Oh my god this is soo stupid...if he had used any other form of id they wouldent of know...there are men and women in this world who stand apart from the rest soldiers police officers paramedics fire fighters....and this is the thanks theses people get when they are off duty..these people see what you dont want to run towars when you run away...disgusts me...and if i had a hotel id be glad for people like incase things went wrong...one more exeperince person to help out..well thats my mad rant nearly over if you dont want to stand behind are heros feel free to stand in front!

obscene. truly obscene, and not the first story of the horrific treatment that the military gets from a few minority number of British people.

Why is this so?

Some of the previous stories in this vein have been reported in newspapers that people from the UK say are not fully trustworthy. However this is from the BBC. I imagine they are trustworthy.

Obscene, indeed. How callous to treat someone who is protecting your life by refusing them shelter. Apologies are not enough.

Mistake???. How 'bout explaining why an employee would make that "mistake"? There's got to be a reason behind it. I'm very interested in hearing what that reasoning was, from the employee that made the "mistake".

I'm completely confused.

Yeah I don't see that as a "mistake" its not a mistake if the employees are told not to rent to military personal. That would mean its part of there policies and employees have to follow the policies.

Maybe the employee thought the policy was to not rent to military when actually the policy is to always approve military no matter what? Or, maybe military people dont have to pay, but the employee thought it meant they couldnt stay there?

I dont know, I am trying to justify the actions, that way I dont have to believe that people have such little respect for those who put their lives in danger for our (their) freedom. Its a futile attempt, thought.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Shame on them....

I won't give them the dignity of trying to justify their actions. They don't deserve it.

Upvotes to the story. It has really touched a nerve in all of us. If the hotel had a downvote button it would be negative well into the thousands now and ever plummeting. That is just wrong.

Having spoken to Claire about this (Claire being a hotel manager at this point), when paying for a hotel room with cash it is compulsory to have proof of ID. Passport or driving license or utility bill or credit/debit card being acceptable.

Military ID is not one of the recognised forms of ID. The mistake which is quoted in the story may be that the person working in the hotel got confused about being able to take military personnel rather than military ID. an easy mistake to make if you are a hotel employee on minimum wage with very little job satisfaction.

The mistake may even have been on TomoS behalf he may have misheard them when they said that Military (mumble mumble ID) is not acceptable.

If the military ID was all he had then the person was perfectly right to turn them away. It's rules such as these that ensure that terrorists etc can be traced in their movements by insisting on adequate ID.

The town I live near is a big party town, stag party's, hen nights etc.

There is also a large military base nearby. About 7 years ago all the pubs and clubs banned any military from them especially the U.S marines.

The reason for this was the amount of fights and drunken antics that went on when the marines, soldiers unwound a bit too much :D.

Maybe the policy of the hotel was something similar and an over-eager or indiscreet receptionist misapplied the rules?

Why would military ID not be considered "proper" ID? That just doesn't make sense if the British military ID is anything similar to the US's

Banning the military because some have a reputation of being rowdy!?

That is just as wrong as banning them just because they are in the military.

What if they banned foreigners, people under 30, people that are not white, people who make less than 40k sterling pounds/year etc etc?

I hear ya. However if you saw the town after a weekend of marines on leave you'd understand the reasoning and motivation behind it. The MP's were constantly carting squaddies off back to the base and there was always d**k -measuring fights between locals and the marines.

The town of Newquay is really geared towards letting loose and going wild at nights. It's a laid back surfer town and it's often likened to being on a par with the likes of Ibiza. Cheap, cheap drinks, club promotions and an anything goes atmosphere.

Maybe not a right move to ban the marines from the pubs and clubs but at the time it was a pretty necessary move.

That said, that's kind of totally not applicable in relation to this article, I was just throwing out that maybe the hotel in question had similar problems in the past so that maybe was the reason for their policy that was then applied with indiscretion to this lone soldier who was obviously NOT there to party.

Military ID doesn't have an address on it. I won't accept military ID in my work for proof of address, I can take it for proof of ID as long as they have a second form of ID showing the address.

The story doesn't go into enough detail for me to be 100% convinced.


Remember that the facts we do know are all based on media reports and we all know how the media tell every side of the story and lay it out exactly as it happened.

If it turns out that he was refused entry solely on the fact that he was in the armed forces then I agree, it sucks but I very much doubt that it was the reason he was refused.

Well according to the update, the hotel has had previous problems with soldiers from the local barracks. A similar situation to the one in my local town.

Seems as if the receptionist was following guidelines, maybe she could have used some discretion though.

well that makes sense. Proof of ID but not address. Sounds reasonable

Sorry, language barrier in action again. When we say things like 2 proofs of Id we usually mean one photo ID and one address. It's pretty common practice here to require 2 for most things.

He should have called ahead and made a reservation.

For the record, I would rather have a member of the military staying at my hotel, rather than a non military person. If I had to choose.

Doubleupvotes.

I've got a State ID and I've had Military ID's. A state ID is not a proof of address, it's a proof that you gave this address as your current address X number of years ago. Doesn't matter how many times you've moved. Doesn't matter if you were shacking with your girlfriend at the time you had your address issued.

A military ID on the other hand is a proof of service to your country. It's a proof of discipline to your ideals and of training. It shows (more than a state ID) that you have a home, a job, and a commanding officer. And while you can't always contact "Joe's Garage" and speak to the manager about his employee trashing a room, you CAN speak to Ensign Joe's commanding officer and get things set right.

I regret that I only have 2 upvotes to give.

Well said.

Things are a little different here. proof of address is a recent utility bill in your name or a credit card statement. I don't know how strict things are in the US but you actually have to live somewhere and be on the most current electoral register to have a credit card.

A military ID card shows that you are/were in the military, it doesn't show your psychological status after being on the front line for the past 2 tours, it doesn't show that you have murdered you commanding officer a few days earlier and are now AWOL.

I understand your sentiments but in reality it shows nothing.