\n<\/p>\n
Two homeless men were turned away from a Holiday Inn in sub-zero temperatures despite their booking already being paid for, a charity has said.<\/p>\n
The hotel in Manchester city centre refused to accommodate the men and staff members told them: \u201cI know that you\u2019re from the street and the hotel doesn\u2019t allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Temperatures fell to -6C overnight on Monday, when the homeless charity, Two Brews, booked two rooms for the men at the Holiday Inn on Oxford Road.<\/p>\n
An amber cold weather health alert was in place across the country at the time, with the UK Health Security Agency warning of the risk of increased deaths.<\/p>\n
The men were turned away days after another homeless man in Manchester was found dead on Boxing Day after spending the night in freezing conditions.<\/p>\n
Amanda Thompson, one of the charity\u2019s workers, described how the men were accompanied to the Holiday Inn reception after their \u00a3200 rooms were booked online with charity donations and her own money.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put it through, got the confirmation and they were taken down to check in for the night. After getting there it was just complete discrimination by appearance. It\u2019s disgusting,\u201d she told the Manchester Evening News.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI can\u2019t wrap my head around how you can go to the desk, with a booking that is paid for, and be turned away just for being a rough sleeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey could\u2019ve been hard working men and they have been judged on how they look. They just took one look at them and made the decision. It\u2019s inhumane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson said the men were taken to a nearby Travelodge who were \u201cso helpful\u201d and accommodated six or seven homeless people that night, as well as four dogs.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Holiday Inn apologised and said it would strengthen staff training following the incident.<\/p>\n
They said: \u201cAfter speaking with team members, we recognise that this incident is not in keeping with our policy of welcoming all and should have been handled differently. We sincerely apologise to the guests affected and are taking steps internally to strengthen our training.\u201d<\/p>\n
IHG states online that it \u201coffers access for all\u201d and that it \u201caims to make hotel facilities available and accessible to all guests equally\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a video shared online, a member of staff at the hotel\u2019s reception can be heard refusing their booking, saying: \u201cGuys, I\u2019m not going to lie to you, I\u2019m not going to be able to check you in. Full truth and transparency, I know that you\u2019re from the street and the hotel doesn\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a personal thing. We know people, I\u2019ve been doing the door for a long while. It\u2019s the company\u2019s policy. It\u2019s not mine personally, it\u2019s the company\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson said the incident had left her infuriated: \u201cIt was so cold. It made me so angry. It\u2019s so frustrating and I had a wave of emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two homeless men were turned away from a Holiday Inn in sub-zero temperatures despite their booking already being paid for, a charity has said. The hotel in Manchester city centre refused to accommodate the men and staff members told them: \u201cI know that you\u2019re from the street and the hotel doesn\u2019t allow it.\u201d Temperatures fell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1993,9816,21882,1570,1329,3716,11661,9464],"class_list":{"0":"post-40815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-holiday","9":"tag-homeless","10":"tag-inn","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-men","13":"tag-paid","14":"tag-rooms","15":"tag-turned"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}