Is it illegal for an unmarried couple (who have no plans of marriage whatsoever) to book a hotel room in India? If not, why do hotels make it hard to do so?

Quora:-Replied by Mayank Gaur

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CA, IIM-C Alumnus, Fraud Investigator, Rationalist, Not regular on Quora

1. No law requires you to be married to take a room on rent.

2. No law requires you to have plan of marriage to rent a room.

3. Relax

Hotels make it LOOK hard, it's called negotiation tactics, they charge you more looking at how naive and/or desperate you are.

Trust me when I say this, everybody on this planet knows what can/will happen when an unmarried couple rents a room, and the hotel people just misuse it, they might ask you to make a call to your parent (specially if you look too young for your age) or they can say you can have police issues etc. In legal terms it is called BLACKMAIL and it is a cognizable crime as per Sec 292A of IPC.

Solution:

1. If possible, book room online.

2. Act your age, it's not a crime to have sex with a consenting adult.

3. Befriend the staff.

And last but not the least 'use protection'.