“Gay Friendly” Not Always Friendly, an Example is Expedia
Karen Ocamb from the Bilerico Project recently shared the story of Matt DeLeva and Eric Diaz’s recent trip to a “gay-friendly” resort in Cancun. What should have been a dream vacation (in which Diaz proposed to DeLeva) turned out to be a nightmare when it became apparent that this resort was anything but gay-friendly.
It begs the question, what qualifies a hotel, or any other business for that matter, as gay-friendly? In this case, the couple found the Gran Melia Resort on Expedia.com, under the “Gay Hotels & Gay Resorts” section of the website. Expedia partners with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association for the content of its GLBT oriented mini-site. There’s no telling how this very homophobic resort slipped through the cracks of the normally very thorough IGLTA. As of today, Expedia still has the Gran Melia on its list of gay-friendly Cancun resorts.
Recognizing the buying power of gay travelers, Expedia has launched a mini-sitedevoted to GLBT travel. The site, which was launched in association with the International Gay & Lesbian Tourism Association, allows visitors to search from about 500 GLBT-friendly hotels worldwide as well as events, festivals, and nightclubs. You can tour the site here.
Orbitz.com has wooed its gay clientele since the company’s inception and has been a corporate model for support of the GLBT community. Orbitz’ gay website is more user-friendly, and you can click through to it from the Orbitz.com homepage. On the other hand, Expedia’s gay section is buried within Expedia.com. Here’s a challenge: start at the Expedia homepage and try to find the GLBT site. It took me about 20 minutes to get there.
Despite Expedia’s belatedness, I’m happy to see the company putting forth an effort to accommodate gay travelers. It’s a smart move, because, as we all know, travel is hugely important to GLBT consumers, and even in difficult economic times, gays will continue to spend on recreational activities.
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