A Donegal hotel has been ordered to pay €5,000 to a Traveller who was able to book a room under a fictitious name after originally having a reservation in his own name cancelled on the basis that no accommodation was available.
The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that Mulroy Woods Hotel in Milford, Co Donegal had breached the Equal Status Act 2000 by refusing to allow Martin McDonagh stay in the hotel due to his membership of the Traveller community last year.
The WRC heard that Mr McDonagh had booked several rooms for himself and family members at the hotel for the night of August 20th, 2023 via the Booking.com platform two days earlier.
Mr McDonagh said the booking was confirmed by the website.
However, he said he received a call from the Mulroy Woods Hotel the following day at 12.40pm to say that the hotel needed to cancel his booking as they had no availability for the following night.
It was explained to him that his booking had been confirmed in error due to a glitch on the Booking.com website.
Mr McDonagh said he tried to book another room in the hotel a short time later at 3.30pm but using the surname Fitzgerald, which was accepted.
He called the Mulroy Woods Hotel 10 minutes later to confirm the booking and asked that a cot be provided.
The WRC heard that the hotel had no difficulty with this booking and no mention was made of any overbooking of rooms.
Mr McDonagh said he completed a booking for another family member under that relative’s maiden name at 4.30pm, which was also confirmed without any issue.
He made one other booking in a similar fashion, which again presented no problem to the hotel.
Mr McDonagh said he spoke to a staff member on reception when he arrived at the hotel on August 20th, 2023 but was given no answer when he queried why he had been told there was no availability.
He told the WRC that he did not stay in the hotel that night as he felt too uncomfortable to do so.
Counsel for Mr McDonagh, Niamh Quinn BL, said her client had been discriminated against by the hotel based on his surname and membership of the Traveller community.
Ms Quinn claimed there was no glitch with the Booking.com website, but the hotel had used it as an excuse to legitimise their discrimination of Mr McDonagh.
No representative of Mulroy Woods Hotel attended a hearing of the case at the WRC and the business was not legally represented.
WRC adjudication officer, Marie Flynn, observed that Mr McDonagh had a surname which was often identified as common within the Traveller community.
Based on the uncontested evidence, Ms Flynn said she was satisfied that he had established a presumption of discrimination which placed the burden of proof on the hotel, but it was not represented at the hearing to provide any evidence.
She ruled, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr McDonagh was denied accommodation at the hotel because of his membership of the Traveller community.
The WRC ordered Mulroy Woods Hotel to pay the complainant compensation of €5,000 for the effects of the discrimination.
