Travel can be tough for unmarried couples looking for a bit of privacy in India.
Accommodations routinely decline to let this growing segment of the population share rooms — especially those looking to book a hotel in the city where they already reside.
Which is why a change to a budget hospitality booking platform’s policy in a small Indian city has drawn much attention both in and outside the country.
It all started in early January, when OYO Rooms issued “new check-in directives” for its partner accommodations in the northwestern city of Meerut, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Delhi, stating that hotels there could deny bookings from unmarried couples at their discretion.
The move drew swift criticism online, as the brand has long presented itself as a safe haven for unmarried couples.
“When it launched that was their whole tagline, ‘no questions asked,’ to the point that everyone knows that that’s what OYO is for: it’s not just a hotel chain but a hotel for couples looking for privacy,” a 25-year-old media professional who has booked with OYO in Delhi told CNN on the condition of anonymity.
Unlike in many countries, where it’s common for unmarried couples to stay in a room together, Indian customs still heavily frown upon the practice.
OYO, which launched in 2012, was one of the first platforms to offer a solution for this growing group of travelers, tagging hotels as “couple friendly” on its app and website. Other start-ups such as Stay Uncle, Brevistay and Nestaway have since followed in OYO’s footsteps and provide rooms by the hour and rental properties that assure safe access for unmarried couples.
Many view OYO’s u-turn, however small, as symbolic of the continuous clash between traditional Indian values and an evolving, modern society.
“Commonly we think of privacy as the right to be let alone or without interference or intervention but in the Indian cultural context, that actually goes against our cultural orientation, which is predominantly collectivist,” said Shagufa Kapadia, a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and director of the Women’s Studies Research Center at India’s Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.
OYO said that its decision, which is specific to Meerut, was a response to “feedback that OYO has received in the past from civil society groups” in the area.
“While we respect individual freedoms and personal liberty, we also recognize our responsibility to listen to and work with civil society groups in the micro markets we operate in,” Pawas Sharma, OYO’s North India region head, said in a statement announcing the policy change.
The family versus the couple
An OYO ad released in 2024 plays on the company’s existing reputation as a platform that offers rooms to unmarried couples looking for privacy and intimacy.
In the commercial, a married couple is seen telling their parents that they have booked an OYO room and that their family should accompany them to “have fun together,” which elicits shocked looks around the dinner table.
The ad then cuts to the family at an OYO hotel with a voice-over: “This is not that OYO hotel.” Many social media users considered the video, along with the recent move in Meerut, as attempts by OYO to rebrand itself as family-friendly.
According to Kapadia, the family unit has always been prioritized over the couple, and even after marriage the privacy granted to couples is “conditional.”
OYO’s recent decision to allow hotels to turn away unmarried couples in Meerut can be seen as a way of appeasing the society in which they are operating, she added.
Kapadia noted that religious and right-wing groups often harass establishments for doing things deemed harmful to Indian society, such as providing rooms to unmarried couples in smaller cities like Meerut, which is located in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).
UP is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and is headed by Chief Minister Ajay Singh Bisht, who goes by the name Yogi Adityanth and routinely dresses in a saffron garment similar to those worn by Hindu saints.
“Beyond civil society groups now it’s also the state which is interfering in private life, dawning a paternal character in an already patriarchal society that increasingly infantilizes its young people, especially women, as a means of control,” Kapadia said.
CNN has contacted the district administration in Meerut for a response.
Meanwhile, managers of the Meerut hotels impacted by the new check-in directives appear to have mixed views.
“I have nothing to say about whether such a policy is good or bad. The only thing is that we don’t want any fingers pointed at us, we don’t want any organizations or community groups to come knocking at our doors asking why we are letting such couples in,” said the manager of one of 21 hotels listed on OYO in the city, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity.
Concern for LGBT Indians
The owner of another hotel in Meerut, who did not wish to be named, told CNN that it was up to him who he would let stay at his hotel and unmarried couples were not welcome.
“Absolutely not. We don’t allow it. We don’t want anyone using it as a shady affair. That is wrong,” he said.
“It’s my hotel. I have the right to choose who I let in. It doesn’t matter if they have a booking on OYO or any other travel website, these are my values.”
Though the owner did clarify that unmarried out-of-town couples might be able to stay there in “rare” cases, he wouldn’t tolerate locals due to the assumption that any unmarried couple would be using a hotel to have sex.
That’s disappointing news for same-sex couples, who cannot legally marry in India.
Even being able to get a hotel room doesn’t mean a same-sex couple can sleep easy.
The 25-year-old from Delhi identifies as a bisexual woman. She says that even at OYO hotels, it’s impossible to avoid judging eyes. During a recent stay, she says, “my date looked like a tomboy so even though we were two girls it was kind of obvious and you could see they (hotel staff) had a problem with it.
“There was a stain on the bed so we complained and the staff member just said ‘So what? You just have to sit, right? There’s a couch; you can sit there,’” she added.
If hotels listed on the OYO platform are free to deny accommodation to unmarried couples in a smaller city like Meerut, people looking for privacy will have nowhere left to go, she added.
“I live with my family. I can’t just bring someone over. In India it’s very common for people, especially women, to continue living with their families until you get married,” she said. While in Delhi there may be some alternatives, she believes that in cities like Meerut there are none.
However, one Meerut hotel owner told CNN that despite the new policy, his rooms would remain accessible to all couples.
“Til there are high court orders saying that, you can’t take action against any couple so long as they are adults, then there cannot be such a policy, there’s nothing OYO can do about it,” said Mukesh Gupta, owner of Hotel O Subhadra Residency, one of the top-rated OYO hotels in the city. His hotel was still tagged as “couple friendly” on the app and website.
This issue is unlikely to go away. As the country modernizes, it’s more common for couples to live together before marriage or want to get to know each other away from the prying eyes of their families.
“In the beginning of our relationship, OYO was a big help to us because I don’t know how we would have managed it at that time,” said Terrance, 28, who did not wish to use his last name, about his relationship with his female partner.
Though the couple now resides together, they lived with family for much of their seven-year relationship.
Terrance says OYO’s recent moves make him worried for the safety of other young couples in similar situations.
“If they don’t have an option sometimes it can end in not such a good way, they might look for some shady place and it might end badly,” he said.
Kapadia, the professor, agreed that couples will always find ways to be together but a lack of safe spaces spells disaster, especially for women who have the false burden of carrying the family’s honor.
“In India, parks are a space that a lot of couples use for intimacy and everyone knows about it and it’s okay to an extent, but cops or park watchmen often take that opportunity to harass young couples as they know that they’re probably together without their parents’ knowledge,” she said.
The rights of the unwed
As Gupta pointed out, in India there are no laws against unmarried couples staying together at hotels, in their own cities or elsewhere. Despite this, hotel owners continue to deny them rooms, in several cases with the support of police or government authorities.
In 2015, police raided several hotels and lodges near Mumbai, rounding up dozens of couples. In that case, the Bombay High Court said that “the action of the police is in clear violation of right of privacy which has been protected by the Constitution of India and it is a facet of right to life which is guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”
In 2019, hearing a case of a similar nature a high court in Madras also held that “there are no laws or regulations forbearing unmarried persons of opposite sex to occupy hotel rooms, as guests.”
When OYO was contacted for further clarification on their new policy in Meerut, they declined to comment.
Aside from the impact on Indians’ right to privacy, Kapadia is also concerned about the long-term implications on tourism in the country.
“In many countries, couples choose to spend their lives together without marriage, so if hotel owners start denying them rooms it would not remain as appealing a destination,” she said.
However, hotel owner Gupta said that the accommodations that chose to deny couples were likely more concerned with those who had local IDs.
Following the move from OYO, Tejas Gowda, a member of a militant Hindu nationalist group called Bajrang Dal, told reporters last week he had appealed to the police commissioner and administration in Bengaluru, India’s tech hub, to implement a similar “law” banning unmarried couples from sharing hotel rooms.
“We should respect the tradition of our country,” he said. “By allowing unmarried couples inside the rooms there are many illegal activities happening inside the state as well as the country.”
These are the very demands that scare the 25-year-old.
“According to the Constitution we do have the right to privacy,” she said. “Why are we shutting every damn door that these people can go to. Why is it anyone else’s decision what people do in the privacy of a hotel room?”
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
