We’ve been out – to the Park Hyatt Melbourne
What do women want?
That’s an odd question. The same as men, right?
Well, no. And, yes. But, no. Women’s and men’s rights may have been slowly rejigged for equality since the bra-burning 1970s, but their NEEDS aren’t so neatly unisex. Women are different (who knew?), and increasingly, this is reflected in corporate cultures and society.
Women often don’t realise how poorly their needs are being met. When they are addressed, thoughtfully and thoroughly however, luxury can happen. A woman friend of mine, for instance, recently returned from a business trip to Delhi, India, full of praise for her room on the women-only “Eva” floor of the five-star ITC Maurya hotel. “It was secure, and light,” she said. “Fresh flowers, all-women staff, and in the afternoons, they’d wheel a “help yourself” trolley of wines and glasses onto the floor so you could relax with a drink in your room, or on the balcony overlooking the city. Some women don’t want to go to a bar, you know.” (In fact, I’d hazard a lot of women, particularly of a certain age, do not want to relax after work in a bar.)
My friend described a litany of little luxuries whose absence she would probably not even notice in a standard five-star hotel. From now on, however, she most certainly will. The Pandora’s box of Women’s Wants is well and truly open and my friend is not the only woman who will compare that luxury she experienced once, with the vague, niggly irritations she will increasingly notice among businesses that are slower to adapt to her needs.
So, we’re back to that not-so-odd-now question: what exactly does She want?
Home made yoghurt with berries.
The small, worldwide Park Hyatt hotel chain asked, and conducted its own worldwide survey of women travellers to find out. Women, it discovered, are pickier (read: extremely picky) than men about the cleanliness of their room. Women also feel awkward when a bloke brings their room service order, especially when they’re fresh out of a shower or still in their jim-jams. Women want toiletries as fancy as they have at home. They want privacy, security, thoughtfulness, nice smiles, instant service. They want food that’s lighter, tastier and healthier than your average room service BLT with chips on the side. They want clean, simple, delicious, light, healthy food (like the homemade yoghurt and berry pot, above). They want love.
A deeply, scientifically, fastidiously cleaned room…
The Park Hyatt’s study called on 40 all-women focus groups to tick off the niggles and dumb difficulties they experience that most men don’t because their needs just aren’t as complicated. Like, for instance, when they are too rushed to pack a curling iron, or tampons, or makeup remover, leg razor, deodarant, hairspray or yoga mat. Or, a dozen other girly essentials.
In Voxfrock’s home town, the Park Hyatt Melbourne marketing team hosted a brunch-time info session to explain how they’ve addressed every girly gripe imaginable. They’ve softened and warmed the hotel in ways, they say, men will get a kick out of too. It’s a massive culture-change being implemented across all its member hotels right now.
For our day at the Park Hyatt, brunch-hour straddled breakfast and lunch menus, enabling executive chef Dane Clouston to show off the delicate, incredibly sophisticated menu he invented to appease the ladies. Sourcing of best and rare produce and ingredients is key so there was much fuss made of Mount Zero olives, Phillippa’s breads, Ocean Made seafood, Game Keepers meats and even potatoes by Dobson.
Bloggers post brunch.
Six bloggers including Cecylia Kee of Cecylia.com and Stef Dadon, one of the delightful twins from howtwolive.com and Yours Truly, logged how delicious it all was, and how thoughtful and swank it all felt. We tucked into two “healing” smoothies each, a 12-course tasting menu kicked off with our own handmade (in a class taught by Mr. Clouston) chicken tortellini, a spa and pool tour and tiny cup of perfumed tea and finally, a flute of French and freedom to inspect one of those deep-cleaned rooms and aforementioned fancy toiletries.
By the end of our stay, including intermittent photographs of us all sipping smoothies, making tortellini, brunching and inspecting the spa and deep-cleaned bathrooms, and after the short walk back down Park Hyatt Melbourne’s pretty driveway on the city’s leafy fringe to my Collins Street tramstop, did I know what I want?
Another brunch, fancy as that, would be nice, thankskindly.
Janice Breen Burns, Voxfrock editor, jbb@voxfrock.com.au
