Outrage over hotel's 'unacceptable' Facebook post shaming guest
A Darwin hotel has come under fire after it shared images of a guest’s bloodied sheets and towels on social media.
Quest Palmerston serviced apartments took to Facebook on Friday night to post a series of photos showing stained sheets and towels from a guest’s room.
“What an interesting week, it must be Shark Week.” the post read, followed by several hashtags including “#disgusting”.
Shark week is a term used to describe when a woman is menstruating.
The post saw the hotel’s Facebook quickly inundated with comments from disgruntled social media users.
“Public shaming of female guests for having a period is unacceptable,” one person wrote on the hotel’s Facebook review section.
“Imagine shaming someone for getting their period on social media. This is extremely disrespectful and unprofessional. Behaviour like that is disgusting,” another said.
The post was later deleted by the hotel before an apology was issued in another post on Saturday.
“We are deeply apologetic to all for the recent post and comment on the Quest Palmerston Facebook page that has been removed, this is not in line with our standards or the Quest brand,” the post read.
“We have addressed the post with staff responsible.”
Yet there was more backlash from social media users who called for further action to be taken against the employee and for the hotel to donate to women’s charity Share The Dignity, which helps women in need obtain period products.
A number of scathing reviews have since been left on the hotel’s Facebook page, with some people vowing to never stay at the hotel again.
When contacted by Yahoo News a member of staff at the hotel declined to comment on the Facebook post.
A spokesperson from the hotel’s franchisor Quest Apartment Hotels confirmed to Yahoo News the member of staff had since been suspended pending an investigation.
“The unauthorised post by a Quest Palmerston employee was deeply upsetting and we understand the strong community reaction it provoked,” the spokesperson said.
“It goes against the grand values of Quest Apartment Hotels and doesn’t adhere to the franchisor’s current social media guidelines.
“The employee responsible for the post has been suspended and will now be subject to an official internal investigation.”
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