World Rainbow Hotels (WRH) is the first and only hotel consortia programme exclusively targeting the gay and lesbian markets. Onto its 9th successful year the consortia offers increased visibility in the LGBT market both online and via the GDS.
Commonly referred to as the Pink Pound or Pink Dollar, the LGBTQ market represents a significant share of global tourism spend, with the United States its largest source. According to the CMI’s latest study LGBT-friendliness remains the fourth most important criteria for customers booking a hotel, and the second most important when choosing a destination. Interestingly, the same study also highlights romance-travel as a particular segment which seems to be taking off, particularly with same-sex marriage legislation changing in many parts of the world in recent years.
Nicolas Wijnants, Brand Director at WRH, said:
“WRH has been very successful throughout the years in providing hotels with thousands of incremental bookings each year. But we are very selective when choosing which hotels to partner with. To be approved in the program, all our hotels have to respond to a series of qualifying criteria and submit what we call an “Out & About Guide”, with suggestions of local LGBTQ points of interest and activities.
Our aim is to also offer deferential accommodation types – of different category, styles and price point – in each destination, so we can better fulfil the needs and expectation of our various customer segments (i.e. Honeymooners, Gen X, Baby boomers, Millennials, LGBTQ families and even corporate).”
With the WRH consortia programme hotels can get exclusive LGBT-focused marketing opportunities, including campaigns targeting travel agencies and TMCs worldwide as well as providing an individual listing on the WRH website, driving qualified traffic to the hotels’ own website.
The 2019 consortia programme is now accessible to hotels on both Lanyon and Nexus, two popular RFP management tools. Nonetheless, hotels not using either tool will still be able to submit a manual RFP to join.
About World Rainbow Hotels
World Rainbow Hotels (WRH) is a global collection of LGBT welcoming hotels worldwide and part of HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts. To be approved into the collection, hotels must meet a strict selection of criteria, including the hotel’s location, its features and category, knowledge of the local gay scene, current involvement with the LGBT community, compliance with non-discrimination policies and same sex benefits for staff. For more information on the WRH 2019 Consortia Programme please visit: www.worldrainbowhotels.com/hoteliers.
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