Four days after a man hailing from Kashmir was allegedly denied a room by online hotel aggregator , OYO Rooms, they have apologised for their action through a personal message to his friend who had booked the room for him.
Malik Aabid, a 24-year-old Jamia Millia Islamia student, said that his friend, a doctor who does not wish to be named, was in Delhi for work. He booked the OYO flagship in his friend’s name in a property in Jasola Vihar on August 17, but said his friend was denied a room after he produced his Aadhaar card bearing his Jammu and Kashmir address.
OYO Rooms, on Wednesday evening, sent a direct message to Mr. Aabid on Twitter apologising for the “unfortunate” incident and asked him to share his contact details to “discuss this further”.
In his response, Mr. Aabid said, “I appreciate this message but I don’t think me and my friend will be able to get over with the ‘humiliation’ which we encountered on August 17. It has alienated our sense of ‘other’ [sic]”.
Mr. Aabid told The Hindu that he appreciates the fact that they have apologised and hopes that such incidents do not happen again.
The manager at the hotel had allegedly told Mr. Aabid and his friend that they had received a few WhatsApp messages, apparently from the government, stating that people from Jammu and Kashmir should not be allowed in their hotels.
OYO Rooms had told The Hindu that they have warned the manager and asked him to verify the source of such “baseless” messages.
