In June 2026, social media users claimed that a hotel in Germany refused a booking from Israeli guests because they were Jewish.
One version of the claim, shared on Instagram, showed what appeared to be a Booking.com message from Hotel Zum Hirschen in Lam, Bavaria, saying: "Sorry, there are no Jews allowed in our hotel."
Versions of the claim spread on Instagram, Facebook and X, where users shared screenshots of the alleged Booking.com message.
The claim was true. Israeli outlet Ynet reported that Israeli travelers trying to book a room at Hotel Zum Hirschen through Booking.com received the message. German outlet WELT, citing German news agency dpa, also reported that the hotel sent it in response to a booking inquiry from Israel.
The hotel later apologized and said the message was not meant as a statement against Jewish people, but rather was sent after it mistakenly believed the inquiry was fake. However, the hotel acknowledged that the response was unacceptable.
Snopes contacted Hotel Zum Hirschen to independently verify that reporting and respond to claims in this report. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Where the claim came from
The claim circulated after Talya Lador-Fresher, Israel's consul general for southern Germany, posted about the incident on X on June 2, 2026. In German, Lador-Fresher wrote: "Are we back in the 1930s?" and shared the alleged hotel response.
Lador-Fresher also said she was glad Booking.com had removed the hotel from its website. Ynet likewise reported that after the Israeli travelers filed a complaint with Booking.com and contacted Israel's Consulate General in Munich, the hotel was removed from the platform.
Ynet identified the hotel as Hotel Zum Hirschen, near Lam, in Bavaria, close to Germany's border with the Czech Republic. According to Ynet, the Israeli travelers filed a complaint with Booking.com and contacted the Israeli Consulate in Munich after receiving the message.
Responding to Snopes' inquiry on the incident via email, the Israeli Consulate in Munich said the Israeli travelers indeed contacted the consulate and that the matter was referred to Bavarian authorities. Also, according to the consulate, the hotel initially denied sending the message before acknowledging one of its employee sent it. (We have not independently verified that accusation.)
Hotel apologized
WELT, citing the German news agency dpa, reported that Hotel Zum Hirschen later apologized to the guest by email. According to that report, the hotel's junior manager, Andreas Vogl, said the message did not reflect the hotel's worldview.
The hotel said it had repeatedly dealt with fake bookings and phishing attempts through a major booking platform and had mistakenly believed the inquiry from Israel was fake. In its apology, the hotel reportedly said the message had been written out of frustration over alleged fake bookings, not because of the guest's Jewish faith.
The hotel nevertheless acknowledged that the response was unacceptable and should not have happened in a professional business. It also reportedly invited the affected guest and the guest's family to stay for one week free of charge "to prove" that the hotel did not discriminate against people.
Ynet reported that the hotel responded to its inquiry by saying: "We are not antisemitic, and not racist, this is not who we are. It was a misunderstanding and we apologize."
The hotel disputed that the message reflected an actual policy against Jewish guests, but its explanation did not change the fact that the message was sent.
Booking.com removed hotel from its platform
Lador-Fresher said on X that she was glad Booking.com had removed the hotel from its website. Ynet also reported that Booking.com removed the hotel from its reservations platform after the travelers filed a complaint, and that rooms could no longer be booked there through the site.
In a statement to Snopes, Booking.com said: "Our mission at Booking.com is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world - we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. In the rare event that we are alerted to discriminatory behavior from a property, we investigate immediately and will remove the listing from our platform, just as we have done in this instance."
Snopes searched Booking.com and, as of this writing, Hotel Zum Hirschen in Lam did not appear in search results on the platform.
Bavarian authorities were asked to review the incident
Ynet reported that the matter was referred to Bavarian authorities, including the Bavarian Justice Ministry official responsible for combating antisemitism, to examine whether there were grounds for legal action.
Responding to Snopes' inquiry to independently confirm that reporting, Andreas Franck, Bavaria's central antisemitism commissioner for the justice system, said via email the office has indeed opened criminal investigations into the incident. As of this writing, the investigations are ongoing.
In a June 3, 2026, press release, Bavarian State Government Commissioner for Jewish Life and Against Antisemitism Ludwig Spaenle described the hotel's statement as "clearly antisemitic" and stressed the importance of taking action against it.
Separately, WELT, citing dpa, reported that the Central Council of Jews in Germany called for a legal review of the incident. Josef Schuster, the council's president, told dpa that the statement "no Jews allowed" could not be justified, regardless of attempts to contextualize it, and said he expected possible criminal consequences to be examined.
Similar hotel incidents
This was not the first time Snopes covered claims involving hotels and Jewish or Israeli travelers. In April 2026, we investigated a claim that a hotel in Kyrgyzstan displayed a sign saying "Jews and animals not allowed," and found that the sign was real, though the hotel's owner said it was posted by an employee without authorization. In 2017, Snopes also covered a Swiss hotel that posted signs singling out Jewish guests, including one instructing Jewish guests to shower before using the swimming pool.