World Jewish News

No more reservation possible for anti-Semitic hotel on Booking.com

Booking.com, the hotel online reservation service, has removed from its website a hotel in Switzerland whose management put up signs singling out Jews.

A Booking.com representative said it has dropped the Paradise Apartments in Arosa, a Alpine resort, from its service because of the signs.

“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We can confirm that the property in question is no longer available on Booking.com,” a spokesperson for the service said in reply to a request by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to remove the hotel from its directory and explain the anti-Semitic reason of the removal on your website”.

“We’re sorry, but it is currently not possible to make reservations for this accommodation on our website,” the page reads, referring users to a list of other hotels in the area.

Over the weekend, an Israeli family vacationing in the hotel was horrified to see a sign reading: “To our Jewish guests, men, women and children, please take a shower before you go swimming and after swimming.”

Another sign restricted the access to the refrigerators in the hotel for Jewish guests.

“For our Jewish guests: You are allowed to access the refrigerator only in the following hours: 10:00-11:00 and 16:30-17:30,” the sign read. “I hope you understand that our team does not like being harassed every time.”

The hotel’s manager, Ruth Thomann, apologized for the signs on Monday, in a statement. “I have nothing against Jews, whom we regularly receive warmly here. I may have selected the wrong words; the signs should have been addressed to all the guests instead of Jewish ones.”

The hotel is reportedly very popular with ultra-orthodox Jewish guests from Israel, the UK, Belgium because it has been accommodating to their needs, including providing access to a freezer to store kosher food.

A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman said that the ministry had been in contact with Israel's ambassador to Switzerland, Jacob Keidar, and "outlined to him that Switzerland condemns racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination in any form."

Israel’s deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely, described the signs as “an anti-Semitic act of the worst and ugliest kind”.

Jacob Keidar, Israel’s ambassador to Switzerland, reportedly contacted the hotel and later informed Hotovely that the signs had been removed.

But she was not satisfied and has reportedly demanded formal condemnation from the Swiss government. Israel lodged an official complaint.

EJP