In India, the hospitality industry is biased with customers for various things. Even now, some hotels aren’t regulated properly and treat people ridiculously.
Sometimes, hotels carry out many background checks, while at times, they don’t allow couple stays. You can say that nowadays, the hotels are very concerned about their ‘Sanskaar’.
There’s an extra caring hotel in Hyderabad “Deccan Erragadda”, which apart from not allowing unmarried couples, says a no to single ladies.
Nupur Saraswat, a resident of Singapore, faced a similar situation when she reached the hotel. Although all the bookings were done well in advance through famous portal Goibibo, she was denied accommodation. The hotel manager was firm on just one point i.e. “She was a single lady”. Are we still living in a patriarchal society? Single men are allowed to stay, but single women aren’t, is it justified? She even showed them the receipt, but of no use.
The post read,
“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.
Funny huh, how patriarchy works?
#HyderabadSaga
Edit: This was my first experience with this form of discrimination. Also, first experience with Goibibo. I just want to let you all know that I was extremely lucky to have arrived early in the morning and had the sense to put up this post just when it happened so my inbox flooded with well-wishers, and one of them took me in.
This could be you – another hotel, another city. (Mine was Hotel Deccan Erragadda). Maybe you’ll arrive in a 11 PM flight and they will refuse to let you stay. So here’s my sincere plea – share this post. Make a scene. Make Goibibo listen. Let them know that women travel solo now and we won’t stay indoors “for the sake of our own safety”. Ask them why they ask us our genders? What is the purpose if not to avoid this?”
After people started supporting her and sharing her post, Goibibo took instant action. A verbal apology was issued and a complimentary stay was offered in another hotel. Here’s her second post;
The post read,
“#HyderabadSaga Part 2:
I want you guys to see what you have done.
1. Goibibo PR team has offered a verbal apology to me for what went down.
2. They have told me that they are getting to the mammoth task of filtering out such hotels -either by not partnering with them or by alerting the customer at the time of booking. I have requested to be kept updated on all of the progress on that front.
3. They have offered me complimentary stay in a different hotel for the duration of my trip in Hyderabad.
You guys did this. You made a corporation listen, you took us a miniscule step closer to making solo travel a little easier for women in India.
But of course, 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”. I AM NOT READY TO BE CHAPERONED.
So listen up – a revolution is coming. Women are going to travel alone, and travel EVERYWHERE. The companies who will survive are the ones who can keep up with this.
So long folks – on to the next city with Two Sanskari Girls.”
This incident highlights the fact that there’s still gender inequality in our country. Second important issue which she highlighted was that of women safety. If a woman is traveling alone by relying on famous portals, isn’t it dangerous to come across such hotels? She was literally standing outside the hotel when she posted this on Facebook.
However, her post has been shared for over thousand times and we hope, Goibibo takes this matter seriously.
