When you’re a woman, traveling alone can sometimes be pricey. More expensive than for a man. In London, BBC journalist Lorin Bozkurt recounts that she was offered two types of capsules in a Piccadilly Circus hotel, those small design spaces where a bed simply fits in. The ones reserved for an exclusively female clientele were priced at 45 pounds (about 52 euros) per night, while the others, mixed, were priced at 35 pounds (about 41 euros).
Yet no extra comfort accompanied the first offer, aside from a corridor accessible only by card and, above all, the promise of feeling safer for an extra 10 pounds. This difference illustrates what some specialists call the “avoidance tax”, akin to its marketing cousin, the “pink tax”. Female travelers do not necessarily pay more for the same trip than their male counterparts, but they often make different decisions, motivated by safety, which can end up increasing the bill.
The luxury of having peace of mind
Better-located hotels, a taxi rather than public transport, travel insurance or an extra charge for an earlier early check-in during the day… Expenses pile up. And they aren’t necessarily the same for men. Carried by the British broadcaster, a study from the Safer Tourism Foundation shows that “64 % of women avoid walking home alone at night abroad”, compared with 43 % for the opposite sex.
Nearly half of women also forgo wandering the backstreets of an unfamiliar city at night. “They don’t travel less because they are less adventurous than men. They operate in an environment where the risks are different”, explains Stephanie Boyle, director of the Safer Tourism Foundation’s She Travels Safe campaign.
Safer, therefore more expensive
For women accustomed to traveling solo, these precautions eventually become reflexes. Jen Kaarlo, who has 53 countries under her belt, tells the BBC she plans all her movements in advance. After experiencing several troubling incidents, including being drugged without her knowledge in a bar in Paris, the young woman avoids “any risky situation”. In Panama, she even preferred to pay nearly $200 extra (about €173) to ensure she wouldn’t have to share her sleeping arrangements with strangers during a trip to the San Blas Islands.
Jodie Hughes, who has been traveling alone since the age of 19, makes the same point. She says she used to favor youth hostels to save money, but now chooses other options because a women-only dorm can be more expensive than a mixed dorm. “I’d rather travel less often, but when I travel, I want to be safer”, she says. At Generator Hostels, whose Bruges property has been singled out, it is explained that women’s rooms are “in high demand” and that their prices reflect that demand.
“Safety should not be a competitive element. It shouldn’t be something that lets companies think they can charge more because they are safer”, replies Stephanie Boyle. Beyond the price of rooms or transport, these precautions also carry a less visible cost. They force travelers to plan more, sometimes give up going out, or choose a more expensive option rather than a spontaneous one. The question is therefore no longer only whether one can afford an extra expense, but whether one can afford not to spend it. “The mental load, I think, is the heaviest of all”, confesses Jen Kaarlo.
