Human Rights

Excluding young people is not discrimination

Groepen.com surprises Human Rights Board.

Can youth groups or groups composed exclusively of men be excluded in advance from renting group accommodation? With young people this is allowed, with men it discriminates on the basis of gender and is prohibited; according to the verdict of the Human Rights Board.

By requesting an opinion from this college itself and using the opinion as a guide, Groups.com avoids the possibility that clients may have to do this themselves. “Separate but extremely nice of you to approach us about this in advance” was the College’s initial response. Accordingly, in November 2018, there was extensive discussion with the College about whether or not the exclusion of certain groups in some group accommodations is allowed or not. “It is fortunately rare that actual problems arise but the fact is that not every accommodation is suitable for every target group or that every owner can get along with every target group,” said Rob Ansen, owner of the Center for Group Accommodations. “We didn’t want to wait and see, but rather be proactive. Sometimes we run into the problem that specific groups cannot get into the group accommodation they want and therefore feel discriminated against.”

Over 750 group accommodations are offered through Groepen.com In some cases, it should be possible to refuse certain groups, and then you quickly run into the constitutional right of equal treatment. After all, can you ban certain groups from entering even before a booking is officially established? “So that is allowed in some cases, but not on the basis of gender,” the Board said. Youth groups, for example, may be better accommodated elsewhere in some cases, while men’s groups should not be refused on the basis of gender.

“We want to offer everyone the best possible accommodation where the enjoyment of that, generally quite expensive, group vacation is guaranteed as much as possible. We succeed in almost all cases. We always strive for the maximum satisfaction score so also in this case we go the extra mile in the interest of our customers and our homeowners. For that reason, we decided to take the risk of a possible negative ruling, for the sake of clarity.” The ruling is now known and at least provides clarity. Groepen.com is also going to put this into practice and will also inform its relations about what is, and also what is not, allowed.

In short, this means that Groepen.com no longer states on its website that groups consisting exclusively of men best

to not be admitted.” Indeed, it is prohibited to make a distinction on the basis of gender. However, if Groups.co.uk states at certain accommodations on its website that groups consisting exclusively of young people are not admitted, this is allowed, as it is not a distinction on the basis of age as referred to in the WGBL (Equal Treatment Act).

Read the full ruling at https://www.mensenrechten.nl/nl/oordeel/2018-137