A Brazilian tourist was denied accommodation due to sexual orientation.
Booking.com has issued a written statement about a homophobic incident committed by the owner of a hotel in Zadar, reports Jutarnji List on August 8, 2018.
“We are sorry to hear that renters discriminate against their guests for whatever reason. Booking.com does not tolerate any form of discrimination and, if we find that there is an owner of an accommodation unit that is involved in discriminatory behaviour, we discontinue the cooperation and remove their accommodation unit from our site. Due to the owner’s behaviour, we have terminated our cooperating with him and are working on helping our guests find alternative accommodation,” the company announced.
The statement was a reaction to an incident with Fabiano Vallim, a guest from Sao Paulo in Brazil, who booked accommodation at the address Alessandra Paravije Street 14 in Zadar but then received the following message in his inbox.
“You are rejected. We don’t take gays. Cancel your booking. Tomislav Gospić”
Vallim then sent the following reply: “Dear Tomislav Gospić. I’m really surprised to receive your rude answer about my reservation. Homophobic behaviour like yours should be banished all around the world. But I still believe in good people. Probably you’re not one of them. I’m sure you’ll understand if I keep my reservation until August 30, because that was the deal with Booking.com. If Booking.com doesn’t punish you anyway, I’m sure this keeping reservation will. I always hear marvellous things about Croatia and, of course, you are not part of it. God bless you.”
The public and social network users reacted angrily to the incident, as well as the Zagreb Pride LGBT rights association. Anto Galić, the spokesperson of the Zadar Tourist Board said that “if it is true that the hotel owner did not allow people to stay just because they are homosexuals, then this is very negative for our town. I have to get to know details of the case before I can comment more extensively.”
Owners’ son Aleksandar said that they “had negative experiences with homosexuals from Slovenia who organised an orgy in the hotel and left a big mess,” after which they decided they would not allow homosexuals anymore. He did not answer the reporter’s question whether they would ban heterosexuals if some of them did the same thing.
Tomislav Gospić said that “Twitter and the media are of no interest at all” and that he has the right to his life and his decisions.
It is possible that the owner is in violation of Article 8 of the Anti-Discrimination Act, which ensures the protection and promotion of equality as the highest value of the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia and regulates the protection against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, skin colour, gender, religion, political or other beliefs... as well as gender identity, expression or sexual orientation. Such acts can be punished with fees ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 kuna.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
