Indian hotel refuses room to single female traveller

A woman was left stranded in a foreign country when a hotel refused to let her check-in because she was a single female.

Nupur Saraswat is a spoken word artist and travelled to the city of Hyderabad in Southern India for a performance when she was told by her hotel that “single ladies” were not allowed to stay there.

Nupur wrote a Facebook post explaining how she had been left stranded by Hotel Deccan Erragadda despite the fact they had already confirmed her online booking.

“Somehow they decided I was safer on the streets than in the hotel. Funny huh, how patriarchy works?” she said.

Nupur encouraged others to share her status and her post has currently been shared over 1700 times and ‘liked’ by over 3000 people.

“So here’s my sincere plea — share this post. Make a scene ... Let them know that women travel solo now and we won’t stay indoors ‘for the sake of our own safety’,” she wrote.

According to Hotel Deccan Erragadda’s policies “locals and unmarried couples” are also forbidden from staying.

Nupur booked to stay at the hotel through third-party booking website Goibibo. The hotel-booking site has apologised for the incident, refunded her booking and offered her a complimentary stay in a different hotel for the duration of her time in Hyderabad.

Goibibo has said in a blog post that it takes these issues “very seriously” and that it has delisted Hotel Deccan Erragadda from its site pending an investigation.

Hotel Deccan Erragadda gave a statement to Goibibo that said it is “not against” solo female travellers staying at the hotel but it is a policy in response to police advice that the area is not “right” for single women.

“As per local police interaction we don’t give rooms to single women and unmarried couples,” the statement read.

Nupur said that when she booked the hotel the details of their policy were not understood. However, she believes the policy itself is not acceptable.

“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,” she wrote.