A predominant number of Lebanese hotels forbid unmarried couples from staying together in a room. [Source]
I have to partially agree with this article as i believe there are more hotels that accept unwed couples than ones who don’t.
“If the guests are not Lebanese, they can book a room,†said Nasrine Jabado, a front desk agent at the Quality Inn in Tripoli.
“If they are coming from abroad, it’s ok,†said an employee at an upscale hotel in Beit Mary who preferred to speak off the record. “Usually, in Arab countries, that’s hotel policy.â€
Added to that, i have to ask those hotels what difference does being a Lebanese make? Why do they assume the girl is a whore or the guy is filthy if they are sharing a room?
I find this policy really backwards and unjustified as this is bad business for them.
Maybe they don’t want to encourage premarital sex, it’s not necessarily about prostitutes.
I think it is just bad for business…there are plenty of clean welcoming hotels and nobody bothers, 5 stars hotels never bother asking. u can always book and make her follow u (kind of remind of the GCC).
I see you have experience in this matter @Devin.. 🙂
Pleaaaaseeeee,everyone’s having sex,how can you explain that ,where are they going doing it ?
This could potentially be a Tripoli thing- in Tripoli they are after all a little more conservative and the owner is from a good Muslim family. He has enough money and customers to not care enough about those who would see this as bad business where in Tripoli everyone would value his stance.
mariam,
it always HAS to be tripoli when it comes to things that we don’t like right? Well for your info theres only one hotel in tripoli which is the intercontinental so i’m pretty sure this is not about tripoli, and that if tripoli was included in the report, it wouldn’t be the odd one out. gosh.
Haissam,
I am Tripolian. The owner of the hotel is my dad’s friends. I’m not saying this is good or bad. I’m just saying maybe in Beirut these policies aren’t as prevalent and in Tripoli its more conservative. Conservative doesn’t always equal bad- it’s just different. And in Tripoli, as I said, his choice to do this would be valued …and yes we do only have one hotel.
Anyway, if anyone has seen Caramel, this issue was discussed … only sketchy, ugly hotels are willing to give rooms to whomever. It may not be the modern way to do things but its definitely the Lebanese way to do things. That doesn’t always have be to looked at in a negative light.
haha i actually thought of mentioning that scene from caramel! Now even if intercontinental does not allow unwed couples to check in, it wouldn’t be considered a very conservative case, because we are talking about dozens of hotels and a large number of these hotels follow the policy of not allowing unwed couples, so mentioning any area and saying that it would be why the report is as such isn’t very right, especially because we only boast one hotel in the whole city of Tripoli.
are you all serious!!!! you guys all of the lebanese hotels from the 5 stars to the 0ne star are surviving on the day use room rentals! they let everyone and anyone in!!! they dont care! only few few few hotels dont accept unmarried cples! we have no tourism all year round, so they count on this during the low season especially… this subject is a waste of time! whts the point of it! its happening all over the world!