Hotel homophobia | | Beside the seaside - but what kind of welcome awaits? |
There's nothing better than setting off for a short break down to the West Country. But how warm is the welcome if you're a homosexual couple? Inside Out investigates hotel homophobia in the South West of England. A frosty welcome Matthew Hodson and his boyfriend Aruan decided to leave London behind for a friend's wedding in Somerset. But the reception at the hotel where he and his partner were staying was less than welcoming. Matthew recalls what happened, "The owner said to us 'we're not having you here, we're not having you under our roof'". Matthew had booked a double room in advance. "The chap looked around and he was like 'where's your wife?'... and I'm like 'I'm sorry, no it's me and my partner Aruan
and he was like 'no no no, not having that here not under my roof' and he just told us to get out". It was 10.30pm on a Friday night - and the couple had no car, no room and where stranded in the middle of nowhere. "My partner was just really upset - he was in tears, and he wanted to go home. It was difficult because it turned what should have been a really lovely weekend for everyone into something which had started off really badly," Matthew recalls. Discrimination? By denying Matthew a bed for the night, this hotel wasn't breaking the law. Hotels cannot refuse guests on the grounds of race, gender or disability but it's not illegal to bar someone if they're gay.  | | The pink pound could bring huge benefits to South West tourism |
In the work place gay people are protected from discrimination by law - in the rest of their lives they're not. Alan Wardle from Stonewall explains the extent of the problem, "We've had cases of people refused by their doctors, refused insurance and accommodation". According to South West Tourism people being refused accommodation because of their sexuality is rare, but all cases are looked into. Robin Barker, Deputy Chief Executive of South West Tourism, says, "We would investigate... the ultimate sanction would be that we'd exclude that business from marketing activities". Pink pound The pink pound has always been a lucrative market for tourism. From December 2005, gay couples will have another reason to visit the South West - to get married. They will be able to have civil partnership ceremonies, which is clearly good news for Cornwall and its tourism business. Many hotels and venues in the South West are keen to cash in on the power of the pink pound. Inside Out decided to test how welcoming South West hotels really are. On May Bank Holiday BBC journalist David Allard travelled with his boyfriend Bryn to North Devon. They booked in at Pine Lodge in Lynton. "We were literally just over the threshold when Mrs Davies came out of the office and said you didn't tell me you'd booked a room for two men. I would have given you a twin room if I'd known," he recalls. "I then challenged why it was an issue for her and was told 'you've got to understand we're running a business here. You should have let us know in advance so we could warn our guests'. I immediately thought what kind of people do you think we are." David Allard says, "We felt humiliated, angry, shell-shocked, disgusted really by the reception we'd been given". Although the Davies's didn't ask David to leave, he decided he couldn't stay at Pine Lodge - so he asked for a refund. "Having had that experience, we then felt completely paranoid where ever we went... quite frankly we couldn't wait to get home". He wrote to Visit Britain the company who assesses the quality of South West accommodation, and they visited Pine Lodge to investigate the complaint. Essentially, Mr and Mrs Davies stated that while they were certainly 'uncomfortable' with the situation, they believe that they were not rude and that they did not refuse the couple accommodation at any point. On the contrary, their full expectation was that you were going to stay at Pine Lodge until the couple asked for a refund. We asked Mr and Mrs Davies for an interview - they declined but told us: "As far as we are concerned this matter has been dealt with in a robust and professional manner by the appropriate bodies and a 'line drawn under it".
So just how easy it is for a gay couple to book a double room in the South West?
We phoned 30 randomly chosen hotels and guest houses in Devon and Cornwall. Although the majority were more than happy to take us, when given the option one declined. South West Tourism says that it is in constant liaison with the assessment bodies and encourages them to take account of changes in visitor expectations that take place year on year. Despite this move to better reflect the changing needs of today's society, until the law itself is changed, hotels can still exclude gay couples for being gay. Alan Wardle of Stonewall believes that the Government needs to take action: "The Government have the perfect opportunity to change the law by closing the loop hole in a bill that's currently going through parliament but so far they haven't indicated they will."
Links relating to this story:The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites | 
Inside Out - South West: Monday October 3, 2005
