Hotels refusing foreign couples?

Hello friends,

Me and my girl tried to get a hotel room in Chennai and in a small village 40 kms from Chennai. We look for the cheaper places (around 400 INR per night). Most of the hotels had around 50 % of the keys hanging next to the reception but 9 out of 10 hotels claimed they were either full or only rent out rooms per month.

One hotel owner first said he was full but after having a discussion with our rikshaw driver he asked me if we wanted AC or Non AC, asked for my passport and studied it for a few minutes, but decided the hotel was still full.

It seems and feels like the hotel owners don't want us there. Do certain places have a problem with foreigners? Or maybe they don't like umarried couples in their rooms?

You might find they didn't have a C form it being off the beaten track...greetings from Sassem by the way!

Sassem, nice! I have some very good friends living there.

Will it help to bring some xerox'ed C-forms if we're planning to stay off the beaten track or are they just not allowed to host foreigners?

If they don't have C forms, then they probably don't have any interest from the local police in collecting C forms.

Just a theory.

I'm only guessing that this may be the case but it is fairly common that rural hotelss don't have a foreigner C forms and are therefor not keen to take foreigners..Your theory is a perfectly good one Nick (makes sense to me anyway) but hotels at least, think they might get a visit from the cops and be found wanting...

noordwijker, your last assumption is correct. The hotels don't have any problem with foreigners. It's all about unmarried couples. They are all genuinely afraid either for themselves or their guests. They don't want to have to deal with any problem they could get into with cops.

It is really a great harassment from the police when rooms are let out to unmarried couples. Sometimes the hotel owner/manager are booked for prostitution simply for letting out a room to such couples.

Oh, sorry I forgot to ask. What is this "C form"?

That is the form issued by the authorities to record the passport and visa details of every foreign national who is staying in a hotel, guesthouse or lodge. The form after being filled has to be submitted to the nearest police station.

Indeed. In small towns and places many hoteliers (mom & pop operations) are loath to keep and maintain a book that is subject to scrutiny. Few years back, some one who runs a small establishment in rural punjab, put it this way - [paraphrasing]

"It is a hassle once you take in one; you have to start minding the karsevak"

A vast majority of sikhs do karseva in their pind or some of the prominent gurudwara; a good percentage hold foreign passports. If a small hotel starts questioning and keeping track of their fellow yeomen; they say they feel okha. An obvious firang opens that set of problems.

That is not normative; Bottom of the barrel hotels tend to keep their options and prejudices just below the surface. You should be aware that prostitution is *not* illegal per se in India. If the cops want to shake an establishment; there are many ways to do it

My name in my passport (South African) is still my maiden name, although I have changed it here in Europe to my husband's name when we got married. I was going to change my passport this month, but I'm really worried about it taking too long and thus screwing up our travel plans (not to mention booking flights etc). Apparently, it takes even longer to apply for a new RSA passport from abroad, which really doesn't bode well as everything's already super slow INSIDE the country!

So, I will travel under my maiden name and after reading through the threads on IM I figure taking our passports (RSA and Swiss) as well as an international marriage certificate issued by the Swiss authorities where we live, will be more than sufficient? Has anyone ever had issues with the marriage certificate being denied? I thought I read somewhere about some hotel owners being overly-suspicious and even this isn't enough? Will it be okay to book some of our hotels (especially for the beginning of the trip and over the Xmas/New Year peak period) under different names online before we leave - or is this not advisable because of the name issue...(not about whether it's a dodgy hotel etc - we'll try take that into account )

Notes: we will be staying mostly at budget/backpacker-type accommodations, both in our 20s (early and late 20s), and are a mixed race couple. I mention this last aspect after reading a comment here that apparently this can be a problem!? My partner is white European, and I am half-Indian by ethnicity only, not nationality (as in, my mother's side is Indian but from South Africa for quite a few generations - and her genes really dominate so I look very much Indian)...Do we have to worry about this? Surely showing our passports and proof of marriage will be sufficient?

Thank you all!

@Violetfriday

One of my Indian friends (a girl) married a British national (a Caucasian) and went for a one month trip across India. They used to travel together in India before marriage as well. They never had any problem regarding hotels/guesthouses.

I guess if you are travelling to known tourist places, there would not be any problem. Problem (if at all) may arise if you visit off-beat places where tourist traffic is less. But still I feel you should not worry about this aspect.

Photofreak, hi and thanks for your reply! That's great news that being a mixed couple won't be an issue in most places! We will mostly be traveling in areas that see tourists as this is our first trip to India - although we might venture out to more of those off-beat places as we go along if the journey happens to lead us there! But I was mostly worried about the tourist budget/backpacker places anyway, so thank you very much for helping out with that!

This C Form business is, to my best knowledge, very simple: The C Form is required of hotels to let foreigners stay, in other words they need to have permission to do so. Some places, of course usually of the simpler variety, don't have it, and so are not allowed to. Presumably they cater to a domestic budget segment, or for whatever reasons of their own.

So they're not allowed to have you stay there, period. There'll always be a next place that does.

(There of course exist exceptions of some places that just don't bother with these formalities, presumably they're operating somewhat under the radar. I've not found this very common, or not anymore.)

I have in the past been welcomed and allowed into a place by the desk clerk, then having filled all the forms and just about unpacking and settling into my room, the manager storms in to ask me to please vacate the premises again. An annoyance, sure, but it's not directed against you, and they will just not have the required permit. I've certainly on other occasions been told a hotel was "full" when I doubt it was, but it will indeed be for this reason. Take it all in stride. There will indeed be a next place to stay; or in very off-beat places, if a one hotel or guesthouse is all there is, I'm quite sure you wouldn't be left out on the streets if they have room, but they would accommodate you, permit or not.

So ps

No, it follows that this won't work. The C Form is theirs and to pass on to the local authorities, and for that hotel (or guesthouse, whatever) to have you fill it in, or fill it in for you. And to ask to see and probably take a photocopy of your passport & visa page.

It has been said here it may nowadays pay to carry some photocopies of your passport and visa page; while a hotel would normally copy it for you, it's been said for instance that these days you need to leave a copy when using the cloak room (left luggage) at railway stations, and they're not gonna do it for you.

Great explanation, machadinha. For whatever reason anyone gets turned down I think your line "take it all in stride" is the best attitude to have. It's travel afterall, and happens. Now just to remember that advice if the situation occurs..

Mach, I think you are being very generous there ---but, overall, yes, take in stride and move on.