Marriott gets kudos for paying attention to women's needs

Val Willis has an interesting post on the Tom Peters blog about Marriott's redesign of its Residence Inn in Manhattan to cater more to women's needs on the road. Specifically, she mentions that it will be an entirely nonsmoking facility and that it will feature "great rooms" instead of living rooms. The comments are particularly interesting.

I agree with those who say the nonsmoking/great room thing doesn't necessarily have much to do with gender. I can't find it now, but I remember reading a survey a while back that said women travelers' biggest concern is security, which as a female I agree with. I can put up with a lot, but not feeling unsafe in my room.