Second JDV Hotel Accused of Racial Profiling

March 28, 2007 at 3:36 PM | 0 Comments

A HOTELCHATTER EXCLUSIVE

And now we interrupt your regularly schedule hotel infotainment programming, with some breaking news where we get all serious and stuff. Sorry for the buzz kill.

Last fall, the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco, a JDV Hospitality hotel, was hit with a very public accusation of racial profiling of an African-American professor, prompting hotelier Chip Conley to place a personal apology in a San Fran-area newspaper (for which he paid $450) as well as to pledge $7,500 to the Women of Color Resource Center. Additionally, JDV implemented additional diversity training at the Hotel Vitale with plans for more classes at other hotels.

As any hotel corporation would be, JDV was eager to put the matter to bed...that is until a second incident of racial profiling was alleged to have happened at their affiliated Cathedral Hill Hotel on December 6, 2006, just a month after the Hotel Vitale incident.

It's now almost April but HotelChatter has just received an account of this incident from the guest, Solomon Smith, who used the HotelChatter handle oracle18, as well as a copy of the incident report submitted by the hotel's general manager. Here in his own words, Smith details what happened:

Like the professor, we were sitting quietly by ourselves, reading a newspaper. Like the professor, we were minorities - I am a black man and my wife is Asian. Like the professor, the employee who confronted us assumed we were loitering and not guests of the property. And like the professor, we were asked to leave even though we had repeatedly told him we were guests waiting to check into the hotel and that he could verify this with the front desk.

This employee was a HOTEL SECURITY GUARD, who never identified himself, who screamed profanities at myself and my wife, and who threatened physical harm to the both of us if we didn't get out immediately. Not once did any of the other hotel employees come to our aide. Finally, after about 10 minutes of the verbal assault, a complete stranger helped us out and called for the hotel GM because he feared the security guard was going to get physical and no one from the hotel was doing a single thing about it.

Smith goes on to detail what happened once the security guard was asked to leave.

It's important to note that the hotel refused to take an official statement from us, and during our initial interview with the head of security, he didn't write down a single word of our account. We kept inquiring as to when our statement would be taken, but JDV just keep putting us off, saying it wasn't "company policy" and that they had all the information they needed.

Smith also submitted to HotelChatter a copy of Brian Larson's, the general manager, report which stated that the incident happened and the employee (the security guard) was eventually suspended. From the incident report:

In written and verbal statements employee does not provide logical reason to confront the two guests and violated security protocol by not first asking if they were staying on the property. Employee stated that guest responded with "an attitude" but again violated security protocol by not approaching guest with helpful friendly perspective. Employee states that Mr. Smith identified himself as a guest but that employee continued to escalate the confrontation which employee described in detail. Employee states that guest stated that the confrontation was racially motivated. Although employee did not describe any racial epithets being used, it is clear that employee's admitted behavior could easily have been interpreted that way, and employee did nothing to improve the situation.

JDV Hospitality has acknowledged that the "unfortunate" incident happened, according to Dawn Shalhoup, the company's director of public relations saying:

This guest was involved in an unfortunate incident with a newly-hired security agent. The situation was quickly diffused and the guest who was holding a one-night reservation was immediately upgraded and offered priority check-in. We then extended his stay five additional days, with room, food and beverage accepted on a complimentary basis.

We tried to track down Solomon Smith again for a comment but as of now, he hasn't responded to our email. Is that the online version of ding, dong, ditch?

However, we have posted Smith's submissions here and here so you can read his side of the story word for word. You can also read the full statement from JDV Hospitality here. And of course, we want to know what you think so list your thoughts in comments below the story.

[Photo: Life in Photographs]

Tags: JDV Hospitality / Chip Conley / San Francisco Hotels / Hotel News / JDV Racial Profiling

by juliana

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