Som Dona Hotel in Porto Cristo (Mallorca) opened in June this year. The first women-only hotel in Majorca or indeed Spain, the staff are all women as well.
The hotel has 39 rooms - all doubles - a pool, a gym, a bar and wellness zone. In addition, the semi-vegetarian Flexitarian Diet has been incorporated into the hotel's cuisine. Over the summer, says director Antonia Iturbide, there has been occupancy of between eighty and ninety per cent. The clientele is varied, but she adds that it has mostly consisted of mothers with daughters. "They want to have some days to themselves without husbands or brothers." The minimum age for staying at the hotel is 14.
The clients have predominantly been Spanish and German. Average length of stay has been four nights. Rooms are ninety euros per night with breakfast. The hotel offers peace and quiet and privacy. The policy is not to allow men to enter. "There are no exceptions," stresses Antonia Iturbide. "If a client goes out and meets a man, she cannot invite him back to the hotel. We have to think about the rest of the clients."
A couple of friends from Germany, Adriana and Vanessa, came across Som Dona by chance. "We wanted to go to Milan but it was too expensive. We live in Frankfurt and took a cheap flight. After landing, we looked for hotels. Many were full or very expensive. Here, the price to quality ratio is good and the rooms are lovely."
Som Hotels is a chain with seven hotels. The president is Joan Enric Capellà. Antonia Iturbide adds that she and staff at the hotel have been surprised at just how well his idea for the hotel has been received. Last year, he was congratulated by Maria José Aguiló, the vice-president of the Majorca Hoteliers Federation, for having conceived "an innovative project that will help to maintain Majorca in the vanguard of tourism trends".