An Australian hotel has been accused of publicly 'period-shaming' a female guest who was staying one of their rooms last week. Photo / Quest Palmerston / Facebook
An Australian hotel has been accused of publicly 'period-shaming' a female guest who was staying one of their rooms last week. Photo / Quest Palmerston / Facebook
An Australian hotel has been accused of publicly "period-shaming" a female guest who stayed in one of their rooms last week.
On Friday the Quest Palmerston in Darwin, Australia took to Facebook and posted a series of images showing bloodied white towels and bed sheets.
In its post it made fun of the woman, labelling her disgusting and using the term "shark week", a euphemism for a woman's menstruation cycle.
"What an interesting week.... It must be Shark Week," the hotel posted.
It also included the hashtags "blood, shark attack, shark, cleaning, housekeepers, and disgusting".
The hotel's post has since been removed, but that hasn't stopped an influx of negative reviews calling on the establishment to fire the person responsible and make wholesale changes to their systems.
"Public shaming of female guests for having a period is unacceptable. I dread to think what hideous management culture makes it even possible. A public apology is not enough - systemic change is required," one person wrote.
Another wrote: "The embarrassment of the poor woman who experienced seeing something so private on social media is absolutely disgusting on your part!
"Whoever was responsible for this should be fired! If not then shut your business down, your business is clearly not in it for the customer!"
Quest Palmerston have been slammed after they period-shamed a woman who was staying in one of their rooms. Photo / Quest Palmerston / Facebook
Others suggested the hotel needs to go one step further and make a sizeable donation to a charity that works to help address period poverty.
One woman called hotel staff "childish, disrespectful, degrading" and "atrocious".
"Clearly whoever runs this page (probably management) is childish, disrespectful, degrading, and all around sick. Never in my life have I seen a post so degrading from a business. Never did I think I would see the day where hotel staff would mock a guest for having their PERIOD. Quest Palmerston staff are atrocious and I will NEVER recommend this place to anyone."
The hotel has since apologised saying it has addressed the issue with the staff member responsible.
"We are deeply apologetic to all for the recent post and comment on the Quest Palmerston Facebook page that has been removed, this is not in line with our standards or the Quest Brand. We have addressed the post with staff responsible," it said in a statement.
However, its response has been met with criticism after the company copied and pasted the same apology on every bit of feedback, including positive reviews dating back as early as 2016.
One woman said the company's response doesn't address the core of the issue.
"You really need to reconsider your social media strategy here. Pasting the same robotic response to every comment/review, that doesn't really address the core of the issue is doing you no favours," she explained.
"It sends a message that you don't care enough even to respond specifically to the concerns."
