Several French holidaymakers are preparing to file a discrimination complaint with France’s rights watchdog, claiming they were refused holiday rentals on online booking sites on the basis of their north African names, reports The Guardian.
The French journalist Merwane Mehadji told a France Inter radio investigation that discrimination was happening when bookings were made. “I wanted to book an apartment or house in Marseille on Airbnb or Abritel,” he said. Twice, the booking and payment went through but then was quickly cancelled by the homeowner for no reason.
“Two or three days later I saw online that the dates I had wanted to book were available again,” he said. “Something didn’t seem right and people around me were saying: ‘It’s clear … you gave your first name and surname.’”
Mehadji said he asked a friend without a north African name to book the same dates for him and the owner replied within half an hour that those dates were free. “You realise that, in fact, discrimination is at play,” the journalist said.
When Mehadji tweeted about his experiences this month, he said hundreds of people contacted him complaining of the same thing. “There are tonnes of people that this is happening to each day,” he said.
Madjid Messaoudène, the head of equality at Saint-Denis town hall north of Paris, told the France Inter investigation he had twice been discriminated against because of his name on online booking sites. He added that it had now become common practice to ask friends with more “French-sounding names” to make the bookings instead – something he personally refused to do. “It’s essential to take this issue to the rights ombudsman,” he said.