RightOfCenter

Soldier forced to sleep in car after hotel refuses him a room - Times Online

How messed up is this?

A hotel that refused a wounded soldier a room, forcing him to spend the night in his car, was backed into a “grovelling” apology yesterday after receiving a barrage of abusive phone calls.

...

Cpl Stringer, who was not in uniform, presented his army warrant card when asked by the hotel for proof of identity. After the receptionist refused him a room, he was left with no choice but to bed down in his tiny, two-door car, his wrist, broken during a convoy ambush, cased in plaster.

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Arcana XV

I think it's messed up, personally, but aren't hotels private businesses that are free to accept or refuse anyone they want?

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"Yes, but are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?".- Northern Irish joke

shuamort

Yup, well at least in America they are, but this didn't happen in the USA so I'm not sure. But it sounds like the hotel had a problem in the past with soldiers:
It's a crappy policy that they have (or don't have, depends on who is speaking apparently) that bans a group based on the actions of a few.

Hatuey

Because of some civil rights law if a hotel has available rooms they can't legally refuse anybody a room if the person can pay for it. At least in the U.S.

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Is Intolerant Because He Won't Let The Intolerant Run Other People's Lives.

DeeJayH

weird, why that name?

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DeeJayH

british or american law?

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Indy

Wow, how quickly people are willing to jump on board and attack when someone from the military is put out. How about we ask a couple of questions first shall we? Why did they have that policy? What problems did they recently have with members of the military? How was the vet in the article acting during check-in? All of these things seemed to be missing from the story, but hey, our vets are always heroes and asking questions makes you unamerican.

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Affiant further sayeth not.

Hatuey

American laws - I'm just answering Arcana's question - I realized it wasn't clear whether or I was talking about UK or U.S. - Something like this happened to a friend of mine a few months ago in California. The hotel tried to refuse service to a friend of mine even though it had literally 10-20 rooms available. My friend filed a complaint and the hotel gave him something like a week free at the Hotel.

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Is Intolerant Because He Won't Let The Intolerant Run Other People's Lives.

Truth Detector

The stunning part of this story is this comment:

"had been told by hotel staff that it was company policy not to accept members of the Armed Forces as guests. "

Say what????

Truth Detector

I guess you didn't read the story.....how typical.

"had been told by hotel staff that it was company policy not to accept members of the Armed Forces as guests. "