Transforming LGBTQ+ travel with Proud Certified and the Travel Proud programme
21-Oct-2020
Takeaway
- Travel Proud is our way of making travel more inclusive for the LGBTQ+ community.
- Properties can become Proud Certified by taking our free training and then identifying ways to improve their inclusive hospitality standards..
- Travel Proud is already live in 26 cities in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, and we’ll be expanding to more locations soon.
We’re committed to making it easier for everyone to experience the world, yet research shows that a third of LGBTQ+ travellers fear judgement from hotel staff. That means a huge part of the global travel population still can’t comfortably show up as themselves. This was our motivation for launching the Travel Proud programme.
Travel Proud is all about removing the barriers that LGBTQ+ travellers can face, and about making travel more inclusive for everyone.
What does it mean to be a Proud Certified property?
Becoming Proud Certified is an opportunity for properties to let travellers know that they will be respected and included. It signals that at this property all travellers can comfortably be themselves, no matter who they are or who they love.
Once a property demonstrates its commitment to inclusive hospitality and meets the three requirements of the Travel Proud programme, we’ll start highlighting that property as Proud Certified on our platform.
We’ll do that by adding the property to a dedicated Travel Proud city page. Travellers can use these pages to find and book properties they can be sure will offer them an inclusive stay. We already have city pages live for Amsterdam, Berlin and Manchester, and we’ll be adding more as properties in other cities become Proud Certified.
How can my properties become Proud Certified?
We’re serious about making it easier for everyone to experience the world. That’s why we want to support as many properties as possible in becoming Proud Certified, provided they’re as serious as we are about inclusive hospitality.
Your properties can become Proud Certified on our platform in just three steps:
- Take the training and appoint a representative – have at least one team member complete the free Proud Hospitality training we’ve developed with inclusive hospitality experts HospitableMe, and appoint a Proud Certified representative for the property
- Implement what they learn – commit to putting into practice what they learn during the training, and use this to identify ways to help their team deliver an inclusive experience
- Use our free toolkit – provide the Travel Proud Customer Toolkit to all customer-facing team members, to support them in answering questions from LGBTQ+ guests
Where is Travel Proud available?
We’re excited that a number of properties in Amsterdam, Berlin and Manchester have already taken part in the programme and become Proud Certified. We’re now expanding to a total of 26 cities in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. In the future, we’re also planning on rolling out to more locations around the world.
Find out how your properties can become Proud Certified