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The Royal Hotel in Hull has been accused of “discrimination” after cancelling bookings for 24 homeless guests paid for by a homelessness charity.
Carl Simpson, founder of the Raise the Roof Homeless Project, said the he is “absolutely gutted and very angry” in a Facebook post on Saturday (15 December), after the charity paid £1,092 for the rooms.
He said: “We have been on the phone with the Royal hotel Hull and they tell us that the 14 twin rooms we had booked for the homeless on Christmas eve and Christmas day have been cancelled and the money refunded.”
Simpson added that the reason for the cancellation still remains unclear, and the hotel was made aware before the booking that it was for a “homeless project”. A staff member at the property told the BBC on Sunday that there was no-one available to comment.
Simpson added: “I asked for a reason and was told there isn’t one, I’ve asked for a email to be sent asap giving reason for this action so will update you when it arrives but in my eyes this is nothing more than discrimination especially after we [were] so open about what it was for.
“Our Christmas hotel campaign is now in serious doubt being so close to Christmas we need a miracle. Another problem we have is we have no idea how long it will take for the money [to be] returned to our bank, making it impossible to book anywhere else even if we can find somewhere.”
