This must be the weirdest reasons, that any hotels in the world would give. It is very difficult to understand, under what rule they deny the single lady to stay in a hotel room, after accepting the online booking. One of the topmost hotel booking company which was instrumental in the booking of the said room, later on, apologized to her. But it was not sufficient enough, as, if that lady had to arrive at the hotel, in the middle of the night, and they had to deny her the stay, where she would have to spend the night, on the road?
This is the story of an artist, Ms. Nupur Saraswat, who travels alone, across the world for her work, and as per her Facebook Post, which is gone viral, she says “So, I am standing outside a hotel in Hyderabad which didn’t let me stay because they realized I was a “single lady” even after confirming the online booking. Yup, massive bag in hand, gross from the journey – just standing outside the hotel. Somehow they decided I was safer on the streets than in the hotel. I want to see a safer space for women who travel alone.”
According to the report published by the NDTV “As an artist, Nupur Saraswat has been traveling around India for her shows. However, when the 22-year-old NRI from Singapore arrived at her hotel in Hyderabad on Saturday morning, she was told that single women travelers are not allowed to stay there. “So, I am standing outside a hotel in Hyderabad which didn’t let me stay because they realized I was a “single lady” even after confirming the online booking,” wrote Ms. Saraswat in her Facebook post which has gone viral with over 1,000 shares and 1,600 reactions.
As per the screen shot of the hotel policy uploaded by Ms. Nupur on the social media, the hotel’s official policy (which is weird) says ‘Single lady not allowed,’ besides another term which says ‘unmarried couples are not allowed’.
She immediately got in touch with the travel booking portal Goibibo asking them as to how her booking went through if the hotel policy says the single lady is not permitted in the hotel room? In her statement to the NDTV, she stated that the Goibibo representative got in touch with her and assured her that in the future they would have better filters on their website and are looking into the matter.
As a part of their apology, they gave her a complimentary stay in a different hotel, and they delisted the hotel that did not allow the stay to a single lady. The Goibibo CEO Ashish Kashyap shared a statement on Twitter which said that they take such issues very seriously and have delisted the hotel pending investigation.
Meanwhile, the screenshot of the hotel’s response, attached in the statement, says that the hotel is not against single women staying there but they don’t give rooms to single women and unmarried couples as the area are not ‘right.’
Ms. Saraswat, however, raised another important point, one that goes beyond better filters on online booking platforms: “I want to see a safer space for women who travel alone,” said Ms. Saraswat to NDTV. “There are also those who have tried to silence this by asking “why are you making a fuss if it’s clearly stated in the policy?”. Well, I am making a fuss because I am not ready to settle. I am not ready to live in the fear of my safety anymore. I am not ready to have an entire system push me around until I “find a man to travel with”, she added in a new Facebook post.
This is a very serious concern, and many would have gone through this but Nupur decided to take this matter to the company which is the right way of doing the things. Hope this matter reaches to all such hotels and they learn the lesson from this. Please do share your views on this issue.
SOURCE: NDTV
