Travails of a single woman backpacker!

Bengaluru: In a blatantly sexist and misogynist move, a woman travelling from Bengaluru to Hyderabad found herself stranded outside a hotel in the Telangana capital because she was single - and an Indian!

Nupur Saraswat claims she wasn’t allowed to enter her hotel room even though she had previously booked her accommodation on Goibibo. The hotel management of the hotel said she could not be given a room as she was travelling solo, Ms Saraswat said.

She isn’t the only one. Anusha Nakshathra, a travel enthusiast who has backpacked through most of southern India alone, says she once spent the night in a hotel lobby because she wasn’t given a room. Again, it was because she was a single woman.

“I was traveling to Kochi from the city and my flight was delayed by 12 hours.  By the time I reached the hotel, it was already 11 pm. I told them about the delay in my flight and asked them for a single bedroom,” she narrates, “I showed them my ID proof and they gave me a form to fill. The moment my single status was noted, I was told bluntly that there were no rooms available. Their excuse was that they only allow pre-booking. They had made me wait for nearly an hour and it was too late to do anything. He asked me to wait till 4am, the next morning. I requested them to let me at least, stay in the lobby and I spent the night there.”

She adds that she was also chided, asking if she was homeless. “I have no idea whether this was because they had not seen women travelling alone, but I was even asked if I was thrown out of my house. Several tourist hubs in Karnataka, including hotels in Mangaluru and Chikmagalur do not allow women to stay in hotels solo, as they believe it is risky and does not send out a good 'moral' sign to keep a single woman alone in the room.”

 Janet Orlene, a popular spoken poet in the Bengaluru poetry scene narrates a similar incident. “This happened to me in Kolkata, when a friend and I were traveling to Bhutan. We walked into a place famous for having dorm accommodation to get a place to stay. The lady in charge gave us one sweeping disapproving look and decided that there were no rooms for us. It was quite clear she did not approve, as the first question she asked us if we were married or not!” Madhumitha Natarajan, a fashion blogger from the city recounts her experience in Pondicherry. “I was in Pondicherry on a budget trip. This hotel that I approached refused to let me stay there because I was unmarried. It was quite late and I was in a state of panic, but thankfully I found an Air BnB place and spent the rest of my trip there,” she says. Interestingly, she also adds that one other reason is because she is an Indian and not a foreign tourist. "Tourists from other countries are flooding into our country and it is obvious they shell out 
more cash than us, and the hotels see it in dollars and euros. In places like Hrishikesh, foreigner tourists come in and often these establishments, to earn more money, give them preference over us Indians." Madhumitha adds.

 Solo travelling has picked up pace over the past years. Women actually feel that it is a great way to explore a place, rather than always have friends or family tag along. But in spite of its perks, these situations arise for these women. Why? “It has everything to do with mentality and the approach to women being independent,” says Geetanjali Dhar, who runs a travel agency called Indian Terrain Nature Club that often curates tours for women. “It’s a cultural hurdle that our society and these establishments need to get over. A woman’s character isn’t defined by her marital status when she’s traveling, of all things!” she exclaims. It is disappointing that women are not seen as travellers, even now but as troublemakers. “We travel because we like to, that’s all, single or not. It is truly upsetting that we aren’t even trusted enough to rent a room by ourselves,” says blogger Natarajan.

 It is usually the 3 star and below hotels that these instances mostly occur in. “There have been incidents where single people have booked rooms in budget hotels and committed suicide. Luxury hotels generally have all the security measures in place; like cameras on all floors, staff at an arms end, unlike 3 star hotels,” Dhar explains. “Hospitality industry is one of the biggest money makers and hopefully they will understand the repercussions of such discrimination,” she adds.