PL Hotel Minimum Age - Why, and Isn't it Illegal?

[djk7]

Originally Posted by crhptic

This seems to imply you may still be at the mercy of the hotel's rules, even if Priceline allows you to book?

I would expect that you would always be at the mercy of the hotel's rules, not only for age, but check in time, check out time, not bringing glass into the pool area, etc.

To the OP, it seems to boil down to the fact that some hotels have 21 yo requirement, so PL goes with the least common denominator, over 21, since there would be no way to cleanly handle various age limits.

[BigFlyer]

I understand why Priceline does it, but, just because it has a common sense reason, does not mean it is legal.

I am in California, where I believe that state anti-discrimination statutes would not allow discrimination against 18-21 year olds. There are specific statutes allowing age discrimination in some instances - senior housing and car rental come to mind, which the courts have said are exceptions to the general "no discrimination" rule. But, as far as I know, there is no statutory exemption in California that allows hotels to discriminate based on age.

If discrimination by hotels is illegal, then Priceline can't legally aid hotels in discriminating (and I suppose in some cases Priceline is causing discrimination where the hotel itself has an 18 minimum age.).

Originally Posted by djk7

To the OP, it seems to boil down to the fact that some hotels have 21 yo requirement, so PL goes with the least common denominator, over 21, since there would be no way to cleanly handle various age limits.

[JBLUA320]

I was staying at a 21 proprety (2* La Quinta) and bid on priceline.co.uk because back then everywhere the terms said 18, and wasn't confronted. But I imagine there are a few properties that do care that their guests are 21. So far, I've been lucky and haven't had an issue.