Lithuanian Company Plans Blonde Hotel

What at first sounds like a joke or the wishful thinking of many men is, in reality, a unique project in the hotel industry to date, with an interesting idea behind it: a company from Lithuania plans to open a “Blonde Hotel” in the Maldives, where only blondes—from the hotel manager to the housekeepers—will work.

Blondes preferred—that is the motto of the Lithuanian company “Olialia,” which is planning a hotel in the Maldives where only blondes will be hired, according to the British news organization BBC. Giedre Pukiene, the (naturally also blonde) managing director of the Lithuanian company “Olialia,” says the hotel is being built in the Maldives to “counter the prejudice that blondes are stupid.” Critics, however, argue that the project is sexist.

The Lithuanian company, of course, sees things quite differently: its blonde hotel employees are supposed to be “smart and well-educated,” and the hotel in the Maldives is scheduled to open in 2015. The blonde employees are expected to be people who want to make something of their lives and approach their work with competence and commitment.

The “Blonde Hotel in the Maldives” project fits into the overall concept of “Olialia” and managing director Giedre Pukiene: the Lithuanian company employs exclusively women with blonde hair. It seems to be a good choice, since the company is very successful in 75 different business sectors, ranging from computer software and beverages (“Olialia Cola”) to the music business.

An interesting project being set in motion in Lithuania—if only it didn’t have one small catch: by law, at least 50 percent of a hotel’s employees in the Maldives must be local residents. And blondes are likely to be extremely hard to find among the population of the Maldives …