Women business executives on the road have their own problems, usually centring on security. "Don't promote your whereabouts," advises Mary Beth Bond, an author who specialises in travel. "List only your last name and first initial on the outside of luggage, but inside put your full address and telephone number so that if it is lost, the airline people can find you."

Now the five-star Le Meridien hotel in London's Piccadilly is offering a range of benefits designed to ensure that female guests feel safe.

The hotels "Female Executive Traveller" package ensures that women are always escorted to their rooms, and that they are accommodated in a room close to a lift, not at the far end of a corridor.