Gays take on Novotel in club row...Novotel-an Accor Hotel...

[travelerjim]

Gays take on Novotel in club row...

From The Nation newspaper...June 28, 2007:

Global campaign planned as hotel is accused of barring transvestites

Gay-rights advocates plan to launch a global boycott against a high-end Bangkok hotel after it barred a transvestite from its nightclub.

Nikorn Arthit, president of Bangkok Rainbow Organi-sation, said yesterday that a campaign called "Novotel - No Homosexual" would soon be started through an online network of "third gender" groups.

The campaign is to fight back against the Novotel Siam Square after it banned a transvestite from entering its Concept CM2 Club.

"It is fine if you ban gays and transvestites, but you have to pay the price," Nikorn said.

The controversy sprang

to media attention when Sutthirat Simsiriwong, a transvestite who is a local brand manager for a French cosmetics firm, was told he could not enter the club last Friday.

A cross-dressing Sutthirat said his ID card was checked by club staff. Once the staff found that the card identified him as "Mr", he was not allowed entry, even though he went there with a VIP guest of the club.

"The staff said it is hotel policy to not allow katoey to enter," he claimed.

The word "katoey" is loosely used in Thailand to describe cross-dressers and transgender people.

The hotel, part of the Accor Group, yesterday issued a press statement signed by its executive general Michael Thomas denying the accusation.

Though admitting that Sutthirat was barred from entry, Thomas said the refusal was not part of the club's entry policy and was not supported by its management. He said the club regularly supported the gay community by hosting Mardi Gras, gay beauty pageants and singing contests.

"The unfortunate incident was an isolated instance of

an error in judgement aris-ing from non-conformity of the official ID on the part of the door staff involved in

the altercation with Mr Sutthirat," Thomas said.

for more see:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06 ... 037988.php (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/28/headlines/headlines_30037988.php) .

-----------------------

Looks to me that Novotel Hotels have an "unwritten" anti-gay stance...
so I for one will not stay at any Novotel - or any Accor Group Hotels!

Here is Accor Hotels worldwide website:

http://www.accorhotels.com/accorhotels/index.html .

SOFITEL...NOVOTEL...MERCURE...SUITE HOTEL...IBIS...ALL SEASONS...
ETAP...FORMULE 1...RED ROOF INNS...MOTEL 6 ...ACCOR THALASSA

"The hotel, part of the Accor Group, yesterday issued a press statement signed
by its executive general Michael Thomas denying the accusation"

Yeah...sure!

TravelerJim

[llz]

I guess the campaign is rather to cause harm to Accor Hotels ... Novotel Chiang Mai for example has been described as very welcoming for gay people.

The hotel has already stated that the barring of the kratoey was a mistake in judgement made by one of their hotel staff. It was not and is not the hotel's policy. Never was. Hardly anything to make a federal case out of, don't you think?

How I wish that there really were a few gay clubs/pubs that banned women and katoeys and were genuinely men only.

How about the gay bar in Melbourne I think it was, which has banned straights?

I guess the campaign is rather to cause harm to Accor Hotels ... Novotel Chiang Mai for example has been described as very welcoming for gay people.

Folks acts as requirend. It's up to the local management to informce rules like that.

Best is, to avoid the hotel for those non tolerant policies.

That's easy.

Best is, to avoid the hotel for those non tolerant policies.There will be those of us who go there because we know we won't encounter transvestites

[cottmann]

Gays take on Novotel in club row...
Looks to me that Novotel Hotels have an "unwritten" anti-gay stance...
so I for one will not stay at any Novotel - or any Accor Group Hotels!
TravelerJim

I've stayed at the Novotel Regency Park on Sukhumvit Soi 22 several times - checking in both with and with-out partner - and found it to be quite gay-friendly and never had any hassles.

"The unfortunate incident was an isolated instance of an error in judgement aris-ing from non-conformity of the official ID on the part of the door staff..."

If this is the case, the hotel should displine or fire this door staff. He made a mistake, he acted against hotel policy.

"The unfortunate incident was an isolated instance of an error in judgement aris-ing from non-conformity of the official ID on the part of the door staff..."

If this is the case, the hotel should displine or fire this door staff. He made a mistake, he acted against hotel policy.

Is the managements obligation to advice and supervise the staff including the door policy.

"Fish always smells from head on first" ...

[bao-bao]

Gays take on Novotel in club row... Looks to me that Novotel Hotels have an "unwritten" anti-gay stance... so I for one will not stay at any Novotel - or any Accor Group Hotels!
TravelerJim

I've stayed at the Novotel Regency Park on Sukhumvit Soi 22 several times - checking in both with and with-out partner - and found it to be quite gay-friendly and never had any hassles.

The Regency Park used to be much more gay friendly, but now friends have told me they're getting to be much more nosy about what should be only a guest's business. As I said back in an older post:

The only place I've ever had a problem with a visitor was at the Regency Park Hotel on Soi 22. Even though I'd paid for a double room they wanted Bt500 for a man to come upstairs for an interview with me at 3pm in the afternoon. I asked for the manager and after explaining that the dentist with me wasn't in the business of male hustling he apologized and waived him through, but it was still an embarrassment for my friend who was a bit put off by being asked to leave his ID card. Like I've said here, if it was a 20-year-old that looked like a street hustler I can appreciate their concern, but this was a man in his later 30's who was dressed better than the manager himself. It's just one of many problems I had at the Regency Park this visit.

I can appreciate a hotel not wanting their establishment to begin to look like some of the "businesses" nearby, but there needs to be some respect for a guest, too. If my interviewee had waltzed in with pink spiked hair, sure; but that wasn't the case.

I'm usually a very forgiving customer but I've listened to the staff and management there say "Oh, sorry, nothing we can do!" to me for the last time.