“Right now I have very little body fat left. This will probably be my last goodbye“. Those were his words, in a video recorded on 10 July 2020, by John Shepherd. A former English teacher who was then 62 years old. 40 days earlier he had declared himself hunger strike for the strange lawsuit he has with the Marriott hotel chain. He blamed them and the Minor group for building a parking lot in Bangkok (Thailand) which ultimately caused him to lose his house. And he asked them a compensation of 3.5 million pounds.

The case was echoed by mainstream British media, which stressed Shepherd’s fragile health. Even the Bishop of London at the time, Sarah Mullally, urged mercy from the hotel chain after the case became public. “Given your current situation and its fragility, I am writing to urge you consider approaching John one more time. It would be tragic if he ended his life because he saw no other solution,” the bishop wrote to the network.

But that one it wasn’t his “last goodbye”., as advertised. The shepherd eventually abandoned the strike, but has returned to charge. And this time he had decided to do it from within. Last Thursday she put on a wig and booked a room at the NHow London hotel, a new hotel recently opened by Spanish chain NH in London. Since his enemies in the Minor are part of the NH stock holdings, Shepherd decides to start his new adventure in one of his rooms.

Announcement

This was how he could verify it in person Spanish Newspaper, who has contacted the hotel chain. From NH they have confirmed this and have issued a statement in which they disclose that “on the afternoon of 12 April 2023, the Nhow London Hotel became aware of a guest’s intention to initiate a hunger strike within this most recent guest room. Such action stemmed from a complaint filed over ten years ago with the St. Regis Hotel Bangkok, a Small Hotel property and managed by Marriott International, so the point was made then, at appropriate action through relevant legal channels“.

Hotel Minor’s position, according to its spokesperson, “remains the same in terms of the underlying issues; the health and well-being of our guests has always been of the utmost importance to us. Because of this, the local London authorities have been notified. The Nhow London management team is working closely with the authorities regarding guidance on this situation.”

The statement concluded by assuring that “Small Hotels and the Nhow London management team have expressed their concern for guest well-being and expect a positive outcome. Once inside, he announced to hotel staff that he was starting a new hunger strike there, which would not leave room until they arrived satisfy their claim and that he risked his life at the hands of the NHow workers”. A fashion similar to that of the first strike.

Hunger strike

The dispute between Shepherd and the hotel chain began in 2008, when the Briton was living in Bangkok, where he worked at Harrow International School in the Thai capital. There, in a condo, he has an apartment, in the same area where Minor International founded the St. Louis hotel. Regis, before handing control over to Starwood, the hotel operator that later merged with Marriott.

According to Shepherd, the job caused him a series of inconveniences. That’s why he started a protest campaign which consisted of sending letters to local newspapers denouncing it the work does not comply with the current planning regulations. He reported that an unspecified change in plans had resulted in a parking lot being placed near his apartment and there were problems with the sewer.

After sending the letters and publishing them, he was arrested by the Thai police. Authorities told him he was being investigated on defamation charges. Later, when Shephard was traveling abroad, some friends told him that there was an arrest warrant out for him. He decided not to return and later lost his apartment due to a dispute with the apartment management company.

Shepherd, who has always believed that the warrants for his arrest and seizure of his flat were part of a conspiracy against him, He started his first hunger strike in early June 2020. His case went viral in England and even the highest ecclesiastical circles spoke up. The professor then began uploading videos to his network, in which he assured that “if I were to die, possibly the first death due to a hunger strike in protest at corporate wrongdoing, Marriott would knowingly and viciously observe me and would allow me to die without intervening”.

Around that time, Mariott CEO Arne Sorenson met with him and asked for a resolution that was “fair for both parties”. But Shepherd insists the company abused him, a claim the hotel chain vehemently denies. A Marriott spokesperson told Time that Mr. all complaints should be handled by them”.

Shepherd ended his hunger strike after a few days and nothing was heard from the case until this week, where the former British professor decided to continue his crusade against this hotel chain, to go further in his protests and, now yes, attack hotels in Minor. At press time, Shepherd continued to rebel in one of the rooms and started a new strike That hunger, he assured, would be definitive this time.