A hotel in Australia has been criticised for “period shaming” after it shared pictures of blood-stained sheets and towels on social media along with the hashtag “disgusting” and the caption “it must be Shark Week”.
The Quest Palmerston in the Northern Territory posted four photos on Facebook last week, writing: “What an interesting week…it must be Shark Week.
“#blood #cleaning #housekeepers #disgusting.”
A hotel employee has since been suspended and the company forced to apologise after huge backlash led by charity Share the Dignity.
The women’s advocacy group uploaded a screenshot of the original post, with the caption: “There are just no words Quest Palmerston.
“Shaming a woman for getting her period and posting pics on social media.
“The post has been taken down now, but in this day and age this is poor taste.”
The term “shark week” is a colloquialism for the week a woman is on her period.
The brand said in a statement: “The unauthorised post by a Quest Palmerston employee was deeply upsetting and we understand the strong community reaction it provoked.
“It goes against the brand values of Quest Apartment Hotels and doesn’t adhere to the franchisor’s current social media guidelines.
“The employee responsible for the post has been suspended and will now be subject to an official internal investigation.”
Quest also apologised in another Facebook post, saying: “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.”
However, critics were unappeased, with nearly 200 largely negative comments left beneath the apology.
“The question that still needs answering is why is there such a culture in your organisation that permits the degrading of your paid customers,” said Doni Baz.
“Is there NO level of respect? How did an employee find it acceptable to post in the first place? Do I conclude that management workplace ethics are appalling and it’s just the norm over there?”
Mocha Fields added: “This is your idea of an apology? Your staff shamed a woman for something she’s no control over and yet nowhere in your ‘apology’ do you actually acknowledge how outdated period shaming is or the steps you’ll be taking to ensure this never happens at your hotel again.”
The Quest Palmerston has now disabled reviews on its Facebook page.
