Un-Bloody-Believable: Company Policy

From the TimesOnLine: Soldier Forced to Sleep in Car

A 24-year old soldier and veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan was refused a hotel room at the Metro Hotel, Woking, Surrey, England, after he traveled to Surrey to assist with the funeral of a friend KIA.

Corporal Tomos Stringer of 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, The Royal Logistic Corps, was told that "it was company policy not to accept members of the Armed Forces."

"The corporal, who was not in uniform, presented his warrant card when asked by the hotel for proof of identity. After being refused a room, he had to bed down in his car, with his wrist, broken during a convoy ambush, encased in plaster."

The hotel issued a belated apology after angry calls flooded its phone lines and after Corporal Stringer’s MP, Hywel Williams, Derek Twigg, the Defence Minister, and Bob Ainsworth, the Armed Forces Minister, wrote to the hotel.

“The Metro Hotel, Woking, sincerely regrets any upset caused towards Corporal Stringer and his family . . . The hotel management has always had an open-door policy to all its visitors and guests, including members of the military and Armed Forces.”

Oh, and "the receptionist made a mistake".

"Corporal Stringer, of 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, The Royal Logistic Corps, has returned to Afghanistan. His mother, Gaynor Stringer, from Criccieth, North Wales, told The Times: “I’m very, very angry. It’s discrimination. They would never get away with it if it was against someone of ethnic origin.”

I wonder what the 'ethnicity' of the hotel management might be.