We extend van Dalen and Wattel's (1973) characterization of orderable spaces and their subspaces by obtaining analogous results for two larger classes of topological spaces. This type of spaces are defined by considering preferences instead of linear orders in the former definitions, and possess topological properties similar to those of (totally) orderable spaces (cf. Alcantud, 1999). Our study provides particular consequences of relevance in mathematical economics; in particular, a condition equivalent to the existence of a continuous preference on a topological space is obtained.