London’s Dukes hotel introducing ‘women only’ rooms

A London hotel has become the latest to roll out a suite of amenities for women, despite a ruling that declared a similar scheme in Copenhagen as illegal under discrimination laws. The Dukes Hotel in London will assign some of its rooms ‘Duchess Rooms’, loading them with treats to tempt single female travelers or groups of women. The Duchess rooms will be looked after by exclusively female room attendants, contain extra items such as a makeup mirror, hair dryer and styling accessories, and offer a selection of glossy magazines. In the bathrooms, would-be Duchesses will find female amenities, and the rooms are filled with fresh flowers. The Duchess Rooms could prove popular with the hotel’s discerning clientele — although the experiences of the Bella Sky Hotel in Copenhagen offer something of a cautionary tale. The property, which opened last year as Europe’s largest design hotel, blocked off a whole floor for women, adding extra amenities to keep its female guests happy. The seemingly innocuous move caught the attention of a member of the public who complained about the property to Denmark’s Equal Treatment Board — which agreed with the individual and ruled that the initiative was illegal last month. Now, the hotel has been ordered to remove the ban on male access to the floor, although it has suggested that it will defy the law, with a spokesperson telling AFP: “the only man who can access this floor will be a fireman in the case of fire.”