Sykes Holiday Cottages - Pregnancy Discrimination?

[RT5463]

Hi all,

I’ve had a really bizarre and upsetting experience today with Sykes Cottages.

I booked a holiday cottage and then called the owner to ask a couple of questions - parking etc. In the course of a friendly conversation it came up that I was pregnant. Her tone then changed and she said that the stairs up to the bedroom are quite steep. I assured her that I was aware of this from the photos but that it was no problem.

A couple of hours later I received a message from Sykes telling me that the owners have requested that my booking is cancelled because “the property is not suitable” for me! The only details that the owners had about me is my name, address, phone number and the fact that I am pregnant, so the reason is fairly clear.

I’m a lawyer and luckily I know the law surrounding equality/discrimination, but I just wanted peoples opinions on this! Am I right to be outraged or am I overly hormonal?!

Are pregnant women not able to climb stairs any more? Must we all move into a bungalow as soon as we see that blue line?!

Hi op,

I own a holiday home agency, in the Highlands. We would never cancel a guests holiday for this reason. I however do know a lot of independent holiday home owners who are extremely anxious regarding health and safety.

I hope you are ok. I completely understand that this is a upsetting situation for you.

They are nuts, completely unreasonable

Totally unreasonable and unlawful. Throw the book at them!

They better redact that cancellation sharpish otherwise you're going to the press! Daily Mail love scouting for headlines on here anyway!

No, you are right to be outraged. How ridiculous.
I think it is discrimination, but you would know better than me what if anything you could do.
I hope you find another cottage for your holiday.

Of course YANBU, but I can believe they’re still around! The way they treated customers during the pandemic was dreadful!

I think I would reply along the lines of "thanks but no thanks, I want this cottage that I've booked and am rather surprised that you appear to be refusing to rent it due to my pregnancy. I am sure this must be an error as this would be discriminatory which is forbidden under the Equalities Act. I look forward to receiving your confirmation that this was a misunderstanding. Yours truly RTthingy LLB.
and preferably sent from a work email saying something like MsRTatlawyers4u.com

i would also be enraged but I got very angry at people suggesting I might suffer baby brain or any other nonsense.🤬

This level of litigiousness is why they cancelled the booking in the first place.

Pointing out legislation is not litigious in itself.

What a blessing in disguise!!

Does the listing say that the house is not suitable for pregnant women?

If not, why are they cancelling it?

And it's the Equality Act, not Equalities Act...

I’ve had awful experiences with Sykes and will never use them again. I wouldn’t waste your energy trying to reason with them - it will spoil your trip.

The listing included the line “Please note: The stairs are a bit steep and may not be suitable for people with mobility issues”. There are no direct exclusions.

I appreciated this warning and made sure that I had a good look at the stairs (which looked like fairly standard, carpeted stairs with bannisters - pic below for reference).

What I didn’t appreciate was the assumption that because I am pregnant my mobility issues must be so severe that I must be excluded from booking the property with no further discussion!

Don’t think I referenced any legislation but you are quite right in stating that it is the Equality Act!

That’s just so odd, do they require all their guests to fill in a health and safety form , or stop people over a certain age or people under a certain age from staying? What if a guest became pregnant in between booking and staying, do their terms and conditions state the booking would have to be cancelled? Personally I wouldn’t want to stay now in case there’s bad feeling.

I didn't really feel the need to double check the wording of specific legislation to post on a chat forum about a hypothetical letter being written by a lawyer to be honest. Posting on MN isn't my job, I don't need to check the accuracy of everything I write.

It might be that she doesn’t want to risk your waters breaking/blood over her carpets etc. Weird but it could be that.

Is it possible the stairs are worse further up?

Just rebook under your partners name

One of the reviews on booking.com says the stairs are spiral with limited step width. https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/thomas-cottage-wotton-under-edge.en-gb.html?activeTab=htReviews

I think I would still fit up them though 😂