The travel solutions platform Booking.com on Tuesday said it had suspended a hotel in Germany where a staffer earlier this week wrote to prospective guests from Israel that Jews “are not allowed” at the establishment.
The incident involving Hotel zum Hirschen near Munich prompted a condemnation from Talya Lador, the consul general of Israel in Bavaria, who wrote about it on X: “Is this the 1930s?”
Major German publications have covered the story. German authorities opened an investigation for discrimination against the owners, according to the Die Welt newspaper.
— Tobias Huch (@TobiasHuch) June 2, 2026
The owners of the hotel, the Sperl-Vogl family, told Die Welt on Wednesday that the reply was not intended to be taken seriously, but was made on Booking.com when the staffer who wrote it believed he was dealing with scammers or an automated script that had been targeting the hotel for weeks with fake bookings.
Journalist Tobias Huch, who also spoke with the owners, wrote on X that they told him that the hotel had been struggling for weeks with fraudulent inquiries related to Booking.com. The staff believed the inquiry of the Israeli tourists a likely scam, so the staffer replied dismissively.
Booking.com times the responsiveness of businesses listed on it to incoming inquiries, affecting their ranking on the website.
Following a complaint by the tourists to Bavarian authorities, the family that runs the 40-room hotel, which has mostly local guests, wrote the State Chancellery a letter saying: “It was definitely wrong of us to respond in this way in the chat. However, it is extremely important to us that you understand that this statement was not made with regard to people of Jewish faith, but out of frustration with the numerous fake bookings” under the assumption that “this was a further fake booking.”
