• Zen.The hotel boom 'for adults only'

The promise of guaranteeing "tranquility", with a specialization focused on the absence of children in its facilities, has allowed "adults-only" hotels to experience a boom in the last decade, but these offers collide with the constitutional framework, experts say .

"The law does not contemplate the right of a hotel to deny access by age. Although it is true that the establishment may reserve the right of admission, the legal exercise of this right is not unlimited, since there can be no grounds for discrimination based on age " , says Gerardo Ruiz, lawyer of Legálitas expert in consumption.

5% of Spanish hotels are "only for adults", according to data offered by the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations (CEHAT), and although there is no specific regulation regarding this sector, in article 14 of the Constitution contemplates that Spaniards may not suffer "discrimination based on birth, race, sex, religion, opinion or any other personal or social condition".

A concept, that of discrimination, that organizations for the defense of the consumer also identify in these offers, because "to veto the entrance to minors would be as legal as to state that people of a certain ethnicity or nationality cannot lodge ," according to Rubén Sánchez, Facua spokesman.

"There is no objective justification that can be used as a criterion, because there are children who make noise and others who do not. The objective criterion that they could use is that in that place it is not allowed to scream, but that does not necessarily make a child: only you have to see the profile of adult clients of certain hotels in Mallorca, "adds Sánchez.

If a hotel cannot deny children access to its facilities, then how is it possible that this business model continues to be maintained, and growing every year?

Hotels that offer adults only services can circumvent the legal section in different ways. If a customer comes to the establishment with the intention of staying with babies or children under 18, the hotel may claim that it does not have cots or beds appropriate for them, or simply argue that dinner service, for example, does not start until hours very late.

"They can put different excuses, as there are oversold seats, for example," says Sánchez.

Regarding the publicity of this type of services, there is no clear regulation in this regard, although "an establishment can be commercially advertised for a specific public as long as it does not prohibit entry in a discriminatory manner," says Eva Giménez, partner of the RCD firm.

From Iberostar, one of the Spanish groups with the greatest offer of services "only for adults", with nine hotels in Spain of this type, deny that there is a ban on minors in their establishments.

"The term adults only is a label to define in a recognizable way a specialization, without this implying a prohibition for accompanied minors who want to live an experience with us," says Inma de Benito, director of communication for Iberostar.

Other groups such as Barceló, a company that opened the first establishment of these characteristics in Spain in 2010 (Hotel Illetas Albatros, in Mallorca), do not offer "adults only" services if the chain does not have another hotel that it can recommend to the same location. customers who come with minors.

"There is no area in which Barceló has a 'adults only' and does not also have another hotel where customers with children can find themselves more comfortable. It would then be a matter of choosing according to needs," says Álvaro Pacheco, director of Barceló communication.

In any case, if a client insists on making a reservation with children in a hotel that is advertised as "only for adults" and is not allowed, from Legálitas the recommendation is clear: report.

"You can protest through the complaint forms that the establishment must provide and the knowledge of that fact could conclude with a sanction to the hotel by the competent bodies," says lawyer Gerardo Ruiz.

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