The Queen's speech and tourism

On the face of it, the Queen’s speech held little that will impact upon the accommodation sector – it is hard to see relevance of the Child Poverty Bill or the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill to running a B&B (and we would certainly hope that no accommodation provider is in contravention of the Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill).

However there is one Bill included in the Queen’s speech which has the potential to cause a significant impact on the sector – the Equalities Bill. For the most part this Bill simply amalgamates and consolidates a wide range of existing Acts that deal with the non-discriminatory treatment of sectors of society. This includes the prevention of discrimination on the grounds of disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation and race.

Where the Bill has the potential to impact on the accommodation sector is in its proposals to ban age discrimination in the provision of products and services. As the Bill stands, it would prevent accommodation providers refusing to take bookings on the basis of the customer’s age – or applying different terms and conditions to the booking on the basis of age. This would make it very difficult for owners to refuse bookings for stag or hen parties, birthday or graduation celebrations or other age-related groups.

While it is possible that there will not be enough parliamentary time to pass the Bill before the election, businesses are advised to review their booking conditions to ensure that they do not discriminate on the basis of age (even if that discrimination is implied rather than overt) so that they are compliant should the Bill be passed in its present form.