Gay couple refused hotel room awarded payout

HOTEL owners who said gay couple could not share a bed in their hotel have been forced to pay each of them $2880 in compensation.

Steven Preddy, left, and Martin Hall will be compensated after being refused a hotel room / AP

HOTEL owners who refused to give a gay couple a room have been forced to pay them compensation.

Peter and Hazelmary Bull – owners of the Chymorvah Private Hotel in Cornwall, England - denied Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy a double room in September 2008.

Mr Hall and Mr Preddy were told the hotel has a long-standing policy of banning all unmarried couples both heterosexual and gay from sharing a bed in the hotel.

Christians Mr and Mrs Bull said the policy has been in operation since they bought the hotel in 1986, and is based on their beliefs about marriage and not hostility to sexual orientation.

Mr Preddy said he and Mr Hall had booked the hotel room over the phone and were not aware of the policy until they arrived and were told they would not be able to stay.

The hotel owners were ordered to pay them $2880 each in damages, with most of the costs going to the Equality and Human Rights Commission which funded the action.

“We are trying to live and work in accordance with our Christian faith. As a result we have been sued and ordered to pay £3,600 ($5761),” Mr Bull told the UK’s Daily Mail.

John Wadham, from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the couple had no right to be turned away from the hotel because of their sexuality.

'The right of an individual to practice their religion and live out their beliefs is one of the most fundamental rights a person can have, but so is the right not to be turned away by a hotel just because you are gay,” he said.