George Clooney Calls for Boycott of Brunei-Owned Hotels

Main Photo: Hunky George!

Date: April 2019

Location: Global

Name: Dorchester Hotel Collection

Who and What: Hollywood actor George Clooney is calling for a boycott of nine luxury hotels with links to Brunei after the country warned that it was to make gay sex and adultery punishable by death.

Clooney, married to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, said anyone opposing the measures, due to come into force next month, should boycott nine hotels in the Dorchester Group which are owned by the Brunei Investment Agency.

The hotels are The Dorchester and 45 Park Lane in London, Coworth Park in Ascot, The Beverly Hills Hotel in Hollywood, the Hotel Bel-Air in LA, Le Meurice and Hotel Plaza Athenee in Paris, the Hotel Eden in Rome and the Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan, with Dubai opening 2020.

In a column for entertainment website Deadline, Clooney admitted he has stayed at the hotels in the past, not realising their connection to the nation.

“They’re nice hotels,” he said. “The people who work there are kind and helpful and have no part in the ownership of these properties.

“But let’s be clear, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery.”

He said the two US hotels in the group were boycotted a few years ago for Brunei’s treatment of the gay community.

“It was effective to a point. We cancelled a big fundraiser for the Motion Picture Retirement Home that we’d hosted at the Beverly Hills Hotel for years. Lots of individuals and companies did the same. But like all good intentions when the white heat of outrage moves on to the hundred other reasons to be outraged, the focus dies down and slowly these hotels get back to the business of business. And the Brunei Investment Agency counts on that.”

BBC world affairs editor John Simpson also confirmed that he wouldn’t be visiting hotels owned by the Brunei group.

THPT Comment: Hmmmm should politics enter the hotel world in this way? We have recently written about Donald Trump and his connection to hotels (not in a good way!). Maybe ask the folks at DC for their point of view, which we did….

Dorchester Collection’s Code emphasises equality, respect and integrity in all areas of our operation, and strongly values people and cultural diversity amongst our guests and employees. Inclusion and diversity remain core beliefs as we do not tolerate any form of discrimination.

So there’s one’s dilemma – the company, as you would expect, values and provides an impeccable code in this area, but the boss – The Sultan of Brunei in this case runs a country that doesn’t, according to some/many of The Dorchester Collection’s customers….

First Seen: TravelMole

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