Unmarried couples in hotels bangalore allowed?

Question

Unmarried couples in hotels bangalore allowed?

Answer 1

Planning for a weekend in Bangalore cozying up to your beloved? Want a safe and good hotel? Make sure you have entered into a conjugal arrangement and have the papers on your person to prove it! Or else the possibility is that instead of the four walls of a hotel suite, you might end up counting the bars of a police lockup.

Most hotels in the city, especially elite ones, now allow rooms only to ‘married couples’ to keep themselves on the safe side. The main reason being tight security nowadays following the July 25 serial bomb blasts in Bangalore. “Everyday at odd hours police come and check the rooms.”

“We don’t want any kind of raid in our hotel. So we only allow married couples to book rooms,” said Jampa, Manager of Shangrila Hotel. Earlier Shangrila wasn’t so fuzzy about the marital status of the couples who checked in. But after the late July events, hotel authorities are being made to pay hefty amounts as fines. “That’s when we decided that we won’t allow students or any unmarried couple. Now we check for proper proofs before booking a room,” added Jampa.

All major hotels are apparently under the scanner. “Now we have started focussing on identity proofs of the people staying in our hotel. For security purposes, we make sure that the couple should be really married,” said an official from Angsana Oasis Spa & Resort. “We don’t want any kind of funny business going on in our hotel. We don’t want to take any kind of responsibility later,” said Ram Dua, a senior manager of a five-star hotel.

POLICE GO HYPER

Garden City seems to be turning into a surveillance society. First it was the 11.30 deadline for drinking joints, then the ban on discs, followed by the outrageous diktat against music. And now this!

“We came from Chennai. We didn’t come to the hotel for an interview. We came to the hotel to spend time together. It’s not necessary that only married couples have the right to be together. And moreover its one’s personal life. We were not allowed since we were not carrying our id cards. It’s not fair,” said a clearly incensed Gajendra Raghu who was at the receiving end at glitzy city hotel on Monday.

But the hotels are not buying this argument, at least now. “Most of our bookings are through corporate companies only. So it’s not a problem for us as such. But if at all some young couple comes for a room, we don’t give it until and unless they are a family” said a senior manager of Hotel Maurya. “After the bomb blasts, hotels have become the first place of suspicion,” said Dua. So, is security the only reason for the change of rules? “Discipline too is very important. The hotel owner doesn’t like any bad business going on. There has to be some discipline in the hotel,” said the lobby manager of The Atria. “It depends on their appearance and body language also. If suspicious, we ask for proper id,” said Stanley, manager of Hotel St Marks.

WHY ALL THE FUSS?

“The city police are contemplating making it compulsory to all people wanting to stay at city-based hotels or lodges to produce a valid identity card, address proof and other details,” said City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari. Soon Bangalore will be witnessing strict norms like Delhi and Mumbai.

But visitors are having a tough time with these strict rules. “To avoid any such thing, we make sure that if at all we are staying in a hotel, we carry proper id proofs. Specially after these blasts, these hotels have become more strict,” said Aamir Khanna, a businessman who often travels to Bangalore with his newly-married wife. “Earlier it wasn’t this strict.I have stayed here with my girlfriend. But now most of them need a proof that we are married,” said Kapil Singh, another disgruntled citizen wondering what all the fuss is about.