isabellaava

I am sick of the hotel establishments blaming the bed bug infestations on the international traveller.
If a property is diligent they will become aware of a problem and treat it aggresively.
Concealing the problem and letting guests leave without educating them on steps that need to be taken to prevent transporting them elsewhere is a huge mistake.
Somehow the establishments are trying to shirk the responsibility.
They need to employ adequate pest control programs. They are in the hopitality business! They provide a service to paying customers, and the environment is such that pest management has become a lot more expensive. Yes the bottom line is less profit.
The U.S is surely going to learn an expensive lesson in the hotel industry. While we can all accept an unforeseen pest incident we cannot accept negligence and wilful disregard in a long standing infestation. These bugs don't take over in one day.
A $20 million lawsuit was filed in New York yesterday due to 500 bed bug bites at a hotel.
Hotels cannot be in denial...honesty is the best policy... guests cannot sue for wilful negligence if the property maintains stringent pest control program and is completely honest with guests.
Not hard to guess! My family were victims of bed bugs at hotel.. allergic reaction, unknowingly transported them home, If we had been given honest factual information at the time it would have prevented the ongoing nightmare.

fuzzylogic

A $20 million lawsuit - seriously?? Could you enlighten us on the facts? Which hotels - any really well known names up there?

Look nobody likes them - but how could the damage they do possibly justify a 20M claim. Only in America I guess.

I have heard that there is a plague at the moment - just so funny to find a post on Fodors about it.

pat_woolford

Yes. I read that too about the $20 mill lawsuit, but as a very brief news item. Would appreciate more details, ie, did one person suffer 500 bites in one night?? Just curious.

AndrewDavid

well at least those bed bugs are not living at Lilybank B&B!

A/D

Kiwi_acct

Hi there

Here is a link to the story in the SMH. I too saw this last week and it sounded disgusting. The photo with this story conforms it as such.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/unusual-t...701551382.html

It say $27 million on this story as it has been translated into AUD.

I suppose you have to start high to negotaite down to what will be settled I guess.

weasel

Hi living in Canada we often hear of excessive legal settlements in the U.S. Unfortunately we are getting a little lawsuit happy here as well. I can understand someone wanting compensation but really ? 20 million dollars. I can imagine what this will do to the price of rooms now that hotels in the U.S. will now have to include bedbug insurance. And we know those costs will all be passed on to the consumer.

lizF

Where are these hotels - for a round trip flight and a few bites I would be happy for half of that $25 Million - a third - one tenth even, well I would just settle for several hundred thousand !