated on an individual basis, to ensure they adhere to general standards of quality and service while also keeping hotel staff educated on gay issues and culture.

Any management company can declare itself gay friendly, Castro says, but that philosophy does not always transcend to frontline workers—hence the importance of periodic property-level inspections. Further, having gay-specific information and a hotel staff educated about gay culture is crucial to brand membership, Castro says.

“If people want to know where they should go on a Friday night or on a Sunday night, it's important to have a private concierge to tell you where you should go and where you shouldn't,” he says.

Castro says the idea for Attitude grew from his own disappointing travel experiences as a gay professional over the years.

“I have always been disappointed by gay hotels where the service part of the experience came second,” he says. “They weren't there to be hotels first and foremost; to put it straight, for once, they were 'hookup' places.”

Attitude instead will appeal to the broader category of travelers who happen to be gay but who want a regular hotel stay. Castro sees no direct competition in the global marketplace, though he expects a copycat brand or two to emerge before long.

Among the 26 hotels that already have signed with Attitude are Berns Hotel in Stockholm and The Royal Palms Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. By next year, Castro hopes to have more than 100 member properties, with the intent to eventually turn Attitude into a global brand as much as is possible. His immediate priority is increasing the brand's portfolio in Western Europe resort destinations, namely Italy, Greece, Spain and France.

Attitude already has a presence in gay and lesbian hotspots like Fort Lauderdale, but destinations off the gay traveler's beaten path also are on Castro's radar, including Australia, Argentina, and South Africa. Some regions, however, remain out of reach.

“I am sure it will not be tomorrow that I will have hotels in Iran, Nigeria or other places where gays are sentenced to death just for being gay,” he says. “There are certain geopolitical necessities that make being completely global unrealistic at this point.”

More than half of Attitude properties are identified as straight friendly—these are hotels, including Lisbon's Palacete Chafariz D'El Rei and Zürich's Designhotel Plattenhof, that meet Attitude's standards for membership but make no effort to be exclusively for gays and lesbians.

Some straight-friendly hotels simply “don't have enough gay and lesbian business to survive on that alone—it's just not financially possible,” Castro says. “Others have been straight-friendly forever, and I'm not going to change that. We're just going to make people aware that these properties are particularly welcoming for gay and lesbian travelers.”

Most of Attitude's straight-friendly properties are gay-owned or run by gay staff, according to the company.

Attitude is primarily marketing online, with distribution through the major third-party booking channels. The brand is not accepting voice reservations; about three-quarters of gay and lesbian travelers already purchase their hotel stays online, Castro says.

Direct comments to adam.kirby@reedbusiness.com