This is a letter I wrote to the Owner:
I am a long time customer of Best Western Hotels, and am always impressed by the professionalism of staff and the quality of the rooms I rent. As I have traveled throughout the United States on business in the k-12 educational field, I always chose Best Western because it is a trusted brand name.
However, today at around 4:00p.m. I felt racial discrimination like never before after being interrogated and denied service by a supervisor who calls himself David. I recently moved to Key West and accepted a position as a 10th grade language arts teacher at Key West High School. Because Key West is a very expensive place to live, I moved in with a roommate, who also has children. Well, I am 9 months pregnant, exhausted, and wanted to spend some time alone with my two children, 3 and 1, away from my shared living arrangements. I decided to spend a night or two at the Best Western Ambassador hotel.
I parked my Monroe County company vehicle out front, and was greeted by a woman with blonde hair. I asked her if she had any non-smoking rooms available, and she told me she had one for $200. I told her the room was for me and my children. There was a gentleman standing there with a name tag on which said, "supervisor," who had a foreign last name. I asked the lady if she had a local discount, as I know some hotels offer discounts to locals. The supervisor said, "We don't accept locals here." I was very surprised and asked why. He said, "I own this hotel, and that is my policy because in the past, locals have come and torn up the hotel with partying and other activities." I showed him my Monroe County school board badge and pointed to our company car. Then he asked, "If you live here locally, why do you need a hotel room? I am asking because it doesn't make sense." I told him that I shouldn't have to explain to him why I need to rent a hotel room; that is my personal business. He then asked again, and I told him that I have never heard of such a thing.
I believe that his assumptions about my racial background made him classify me as troublesome and unworthy of leasing a room for a night. I have no problem with paying for a room, but he assumed that I wanted to party with friends and destroy the hotel. I just wanted a night to spend alone with my children without hearing newborns crying through the night and two year olds yelling at the top of their lungs. That is what I have to deal with everyday. I did not feel the need to explain that to him, but he refused to lease to me unless I did. I walked out feeling vulnerable, hurt, and discriminated against.
First of all, if he was worried about me destroying the room, he should really question the out of towners who come for Fantasy Fest and other activities. They are usually under the influence and TROUBLESOME. I, on the other hand, am a respected educator, 9 months pregnant with two small children. Why would I subject myself to such nonsense?
Also, do Best Western chains in major cities such as Chicago, New York and LA tell local residents they do not rent to locals? If they did, they would lose a great deal of business. I know plenty of people who live inside a city limit who don't even need a reason to rent a hotel room, they just do because they want an outing with the family or a break.
I am so offended by the ordeal, I wanted to write you personally to tell you about how a supervisor is misrepresenting the image of your hotels. I guess he didn't think my money was good enough for his establishment. This has reminded me of the civil rights era where African-Americans were denied basic rights because of the color of our skin. I believe that if I were another ethnicity, there would not have been a problem with my staying at the Ambassador hotel.
Please help me to resolve this issue.