What is Via Her?
OVERVIEW |
ViaHerWorld.com is a website designed to help female business travelers better navigate the world and to make business travel easier and more enjoyable for them. |
CONTENT |
ViaHerWorld.com provides women road warriors with guidance on travel, business etiquette, safety, and after-work activities worldwide. The site features city guides; tips on how to stay safe, healthy, and fit on the road; suggestions for making business travel more bearable; interviews with prominent female executives; and much more. |
BACKGROUND |
ViaHerWorld.com, based in New York City, was founded by Marie Lotode Chandra. Ms. Lotode Chandra was, a corporate executive who spent an insane amount of time traveling internationally on business. She saw a need for an informational website to provide other female business travelers with advice and guidance, and began the site in 2008 with input from a number of her close friends who were also female business travelers who spent a significant amount of time on the road. |
MEMBERSHIP |
Access to ViaHerWorld.com is free. Visitors can also register on the site to receive newsletters at no cost. |
INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS |
ViaHerWorld.com invites women to contact the site with recommendations for hotels, destinations, or activities that they have personally experienced. The site’s editors will then review each submission and if they feel it meets their criteria, will be happy to list it. ViaHerWorld.com does not accept any type of payment for a listing as it wants all listings to be unbiased and a true recommendation. |
FEMALE BUSINESS TRAVEL STATISTICS |
According to a June, 2011 Cornell Hospitality Report, “In 2010, women accounted for nearly half of all business travelers, up from 43% in 2003 and approximately 25% in 1991 -- and that compares to less than 5% just 40 years ago.” |
INDUSTRY CONSULTING |
Marie Lotode Chandra consults with a number of domestic and international travel organizations including large hotel chains and boutique hotels on how to best meet the needs of the female business traveler. She also consulted with a five-star hotel chain in India to develop a plan to increase their international brand awareness.
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FAQ
What is Via Her?
How did Via Her get started?
How do you pick the places listed on your website?
I would like to recommend a hotel, restaurant or spa for Via Her; how can I do that?
How does Via Her makes money?
I would like to advertise on your website. How can I do that?
I have subscribed to, but have not received the Via Her newsletter. What happened?
Via Her is dedicated to making business travel easier and more enjoyable for women by offering them trusted advice, guidance and opportunities to network. 40% of the business travelers in the United States are women; and the number of women business travelers worldwide is increasing. Unfortunately, the business travel industry has not addressed the needs of this growing segment. We face safety concerns that men don’t. Women travelers often complain of not being able to enjoy the city they travel to. While there are books and websites dedicated to women leisure travelers, none are focused on the differentiated needs of professional women. Rather, they are mostly travel agents offering vacation products. On the other hand, business travel periodicals and websites are published by men for men. With experience traveling to numerous countries around the world, for leisure and for business, the women of Via Her know first hands about the challenges women encounters. Via Her also offers consulting services for individuals planning their business trips, as well as marketing strategies for small businesses to attract women travelers.
Via Her was created in 2008 by business professionals who worked at several multi-national corporations. We lived through and observed the challenges that several highly talented female friends and colleagues experienced while on the road. As a broad generalization, it is not unusual for men to go to a restaurant or pub by themselves for dinner and drinks after a long day of work. However, we noticed that our female friends/colleagues were not comfortable with this, and chose to order room service from their hotel rooms. One interesting thing to note is that, when polled, most women expressed an interest in going out after work; however, they aren’t comfortable going out by themselves in a city they are unfamiliar with. This is one example of the challenges faced by women business travelers. Extensive research and interviews with Human Resources' representatives have confirmed that women often request jobs with limited travel. While family obligations (e.g., children to take care of) is certainly one reason, we observed that "avoiding the stress of business travel and feeling lonely on the road" is cited frequently. Of course, that penalizes the requestor in terms of career advancement. That's when we realized there is an opportunity to improve business travel for women.
How do you pick the places listed on your website?
Via Her's intent is not to replace traditional guide books or travel websites. Rather, our goal is to complement existing sources by providing women business travelers with targeted expert advice and recommendations. Unlike other publications, we do not create comprehensive lists of say, ever restaurants, bars, spas, and hotels in the city. Instead, we employ local experts to sift through the all available destinations and provide to you specific recommendations on the places and news that are of interest to women business travelers; such as safety, entertainment, business culture.
I would like to recommend a hotel, restaurant or spa for Via Her; how can I do that?
Very simply, go to the Via Her contact page and send us a message describing why you feel this destination or activity is something that would be of interest to women business travelers. We promise to review all submissions, and if your recommendation meets our selective criteria, we'll be happy to list it. Please note that that Via Her DOES NOT accept any type of remuneration for listings. Its our way of ensuring your we are objective in our recommendations.
Via Her is available to our readers at no cost, and we want to keep it this way! Our revenues are generated from advertisers, preferred retailers, and commission relationships. Our writers research for articles, and links are later inserted by a producer once the content is approved. As Via Her DOES NOT accept any type of remuneration for listings, we can guarantee you that our content is objective and independent.
I would like to advertise on your website.
No problem. Please send us a message from the Contact us page and we will happy to get back to you with additional information.
I have subscribed to, but have not received any Via Her newsletter. What happened?
Via Her has taken the business decision to only distribute newsletters when we have new products or interesting articles that our subscribers will be interested in. We do not believe in simply distributing information of varying quality on periodic intervals. However, if it appears you are not receiving our newsletters, we suggest checking your e-mail spam folder, or check with your company or internet service provider. As a good practice, add our e-mail address to your e-mail address book.