A hotel’s local-resident restriction was not visible to a Cleveland family when they booked a room online after a fire left their home without heat and electricity. At the front desk, Joanna Lopez Inman said, the family was told the hotel did not rent to Clevelanders.
An early-morning storm sparked a nearby power line fire, which caused a small, contained basement fire at Lopez Inman’s Ohio City home, according to Cleveland.com. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, but the home had no heat or electricity. Lopez Inman, a magistrate with Cleveland Housing Court, and her children, ages 5 and 8, spent the night at her mother’s home in Strongsville. Her husband then found a room at the Wyndham in Independence through Booking.com.
The hotel refused to honor the Booking.com reservation, Lopez Inman said. She recalled being told, “they don’t rent to Clevelanders.” A revised check-in sign stated: “per our hotel policy, we no longer rent rooms to guests who reside locally in Cuyahoga County and parts of the Summit area of the hotel.”
A Policy With No Warning on the Booking Site
Property records list Cleveland South Hospitality LLC as the owner of the Wyndham Independence. A Wyndham spokesperson said the property is independently owned and operated, and that Wyndham expects local-resident policies to comply with the law. The spokesperson said guests should be notified and refunded for prepaid charges where possible. A hotel desk clerk reportedly said the restriction is intended to keep local residents from hosting parties…