Agreed! I have experienced first hand what it is like. Although my post was about the accommodations portion (since this is an airbnb forum) but the whole purpose and concept of my app is to help make them feel less vulnerable whether it is providing the right tools, resources (we are also adding tips/suggestions for places to go, things to do, etc), making the right connections that may end up being helpful local or a traveler buddy, is all meant to less than vulnerability 
Thanks for your comment!
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Hi Cooperjto, I am so sorry you feel that way but unfortunately for many women that is the reality. Whether they have no reason at all but rather just a preference or because they have had unfortunate experiences that lead them to want this option. Just like I am asked if i prefer a male or female doctor, (and i can give many more examples of this) it is not meant to offend anyone but just an option for those who want this because it makes them feel more comfortable. Many women/people may not care of want this option and thatâs perfectly fine, it wonât be for them. Just google âfemale accommodation or female airbnb hostâ and youâll see how many women many this kind of option and exactly why. Thanks for your comment
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Meeting new people in different parts of the world that they never wouldâve went to had they not made that connection IS âgetting out of their comfort zoneâ. Youâre focusing on that one element when i said that was the whole function/mission of the app which does many more things. Adding accommodations would just be one added enhancement
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Hi Guthend! Love all your questions and thorough feedback. Yes i presume it could apply to many different groups or scenarios. They do have apps/sites already for LGBT community for housing/hosting. Just google and you will see. They have an app or site for just about every group or situation you can think of. It sucks that people get offended by these things when thatâs not the intention, more so just a preference. I will work to continue to communicate it in a better way, help others to understanding. I care so deeply about diversity and inclusion so it does suck that this can seem counter-productive with my own values but thats just not the intention and nor do my users think so either.
I am living and breathing my target audience because i happen to be that audience and understand the needs/concerns. Some apps have tried to do something similar (ie. initial social network purposes) opening it up to all genders and it starts to get used as a full on international dating site. However youâre so right we could go into circles and come up with so many exceptions for just about everyone under the sun.
However, thanks so much again for your insight and thoughts, it has been so helpful
Without a doubt. For all reasons, including past experiences with abuse, religious guidelines, and just pure personal preference. I think there is a huge market for it. And unlike misterbnb which does market itself as specifically serving the gay community, I think there is a market for women-based travel across all stripes of sexual and gender expression. Personally, as I get older, I find my female relationships so much more rewarding. So much so. Women are still free to form intimate bonds with each other in a way that men donât, especially older men, above and beyond the early kind of relationships we form in the âmating yearsâ.
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The fact that some men here donât think women should have the option to chose the community they want to travel and stay with actually makes my point for me.
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To have a preference for social and business interaction with one gender is your right although it means you are prejudiced. Acting on that preference in a business setting is usually considered to be discrimination. In your assertion that women are safer with other women than with men, you are ignoring facts. Although men are far more often the perpetrators of violent crime, they are also more often the victims (except for rape). Rapists are far, far more often known to their victims than strangers.
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Hello @Maxine_Outerbridge
You seem to have responded to everyone elseâs queries but mine 
Would appreciate a response.
Unlike some of the other hosts here I understand that just as there is a market for those for BAME and LGBT communities, some women travellers may feel more comfortable for religious or safety or just social reasons staying with a female host.
I am a confident traveller and host but have felt uncomfortable in a number of situation both when hosting and when I was travelling. I am also a mother, sister, cousin, aunt to male relatives and find nothing insulting to men about having a women only space for women to stay when travelling. My queries to you where around how you would market the concept, security around finances and systems and processes you would put in place to protection host from problem travellers.
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@EllenN as a guest, choosing what community you want to vacation with is not discrimination. As a host, however, you would have guidelines you need to follow that allow you to set the conditions without discrimination. There were, until quite recently, New York women only hotels and boarding houses. What finally did them in was soaring real estate prices. Not discrimination.
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Actually, the Webster Apartments still operate.
âWebster provides all-inclusive dorm-style living accommodations for eligible working women in NYC without a long-term lease agreement! Our month-to-month housing offers guests the flexibility of staying for a minimum of 4 weeks and up to 5 years with only 8 weeksâ notice required prior to departure.â
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I disagree. What if a guest only wanted to stay with hosts of a particular ethnicity? I think it would be called discrimination.
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@cooperjto why on earth would you feel insulted if a woman felt uncomfortable renting your place.
This isnât about you itâs about whether some women feel more comfortable in women only spaces for a variety of reasons. And whether this means there is a gap in the market for another female only travel related service (there are already quite a few).
You say women travellers can stay with female hosts. However these female hosts could easily have male partners, brothers, friends also staying at the accommodation.
The sad reality is that women travellers are much more likely to be harrassed and sexuality assaulted particularly when in vulnerable situations such as travelling, in a country without a shared language or understanding of cultural issues and staying in shared accommodation.
I wouldnât feel insulted if someone who was from one of the LGBT communities for example felt more comfortable staying with someone who wasnât hetro-sexual. Itâs absolutely not the same as tackling the discrimination - not sterotyping, that AIrbnb is trying to overcome.
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Honestly, whatever. Iâve said my piece. Ask all the women only hotels how they do it. @Maxine_Outerbridge rock on with your idea. I think it is fantastic. Ellen wonât be going, but you could sign me up.
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Ah, the Barbizon! And of course, womenâs prisons. Guess they discriminate lol
Nobody likes being stereotyped based on their physical characteristics. If you ran a business and I chose not to be your customer because I preferred working with men, wouldnât you be insulted?
In a place like India, Iâd imagine it could be safer to stay with a well-established male host than with an unvetted female host. Sometimes the best protection from predatory men is another man! Frankly I would be very wary staying in anyoneâs home in a place that has high levels of crime; youâre putting yourself at too much risk IMHO.
You keep making this about you. It isnât.
I have run a business and yes I have had men who didnât want to do business with me because I was a woman. As a Director I have been asked to make the coffee for business meetings because I am the only woman in a room of 30+ (some much more junior) men.
I wouldnât be at all insulted if a Muslim didnât want to stay at my place because I drink alcohol or a female who had been sexually assaulted or was uncomfortable with me decided not to stay with me because I have male friends/my son staying/visiting.
I donât think people shouldnât be able to travel because an area can be seen as dangerous.
Please try and see the bigger picture.
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I can completely understand that your lived experience affects your views on this subject. Iâm 36 and have never worked in an environment where women were excluded or treated differently because of their sex, so to me itâs just bizarre to think that a woman would be so afraid of men that she would avoid renting my apartment. I donât even meet most of my guestsâŚ
Iâm also probably taking it personally because itâs been drilled into my head that all people (including men and women) are supposed to be equal, and that we shouldnât discriminate against anyone because of who they are. It seems that for some people this is a one-way deal, where men (specifically white men) are not allowed to have their own âsafe spaceâ but anyone else is free exclude themselves when it suits them. You can have your women-only travel site if we can have our menâs clubs back! I lived in a gender-segregated dorm in college and loved it. Now itâs all co-ed and things have gone to hell in a handbasket, Iâm sure. 
Anyway, the point is that I personally donât care if women want to do things by themselves, but when it affects my business it does become personal. Iâve hosted many groups of female friends, and if I lost them as customers because Iâm a man it would impact my bottom line and that would definitely annoy me!
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Of course it wonât affect your business.
You have a whole place listing, so itâs not particularly an issue for you.
Iâm sorry you canât see that for some women a woman only space in a shared environment feels safer for them.
And for women who donât even feel comfortable dealing with a man wonât look at your place anyway will they?
Yes, exactly.
The fact remains that (according to statistics by RAINN) 1 out of every 6 women has been the victim of either attempted or completed rape. The statistic for men is 1 out of every 33.
With an asterisk that the ratio could be much higher since sexual assault is very much unreported in all countries.
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