The more I learn about what women want, the more I am convinced that OTAs and a lot of travel websites are missing a vital point in their business model.

Let me explain. A while back, I was talking to a friend who was celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary. "What's your secret?" I asked.

He gave me the smile of someone who'd found the Holy Grail. "It took me 30 years to realise that when my wife tells me a problem, she doesn't necessarily want a solution. She wants a discussion and often, it's not about the problem at all."

Due to our different brains – women apparently have 30% more connections between the left and right brain – men are hard-wired to fix problems.

Women raise problems to discuss them, often in a roundabout way that leads to another matter altogether.

This is why I don't go to computer stores to buy anything. The men in there are all too eager to fix my problem, without actually asking me questions and engaging in any discussion. This is when the male tendency to fix a problem too quickly can lead to no sale.

Women, research shows, take longer to make purchase decisions but once we buy, we buy a lot and we buy more because we are loyal and we buy and tell because we like to share.

Take Malcolm, my IT butler. When I call him, it may be to fix a problem but it's never really all about the problem and, the minute he sees my eyes glaze over a technical point, he starts another conversation thread and often, I end up buying more gadgets from him than I need.

I am loyal to him – we have more than a 10-year affiliation – and I refer all my friends to him. If someone doesn't like him, I almost take it personally and will defend him like Mother Goose.

Affiliation matters to women, differentiation matters more to men.

Full story:

www.webintravel.com//blog/why-its-not-always-about-fixing-the-problem_3165