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Comfort Zone

A handful of Florida hotels now offers special programs and amenities for women business travelers. Top priorities include safety, comfort and environments where women can, for example, dine alone without feeling like targets.

With 52 rooms and suites, the Chesterfield Palm Beach in the Worth Avenue shopping district is intimate enough for the concierge and other staff members to keep an eye out for the safety of women who stay there alone. "You have to make them feel comfortable," says Arnelle Kendall, vice president of public relations for parent company Red Carnation Hotel Collection, based in London.

The hotel has safety tips for female travelers posted on its website at chesterfieldpb.com and also offers women extra security measures, including female service staff and rooms near elevators so they don't have to walk down long corridors alone. Rooms start at $270 a night in season and $140 a night during the summer.

At the 30-room all-suite boutique hotel The Sanctuary in South Beach, where prices start at $200 a night, women can pay an hourly charge of up to $85 for a personal jogging companion.

Don Shula's Hotel & Golf Club reserves a special floor of 18 rooms for women traveling alone. Named after Miami Lakes founding family member Patricia Graham, the Patrician rooms start at $199 a night. Each comes with concierge-floor amenities as well as plush toiletries, women's reading material and extra safety features.

Next page, "Safety Tips for Women." Use link below to proceed.

Safety Tips For Women

? At check-in, the desk clerk should write your room number on the key envelope instead of mentioning it out loud. When you go out, the key envelope should be left in your room and not kept with the key.

? Request a room away from emergency exits, catwalks and terraces, preferably on an upper floor not close to the ground.

? Call housekeeping to schedule maid service instead of using a "maid clean" sign that lets people know you're not in your room.

? Ask the concierge to book your off-site meal reservations and tell the restaurant, "Please take care of her. She is coming alone and will need a taxi home."

? Never hang your purse on the back of a chair in a restaurant. Instead, place it on the floor if necessary, with your foot through the strap.

? While you're exploring outside the hotel, try not to look like a tourist. If you must ask for directions, approach a family with children and ask, "I'm meeting my husband at (the place). Can you tell me where it is?"

Source: womenstravelclub.com