There was no room at the luxury Hotel du Pont for homeless people at Christmas.
The hotel in Wilmington, Delaware, came under withering fire over its decision to cancel a booking made on behalf of homeless people by a local pastor.
Now, though, the hotel's managers have changed their minds and will welcome people who had been sleeping under a bridge.
Matt Senge of Road to Redemption Ministries had booked a two-bedroom suite at Wilmington landmark, the Hotel du Pont – which translates as 'Bridge Hotel' – for $639 for one night. His aim was to give two men, a woman, and her three children sleeping under a railway bridge a taste of luxury on Christmas Day.
He wrapped the confirmation e-mail in a red bow and delivered it to them. Senge told the WDEL radio station: "We were going to buy hygiene products; we were going to put gift baskets in their room, and we were going to fill it with food, and give them the opportunity to have a nice shower and have a nice safe place to sleep and wake up in the morning, maybe, with a different attitude."
However, three hours before check-in time a member of staff at the hotel rang to cancel the reservation. According to Senge, "He said verbatim, 'What if one of those people rapes or robs one of my guests?' So I guess you have to be homeless to rape or rob somebody. I was devastated."
Brendan McEvoy, a spokesman for DuPont, told WDEL the reservation was cancelled because the homeless people would not have proper photo identification at check-in. "We talked, you know, internally with our staff here, and again, I think all of us were purely focused on the safety of our hotel guests, and that was why the decision was made."
Now, after a storm of protest, the decision has been reversed – and another local hotel has also stepped in with an offer of accommodation. Yesterday officials from the Hotel du Pont said they had changed their minds, while the Hilton Wilmington Christiana said it would provide 10 rooms for homeless people for a night as well.
Senge's wife Deb Bennett told DelawareOnline that they believed the Hotel du Pont's change of heart may have been motivated by negative publicity.
"I have real mixed feelings about it," she said.
"We have invited Mr Senge's guests to the hotel, as early as this weekend," Lisa Bolten, director of DuPont Hospitality, said in a statement released yesterday evening. "If the guests do not have IDs, we will work with them to address that."
Bennett herself spent time as a homeless person. Senge has a chequered past: according to the Tampa Bay Times, he was handed a 46-month prison sentence after being convicted of theft by deception for bilking a victim out of cash for a car that didn't belong to him. He served a little less than half of his sentence before his release. He has a total of three fraud convictions.
