Couple Furious After Being Denied a Hotel Room for Using a Puerto Rican ID

A couple were denied a Sacramento County hotel room after the owner said their Puerto Rican ID was not a valid form of United States identification. Raul Villanueva presented his ID when asked to the desk clerk working at the Rancho Cordova Motel 6 when visiting the California county for his niece’s wedding.

“I said, ‘This is a license from the United States, that’s Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is the United States.’ She said, ‘No, it isn’t,’” Villanueva recalled.

The clerk, after rejecting the license, asked for passports from Villanueva and his wife. 

 “She wouldn’t take the passports after all," Villanueva said. "When I brought them she said, ‘No, I won’t take it. I won’t take that.' So I said, ‘OK, then give me my money back.’”

The couple ended up staying at a relative’s house, but the incident left them hurt by the worker’s obvious prejudice. They, called Motel 6’s corporate office and a representative apologized for the incident and confirmed that Puerto Rican license is an accepted form of ID.

They still, though, haven’t received their money back.