Rules don’t protect the single traveller

THEY say that when something is on your mind, you seek evidence everywhere to support, or refute, your opinion. You need to reassure yourself that it is not just what the late Terry Wogan referred to as the ‘Is it me?’ phenomenon.

Since becoming a widow, I have become painfully aware of the practice of discrimination against single travellers. So, when I saw a letter in the Belfast Telegraph, ‘Stop the discrimination against single travellers’ (Writeback, July 6), my antennae lit up.

Yes, your correspondent called it what it is: discrimination. Were I asked to pay a supplement because of my skin colour, my sexuality, my height, my weight, my accent, my nationality, my disability, or my age, I would be perfectly justified in seeking the guidance of the Equality Commission. But if I am treated ‘differently’ and in a worse way, because I am single, rather than part of a couple, it seems to be accepted as normal. It is not acceptable. It is not normal. When did being a couple become the norm?

Being single and being treated like a rarity, by the hotel and cruise industry, has allowed me a slight glimpse of what it must be like to be discriminated against on the basis of colour, gender, age, or disability.

I have walked away from hotels, refusing to pay the single room supplement, only to go to the next hotel and discover it had the same policy. If I want a hotel room, I have to accept their terms and conditions, which are blatantly unfair to single travellers.

Perhaps even more devious is the travel company which advertises a ‘no single supplement’ and allocates the solo traveller a broom cupboard for a room. This is not equality. This is charging the single traveller the same price for an inferior room. Apart from treating everyone equally, doesn’t it make good business sense to cater for the growing numbers of solo travellers — never mind couples who want to sleep in different rooms.

PATRICIA SHEARER Belfast