Booking.com Drops Swiss Hotel That Singled Out Jews
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — The online hotel reservation service Booking.com dropped from its website a Swiss establishment whose management put up signs singling out Jews and urging them to shower before entering the swimming pool.
A Booking.com representative told Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, on Wednesday that it has dropped Paradise Apartments in Arosa, some 80 miles southeast of Zurich, from the service because of the signs its management put up during the weekend, which prompted furious reactions. In addition to the sign about the pool, another sign set times for Jews to access a refrigerator at the hotel.
“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We can confirm that the property in question is no longer available on Booking.com,” a representative told Samuels.
The hotel still appears on Booking.com but is blocked for reservations. “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.
Ruth Thomann, who runs the hotel, told JTA Monday that she removed the signs shortly after they were put up. She said she meant no offense to Jews and that she merely sought to convey information relevant only to the Jewish guests.
Only they were entering the pool without showering first while wearing t-shirts, and they alone were allowed, as a courtesy, to put food in the staff’s refrigerator, she said. “I may have selected the wrong words; the signs should have been addressed to all the guests instead of Jewish ones,” she added.
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