This was the first time anything like this has happened to me in 20 years of travel, and I'd like input from Fodor users. We stayed in a highly recommended 2star hotel in Paris. It was what I expected from a two star hotel and loved the location. I changed my trip plans when this hotel had only 4 nights available instead of 5. All was well until checkout.

My friend had been ironing and the travel iron fell over, leaving a scorch mark on the carpet. Nothing was said for three days until checkout and then the son/manger and owner/father (who only spoke French) were there for our checkout along with the normal staff we had seen during our stay.

The manager met us at the desk and announced we had damaged the carpet and proposed that he write an invoice that I take back to the states with me to submit on my travel insurance or my insurance at home for replacement of the carpet in the room. I was shocked. My response was a firm "no". Father and son were upset when my answer was no. They conferred in French and then the son went on and on about how nice this family run hotel is and they are used to guests that take care of the rooms. I was offended, but tried to stay calm.

He went on and on about how expensive it would be to replace the carpet and the busines they would lose during the installation and I suppose the build-up was more from French culture. I repeatedly asked "how much" and he continued on with how much they are losing as a small family owned business. I clarified that it was a BUSINESS. He told me that ironing in the room was "against the rules" but they usually don't say anything because their guests usually take care of the rooms. Later, he showed me a laminated card in French, German and English and planned to show me the no-ironing rule and was very embarrassed as his finger scrolled down the list and he read aloud the rules NOT to be able to find anything on the card about no ironing. (He brought this card of rules out of the back office to show me). In embarrassment, he pointed out "customers responsible for damage" line and I asked again "How much".

The full breakfast room (of Americans) were able to hear the exchange, and I could tell by the looks on their faces, they were as shocked as I. I have been in many a hotel room with iron marks on the carpet and it never occured to me that the hotel would ask the guest to pay for a full or partial replacement of the carpet. This guy's story was that the scorch mark was so offensive that they would not be able to rent the room again until new carpet was installed. The silent reactions by the other guests must have been what made father and son shift their approach.

After several minutes of no progress and escalation on both sides, I backed out of the conversation. (The son was in the midst of telling me that he was an honorable man and I may not know what honor is but he did). My friend stepped in and asked "How much". He tried to start up the same story again and was continually asked "How much". Eventually he offered up $100 Euro (he had laughed at my proposal of $50 Euro a few minutes earlier). We were given a receipt that included a line item for "damage to carpet" for 5o Euro.

Evidently the owners/managers had been fuming about the scorch for three days and didn't say anything until check-out - we were blindsided by their approach. I tried not to fume for the next three days of my long-anticipated vacation.

I would much appreciate any input from others. Nothing like this has ever happened to me and I just want to know if it is usual/ normal and what/how others would have responded.

We were careful not to present ourselves as "ugly Americans" throughout the trip and this was the only negative experience in a fabulous 10 day trip through Paris, Provence and Cannes.

Just saw my typo. The receipt was "damage to carpet" at $100 Euro.

That sounds pretty horrible. If you had charged the expense, I wonder if you could now call the credit card company to dispute the charge? And how could they have proved that you damaged the carpet? Do they photograph each room after each guest's departure?

Just how bad was the damage?

Hi gracie,

>My friend had been ironing and the travel iron fell over, leaving a scorch mark on the carpet. <

I don't understand why you are upset that the hotel wanted you to pay for the damage.

If you had left a scratch on a rental car you would have been charged.

If you had broken a piece of pottery the shop would have charged you for it.

Just how long did that travel iron sit on the carpet in order to leave a scorch mark.

I agree with Ira. The owner seemed excessive in his dealings with you, but if you caused damage to his room, you should be responsible for it.

gracie, you asked for input...

Perhaps, had you volunteered with this information when the accident happened, you would have been spared the embarrassment and the confrontation. Would I have done that? Probably not.

BTW, were you planning to pay the bill and quickly leave, thereby getting away with it? Would you not have had pangs of guilt? I would have.

I was not upset that the hotel wanted to charge for damage to the carpet (although I was suprised). I was upset that they he wanted me to pay for an entire room of carpet, that was definetely not new carpet by any stretch of the imagination.

I admitted that there was a scorch mark on the carpet left by a travel iron and offered to pay 50 Euros for the damage. That offer was laughed off and then the escalation began.

The scorch mark was made by a travel iron that fell over as the article of clothing was being adjusted. In 20 years of business and lesiure travel, I have seen many similar iron marks on hotel room carpets. My question to others on the board is basically "has anyone ever had a similar situation and/or know of anyone that has been asked to replace a full room of carpet for a scorch mark left by a travel iron"

Well, whether the charge seems reasonable depends on how bad the damage was, no? If you had broken a glass in a restaurant, would the restaurant make you pay? I think that there would be many cases in which the restaurant wouldn't care.

This isn't quite the same thing, but once I spilled a glass of water on someone dining next to me. I offered to pay for dry-cleaning costs, and the person shrugged and said "It's only water; it will dry out."

I don't agree that gracieb is necessarily expected to pay, or to pay 100 Euros. Maybe she could have gone out to buy a new carpet for less than 100 Euros.

Hi gracieb, how big was the scorch mark? An inch by an inch? Five inches by five inches? And how big was the carpet that you were asked to replace?

Tuck,
Thanks for your input. As we arrived back to the hotel the night before our departure, we were asked when we were leaving the next day. We responded that we were going to go out to buy last minute gifts at 9 and would return to check out and take a cab to the Gare at 10. In retrospect, it was an unusual question but I thought they had incoming guests arriving early. Now, I know they wanted to know the time so the manager and owner could be there. We were not by any stretch of the imagination trying to slip out of the room or any responsibility.

Early in the conversation I offered to pay $50 Euros for the scorch mark. I was not happy with his proposal for me to take an invoice back home for replacement of the carpet of the whole room. A compromise of sorts was reached at 100 Euros, but I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

Thanks for your input too, Ira. Fortuntely, in renting rental cars for business almost every week for many years I've never been charged for a scratch. I've never broken anything in a shop so I've never faced that either. I'm a member of every hotel frequent stay program and am at the highest level of my favorite group of hotels. I wanted to stay in a French hotel in Paris to experience more of a French environment rather than an American room and ambiance.

I'd have to think that if I damaged something, I'd feel obligated to cover the costs to make it right.

The carpet may have not been new, but the one that has to replace it will be and will cost accordingly. I have no idea how much a room of replacement carpet and installation would cost there. It's not the easiest thing to "fix" a carpet unless you have spare sections of it, so replacement may be the only way. If he cares about the reputation of his business, it may be important to him to not present another scarred or stained room to the next guest. I'd rent from a businessman that felt this way.

Not that his treatment was called for at all, but I wonder if he didn't feel he needed to make his case, after getting back such a firm "no", and got carried away.

Ah Gracie, you should have 'fessed up right away. You burnt it, you should have notified the front desk and offered to pay damages at that point in time. Since you said nothing the staff no doubt assumed you were planning on ingnoring the damage, and thus they called in the owners. If the staff had not called in the owners and you had gone away, the owners would have blamed the staff, perhaps firing them. Really, you should have offered to pay the day it happened. I bet in that case everything would have been different.

111op -
The scorch was the size of the face of the travel iron. The manager said the room was 16 square meters. To visulize the room, there was about a foot exposed carpeting around a double bed (and the scorch on one side of the bed). The room also had a little section with a twin bed against a wall and about a foot of exposed carpeting on one side of the bed. It was a typical small Parisian hotel room.

When I backed out of the conversation when he was very, very upset with me he shared with my friend the dimensions. So, later in the conversation we found out we were talking about 16 sq metres of carpeting at 19 Euros per metre. He was also talking about installation charges and loss of use of the room. So, in the end the carpeting would be $304 plus installation plus $130 Euro/ night for loss of use. When he proposed an invoice to submit for insurance my $500 deductible was bouncing around in my head but I had more concerns about leaving something open-ended that I would have to deal with in France from the US.

The 100 Euro compromise was much closer to my original 50 Euro offer than his original offer of a full replacement of the room carpeting. The interchange was more disturbing to me than the outcome.

You are absolutely right Curt. Things would have been different if we had handled it that way. That's why I posted this on the message board. I wanted to find out how others would have dealt with this situation.

"Nothing like this has ever happened...how others would have responded".

Would you have expected to pay for an iron scorch mark and if so how much? I suppose prior to this experience I just considered those kinds of marks normal wear and tear on hotel room carpets. You can imagine how differently I looked at bleach, cigartte burns and other marks in the hotel rooms for the remainder of the trip.

The input of you and the others in very helpful in my processing what happened. Thank you.

Thanks, gracie. I'm sympathetic, but it looks like I'm in the minority here.

Well, you know, honestly, I'm not the sort to stir trouble either. And while I was thinking about your situation, I was thinking about another situation, which is not quite the same thing. Let's say the hotel had failed to provide certain basic amenities as advertised (this happens pretty frequently too -- for example, there was a thread yesterday about a hotel in Partenkirchen that didn't have the advertised amenities). Would the guest have been entitled to some compensation? In many cases, the hotel wouldn't bother compensating the guest at all. Is that right?

Personally I stayed in a hotel in Athens where I walked into a leaking toilet the first night I was there. I didn't ask for any compensation, but you'd have think that a working toilet is a pretty basic necessity (we're not talking a hair dryer here). I was moved to a different room late next morning but I had to call a few times in the morning. I didn't make a fuss.

Just what's right? I find it pretty interesting that people's gut reaction here is more sympathetic towards the hotel owners. I happen to disagree.

Older carpet is a difficult item to "repair." IF you try to replace a section of it, it doesn't look right........ it will almost never match. The only way that it can be done right is to replace the whole thing. So if carpet isn't replaced entirely, the room doesn't look the same (or as good). I can understand the owner being upset about his damaged carpet........ Honestly don't know what's fair in this case. Sorry this happened to you at the end of your trip, gracieb.

Perhaps this is partly cultural.

My husband once walked through the plate glass door at the entrance of a 5 star hotel in Switzerland.

He was OK, thank goodness, but they would not let him check out of the hotel until they had received an estimate and payment for the damage.

This would never happen in the US. The management would be all over you with apologies, free upgrades etc.

Europeans usually feel that you are responsible for your own actions.

This only occurs in small hotels that are family owned. Large ones will be covered by their insurance, perhaps small ones are too and were trying their luck!

If they are covered by their insurance, which I'd imagine they are - if I spilt water on my computer, I'm covered. I wouldn't pay if this were the case, however, if it is not then I would pay up.

An iron is not so hot as to scorch material instantly! Unless of course the carpet was made of silk. Obviously you were careless and allowed the iron to sit there for some time in order for a scorch mark to form. I can't stand people who treat other people's possessions so poorly - have some manners!

Actually, mkingdom, if the carpet was made of synthetic material it could scorch quite quickly. (I just ruined a pair of "jungle pants" in 2 seconds when my iron was too hot.)

gracieb, what an unfortunate and unpleasant situation. Did you ever ask him whether his insurance covered it? But then I suppose he was thinking of his 500 euro deductible as well.

I'm not sure what I would have done, but I wanted to point out to you that just because these guys own the hotel does not mean that they are great at handling people. Perhaps, as others have suggested, your not bringing the accident to management's attention on your own gave them reason to start the whole exchange off on a skeptical note.

Or maybe they've had bad prior experiences with people damaging rooms and refusing to pay. Who knows? It sounds like you handled it reasonably diplomatically. Don't let it spoil the memories of your lovely trip.

Don't take it personally dear, you could've been a furry green alien and they'dve still asked for money.