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CHAPTER FIVE GOODS AND SERVICES: THE PROVISION OF BED AND BREAKFAST

Introduction

5.1 The third context on which the survey focused was the provision of goods and services. In particular, we asked a set of questions about whether people who run a bed and breakfast (B&B) business in their own home should be allowed to refuse bookings from particular groups of people. This chapter analyses the responses to these.

5.2 We focused on the provision of B&B in one's own home because of its apparent potential to stimulate discriminatory attitudes. On the one hand, the provision of B&B is a commercial service just like any other. On the other hand when provided by someone in their own home, it is arguably a more intimate transaction than most services. Moreover, most people probably regard it as their right to decide whom to admit into their own home. As a result, perhaps the subject is one that might be particularly likely to uncover discriminatory attitudes. At least one good reason for thinking this is that the issue of bed and breakfast owners turning away potential customers on the grounds of sexual orientation hit the media headlines in the summer of 2004 when a proprietor in the Highlands refused to allow two men in a same sex couple to share a double bed. The proprietor's action was denounced by Scotland's tourist agency, Visit Scotland, who removed the establishment from its official listings. Indeed, from April 2007 (though postdating this survey) such a move is now unlawful under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. Of course while these considerations mean that attitudes towards the provision of B&B in one's own home are of particular interest, it does mean that our findings will not necessarily give us a guide to people's attitudes towards discrimination in respect of other kinds of goods and services.

Should bed and breakfast owners be allowed to refuse bookings?

5.3 The question we posed was as follows:

Do you think someone running a bed and breakfast in their own home should be allowed to refuse a booking from [group]?

5.4 The question was asked about seven different groups. The answer options were 'definitely yes', 'probably yes', 'probably no' and 'definitely no'. Table 5.1 lists the seven groups in the order of the proportion who said 'definitely' or 'probably yes', which is taken to be a discriminatory response.

5.5 In the case of six of the seven groups a clear majority do not believe that B&B owners should be allowed to discriminate against members of that group by refusing to take bookings from them. Indeed in each of these cases more than two-thirds took that view, ranging from 69% in the case of someone aged 21 to as many as 83% in respect of someone with a learning disability. But the seventh group clearly stands out. As many as a half (51%) say that B&B owners should definitely or probably be allowed to refuse a booking from a same sex couple. So, the incident of the B&B owner in the Highlands in 2004 did indeed have wider public resonance. Indeed it is a subject upon which public opinion in Scotland appears to be divided down the middle.

Table 5.1 Should bed and breakfast owners be allowed to refuse bookings?

Who supports the right to refuse?

5.6 In the case of all seven groups attitudes towards the right of an B&B owner to refuse someone a booking exhibit a distinctive characteristic. Support for the view that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking is not necessarily particularly high amongst those social groups who otherwise are more inclined to express discriminatory attitudes. In particular, those with no qualifications are not particularly more likely than those who are well qualified to say that it should be possible to refuse a booking. For example, even in the case of the same sex couple, while 54% of those with no qualifications say that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking, 47% of those with a degree express the same view. In some instances, such as someone who has a guide dog, those with a degree are more likely than those without qualifications (26% and 12% respectively) to say that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking.

5.7 Meanwhile age does not always make much difference to attitudes on this subject either (see Table 5.2). Most surprisingly of all, perhaps, those aged 18-24 are no less likely than those aged 65 or over to say that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking from someone under 21. The same is true of someone who has a guide dog, while there are only small and statistically insignificant differences in respect of someone with a learning disability and someone from a different religion. Only in the case of a same sex couple is there a big difference of view between the two age groups. While 62% of those aged 65 or over say that a B&B owner should be able to refuse a booking from a same sex couple, only 33% of those aged between 18 and 24 agree with them. Meanwhile, while there are also differences of view about a transsexual person or someone from a different ethnic background, at 11 and 8 points respectively, those differences are relatively muted.

Table 5.2 Should bed and breakfast owners be allowed to refuse bookings? by gender and age

5.8 Equally, those who regularly practise a religion do not have particularly distinctive attitudes. This is even true in the case of a same sex couple, a subject on which in previous chapters we have seen those who practise a religion are particularly likely to take a distinctive view. Even amongst those who rarely or never attend a religious service, half (50%) believe that a B&B owner should be able to refuse a booking from a same sex couple, only slightly less than the equivalent figure of 57% amongst those who attend regularly.

5.9 Indeed even people who know someone who belongs to a particular group do not have sharply differing views from those who do not know anyone. For example, as Table 5.3 shows, nearly half (49%) of those who say they know someone who is gay or lesbian feel that a B&B owner should be able to refuse a booking from a same sex couple, only eight points less than the equivalent figure amongst those who not know anyone who is gay or lesbian. Much the same is true in respect of someone with a learning disability and someone from a different ethnic or racial background.

Table 5.3 Whether B&B bookings should be refused by knowledge of groups

5.10 Finally, as Table 5.4 shows, it is not even always the case that those who say that sometimes there is good reason to be prejudiced are markedly more likely to agree that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking. This is certainly true of someone under 21, someone who has a guide dog, someone with a learning disability, and someone from a different religion. Only in the case of a same sex couple, a transsexual person and someone from a different ethnic background is there much evidence that attitudes are linked to someone's broader attitude to prejudice.

Table 5.4 Should bed and breakfast owners be allowed to refuse bookings by general attitude to prejudice

5.11 In fact the only consistent difference of attitude we have been able to uncover is that men are more likely than women to say that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking (see Table 5.2 again). True, as we might expect from the evidence of previous chapters, at nine points the difference is greatest in respect of a same sex couple. Nevertheless, as in the case of the primary school teacher, but not in respect of relationships, women generally prove to be a little less likely to adopt a discriminatory view than men.

Why are attitudes towards a same sex couple so distinctive?

5.12 Attitudes towards refusing a booking do not then vary between different kinds of people as much as we might expect. Moreover this is a quality that attitudes towards refusing a booking from a same sex couple have in common with the other six groups covered in the survey. But they clearly are very different so far as the proportion of people who believe that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking.

5.13 One potentially important feature of the survey question that we posed is that whereas in the case of the other groups the question referred to an individual from that group, in the case of someone in a same sex relationship we asked about a couple rather than an individual. It might have been the case that if, for example, we had asked whether a B&B owner should be able to refuse a booking from a group of people aged under 21 rather than just one individual, rather more people might have said definitely or probably yes. Our reason for asking about a same sex couple was, of course, that during their stay a couple might engage in sexual activity to which an owner might object, whereas the same view would not be taken of a single person.

5.14 However, in practice it is far from clear that objection to sexual relations between adults of the same sex does account for the number of people who feel that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking from a same sex couple. For even those who otherwise do not appear to hold discriminatory attitudes towards gay men and lesbians do support the right of refusal. Only 5% of those who think that sex between two men is rarely wrong or not wrong at all say that a gay man or lesbian would be unsuitable as a primary school teacher. Similarly only 8% of the same group say they would be unhappy if a close relative formed a long-term relationship with someone of the same sex. However, 41% believe that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking from a same sex couple. In short even those who regard sex between adults of the same sex as acceptable do not necessarily feel that a B&B owner should be required to admit a same sex couple into their own home.

Conclusion

5.15 Evidently, for the most part people feel that owners of a bed and breakfast business should not be free to act in a discriminatory manner in deciding from whom they take a booking. But many make a clear exception in the case of a same sex couple. At the same time, we have found that across the board, the pattern of who does and who does not adopt a discriminatory attitude is not as clear as it commonly was in the previous two chapters.

5.16 That latter pattern suggests that for some people at least somewhat different or additional considerations are thought to be at stake on this issue as compared with the question of either a prospective relationship partner or who would make a suitable primary school teacher (or indeed, perhaps, the provision of other kinds of goods and services). Perhaps, for example, for some people what they regard as their right to decide whom to admit into their own home overrides an otherwise anti-discriminatory point of view. In any event the apparent distinctiveness of the pattern of attitudes towards the provision of B&B is a subject to which we return in Chapter 11.

Key points:

• Only between one in six and one in four think that someone running a bed and breakfast business in their own home should have the right to turn away guests on the basis of their ethnic or religious background, disability or transsexual status. Slightly more, three in ten, say that it is acceptable to refuse a booking to someone under 21.
• In contrast, as many as half (51%) say a B&B owner should definitely or probably be allowed to a refuse a booking to a same sex couple. Even amongst those who say that sex between two men is 'rarely wrong' or 'not wrong at all', as many as 41% say that a B&B owner should be allowed to refuse a booking from a same sex couple.
• The kind of person who is most likely to express discriminatory attitudes about relationships or employment is not necessarily particularly likely to say that a B&B owner should be able to refuse a booking. It appears that attitudes towards refusing a B&B booking are influenced by different or additional considerations than in the case of relationships or employment.

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