A Black man was turned away and denied a room at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Worthington by the front desk clerk based on longstanding prejudices and racial profiling. The reason cited was that the guest was from Dayton.
Despite having a valid reservation at the property as well as being a loyal Marriott member, the man was denied a room. The reason cited was that a previous guest from the same city as him had smoked marijuana within the hotel’s premises. When the man pushed back against the clerk for what sounded like the most ridiculous reason to deny him checking in, the clerk then called the police.
The incident caught on camera shows the Black man responding to the officer, “He tells me he can’t rent to people from Dayton, Ohio, because somebody from Dayton, Ohio, smoked weed before. What does that got to do with me? Not in my name. This is my first time ever coming to this hotel. I [tried to] get him to explain it to me, and he got hysterical about it. I recorded everything, just like I’m recording right now.”…