Opening Closed Doors: Can Hotels Do More to Fight Human Trafficking?
Photo Caption: Illustration by Sara Gelfgren.
Skift Take
Human trafficking touches every corner of the travel industry — especially hotels. And while the accommodations sector didn't create the problem, it does have an elevated responsibility to put an end to it. The question is: How effective have the industry's efforts been so far?
M.A.’s story is not unique, but that doesn’t make it any less horrifying. After leaving home to live with a friend in 2014, she faced being kicked out of her temporary residence. It was around this time, a complaint in a civil suit alleges, she met a person who began posting graphic images of her on the now-defunct classifieds website, backpage.com.
Facing violent threats from her trafficker, M.A. claims she was forced to sell sex for a period just shy of a year and a half. She was subject to visits by up to 10 johns per day. The victimization took place at multiple hotels in the Columbus, Ohio region — including properties branded by IHG, Wyndham, and Choice Hotels, which are all named as defendants in the pivotal civil case. She managed to escape in 2015, and her trafficker was convicted and sentenced to prison in 2017. Though she is an adult now, it has not been made public whether she was a minor at the time of the abuses.
“During the time period she
