How much did this hotel charge for a room? If their prices are based on the assumption that guests will trash the rooms, then the rooms will cost a lot more than in hotels where guests are well behaved and do the decent thing by paying for any damage. If I'd damaged a hotel room, I'd hope I'd have the decency to pay for the damage. I prefer to stay in cheap hotels where the price isn't inflated to cover the cost of repairing damage caused by others (it doesn't matter whether it's covered by insurance because the hotel's insurance premiums will reflect the frequency of damage claims). Perhaps the next time Gracieb goes to France, she should take out extra insurance to cover the cost of replacing burnt hotel carpets.

Hi Geoff, I believe the room was 130 Euros a night. This can be inferred in one of g's messages, in which she mentioned that the hotel initially wanted her to pay for an extra night since the room would be unrentable due to carpet installation. 130 Euros was what she quoted.

Honestly, if nothing else, this sounds to me to be unreasonable, unless the hotel is 100% full every night. Neither does the claim that the room is unrentable beause of the mark.

But that's just me.

I do have sympathy for Gracie, because I do some consulting for hotels. It is very typical of a hotels in the 2-3 star range to charge a guest for damage to a room (like scorching or staining the carpet), but then never do any repairs or replacement. And it is obvious in this case that the owner simply wanted to get as much money as he could, and that he never planned to fix the carpet.

Ann41 -- If a guest is inclined to offer to pay, perhaps the thing to do is to politely demand that they send you a copy of the actual invoice they paid for repair work. If you say that 2 and 3 star hotels routinely make such demands, I guess it is to be expected. It would not be the norm here in the U.S., but Europe is a different place. Europeans who I have met who visit the U.S. tell me that they love the customer service culture here, that in Europe the customer is presumed to be a burden. I have also read this in some guidebooks. Perhaps this is an example of that cultural difference. In any event, my family will be staying in a 3 Star hotel in Paris this August and this thread has been most illuminating!

Rufus,
<<If the business chooses not to buy insurance, the customer should not have to make up for their poor business decision to self-insure.>>

The reality is that damage of this sort (or breakage in a store will always be self insured) since it will be less than the deductible.

Every business must self insure for small claims...the cost of insurance woudl be prohibitive. For a large company the amount may be 5000 or 10,000 deductible

Not to start anything new...but if I broke something in a store I would only pay for the actual damages....their wholesale cost.

I do wonder if charging guests with stains, etc. is the norm, then wouldn't they have to prove that you actually did it? This sounds unpleasant and dishonest.

By the way, regarding the "you break it, you pay" rule and my hypothetical example of breaking a glass in a restaurant, I just remembered that I actually have first-hand experience with this. I was out with some friends a few months ago and one of them spilled a glass of red wine and broke the glass as it fell off the table. Granted, the cleanup was not extensive, and there was no charge. The restaurant was in New York and no one made a big fuss. Personally I was embarrassed and I left a bigger tip than usual (to cover the cost of replacing a glass). But the point here is that the restaurant never insisted that we had to compensate in any way.

There's another thing I wanted to add. Right or wrong aside, one should consider the possibility that the hotel was trying to take advantage of the guest in this case. After all, they wanted 500 Euros initially.

I don't necessarily buy the argument that Europeans do things differently. Sure, there's a cultural difference, but I think that tourists can also be treated more poorly because they really don't have the recourse to do much. And business people are astute in knowing whom they can pick on.

A year ago I had a terrible incident with Air France and they fined me 250 Euros to put me on the next flight. I called my friend in Paris from the airport (CDG), and his comment was "That's ridiculous. If I had been there, it wouldn't have happened." I don't necessarily believe in this.

Don't take me wrong. I don't think that we're all out to get other people, or that Parisians are out to get Americans. But I think that there're many facets of the story and the incident that should be considered, and that's why I'm sympathetic towards gracieb.

Would typical travel insurance cover this situation in terms of reimbursement?

This sounds like another risk, even if slight, to keep in mind when staying at a small, family-run hotel. I doubt this request for reimbursement would happen at a large chain hotel, but I suppose Paris could be different.

I think the hotel should have informed you of their insistence on reimbursement the first time the mark was noticed. Then you could have budgeted your money accordingly. Some people might not even notice making such a mark.

I certainly would hate to have to inspect my hotel room the way I check over my rental car before I drive off the lot, noting scratches etc.

And I simply cannot imagine a restaurant charging a customer for an accidentally broken glass!

Hi.

I, too, find this to be an interesting thread but I am somewhat dismayed at the scant commentary regarding what would have been "The Right Thing To Do".

It seems to me that all these considerations are secondary to the issue of simple courtesy. I believe the accident should have been reported to the hotel IMMEDIATELY and that gracieb should have then inquired as to the hotel's policy in such matters. The failure to report such an incident promtly can cascade into the unpleasantness which followed. The outcome may not have been any better, but one could take satisfaction that one had behaved responsibly.

Hi
There's an old adage about describing an argument "there's one side, the other side, and the truth."

I can tell you from personal experience at home that a hot iron can leave a scorch mark on carpet within a second.

Let's assume everyone is being relatively honest and aboveboard.
gracieb thinks: "I damaged the carpeting, but the maid has been in and out of the room for days and saw it, no one said anything, they blindsided me on our way out, and then gave us a hard time and want me to pay to replace the whole carpet.

Hotel proprietor might be thinking:
The maid reported the damage, customer never 'fessed up and said anything, if I put this into my insurance company my premiums will go up, I'm only a small business owner, I can't replace a square meter of carpeting but have to replace the whole floor's worth, the customer caused the problem and ought to pay, just as the customer ought to pay if the lamp is broken or the towel is stolen.

Deliberate or accidental, the owner is facing a loss. A larger hotel, a more wealthy owner, an owner with more furnishings inventory in a warehouse, might be more willing to absorb the cost. A calmer, more customer-service owner might be more willing to absorb the cost. A shrewder business owner should have already factored replacement costs like these into his overall room rates. But we don't know all his circumstances either, and he is facing a loss. He could also be making a mountain out of a molehill, or trying to make money unreasonably. I'd send him a check to reimburse him for half the requested amount.

I agree, WillTravel. As I've revisited this many times before posting this morning, I wondered why they did not discuss this with me prior to check-out. It seems that most of the board feel I was in the wrong not to report it immediately but it wasn't something I tried to hide either. Whether it was wrong or naive of me not to realize I would be charged for the damage, I immediately admitted to the damage, offered to pay 50 Euros for the damage but flatly refused to take an invoice back home to the states with me to submit for travel and/or home insurance. I had enough "fun" when I was rear-ended in my hometown in April - I had no intentions of dealing with insurance billing issues between France and the US.

I would love to find out if room #61 has new carpet in it now, because I really wonder if they will replace the carpet. It was a clean, but well-worn two star hotel in Paris. Simple, basic, but clean. I paid less for rooms later in Avignon and Nice that were similar and nicer than this one.

I was most upset at the tirade, but in retrospect glad he chose a time and place where there was an audience of Americans (eating breakfast in the room of the lobby). It was clear that they were as surprised as I by his comments and suggestions.

I am a Hilton Diamond member (by staying in mostly Hampton Inns in the US) and enjoyed 3 free nights at the Hilton in Cannes, complimentary room service breakfast and champagne and fruit basket upon arrival. I travel quite often for business and leisure. As much as I wanted to experience a more quaint hotel in Paris, I know that I will not ever stay in a family-run hotel again in Europe. I've had wonderful experiences with Bed and Breakfasts, Farm and Breakfasts in Ireland and a variety of small inns, large hotels and smaller chain=affliated hotels. When I go back to Paris, I will definitely avoid a similar hotel but am so glad I booked the Hotel Blauvec in Avignon and the Hotel Windsor in Nice.

My friend is right - it's a lesson learned ... with a price tag of 100 Euros.

I do feel siympathy with Gracie, because this kind of situation/confrontation is certainly an unpleasant way to end a holiday. Having said that, I woulnd't have been at all surprised for the owner of a small hotel to charge me for this sort of damage (which is way beyond 111op's example of breaking a glass).

First thing I would have done would have been to phone my travel insurance company.

(By the way NYCFoodsnob, don't you have liability insurance? I art direct many photoshoots and can't hire a venue without it).

Gracie,
I'm sorry that an incident like this seems to have ruined your vacation. I had an unpleasant situation with a villa in Tuscany where I left early because the water was not working, and he gave me a sob story about how I'd have to pay for the whole stay because I had prepaid to a booking agency and he would have to refund me from his costs. It was a little ugly, but in the end, we worked out something amicable. These kinds of things are always awkward.

That said, I do agree with many of the posters here... you scorched the floor, you're responsible for at least something. I think for 100EU, less than the cost of 1 nights stay, is a bargain. It's not like a little cigarette burn or a makeup stain... it's a scorch the size of an iron. And a scorch changes the way the carpet feels underfoot, not to mention are VERY obvious and unsightly. If I were the next guest there, I might remark to my husband, "gee, seemed nice but did you see that ugly iron mark. Shabby."

Now, I don't think you he should have asked you for replacement in full, and I probably would have told him very reasonably, "Oh, I couldn't submit to my insurance because they only cover what's in my physical residence. They would laugh at the claim." While he may have been trying to get the full cost paid for by your insurance (who he probably saw as a big bureaucratic thing anyway), once he knew that your insurance would NOT pay (not that you wouldn't submit it) he might have backed off.

I have found in travelling many times all around Europe and staying in quite a few small inns, even larger hotels, that are family run, often for several generations... these people take great pride in their hotels. It's their livelihood, their family tradition, their baby. Even the hotel managers and staff sometimes have been there for years. I have a favorite hotel in Florence where one of the managers has been there most of his life, started as a bellman at 17 and was now in his 50s. I would never think of trying to skip out of their hotel without acknowledging damage like that and at least apologizing.

And I would probably flip if someone burned a hole in my carpet too. I would most certainly want to replace it because I don't have a patch. I wouldn't demand that person replace the carpet, but if they didn't offer something towards the cost it would probably be the end of a friendship.

I know hotels aren't your "friends"... but if you're like me and you return again and again to the same places it would have just felt right to at least help defray the costs of the repair, even partly, as a gesture.

And frankly, I'd like to think that if it had been me, I would have informed them immediately of the damage, or at least at time of checkout. In all likelihood, like a previous poster had said, they were giving you the benefit of the doubt by letting it wait till checkout but when you didn't say anything they came down harder on you.

I am shocked by the few claims on here that imply this hotel was trying to scam you with a you buy it you break it scam. She said it was a nice highly recommended hotel that she adjusted her itinerary to stay in. It wouldn't have earned a good reputation by trying to scam its guests.

They probably do have insurance, but they have deductibles, too.

Had it been me, I would have offered to pay for the repair, even some small fee to go into their replacement fund. If they had insisted that we replace the whole carpet, then I would have offered something for the depreciated value, say... "show me the receipt that says how old it was and what it cost then, and factor a % of that cost. But not the whole amount.

Now, a couple of other thoughts occurred to me as I've followed your posts:

You said your friend is "anal" and told you to get over it. Uhhh... it was her boo boo. Make her pay the 100 EUR. Then you can tell her to "get over it."

--A couple posts here liken an iron scorch to red wine. I don't agree. Wine can be removed... carpets can be bleached and then redyed and spot cleaned to take out the overall effect of the stain... but a scorch the size of the entire iron would not only be unsightly it will probably be rough/scratchy to the touch. It can sometimes be patched if the carpet is new and if they have a swatch to use. But if it's an older carpet that will look almost worse to patch.

--You mention it was a travel iron. Does that mean it's one you brought INTO the hotel. If the hotel provided the iron, I would say they probably should have handled it a little differently, but if it were your own iron, honestly, you should be expected to pay for the damage.

I don't think most posters here are trying to make you feel bad. And ultimately, what we think is just our opinion... you were the one there and you know whether how you handled it was right for you.

I would be interested in knowing which hotel it was, too... but then again I can understand your discretion.

~k

My assistant just reminded me of a CD cover shoot we did at a famous hotel in Beverly Hills. The star of the shoot wore human-hair wigs and the hairdresser (flown in from NYC) used his bathroom sink to dye the wigs. The brunette dye seriously stained the sink bowl material and it was not fixable. We were billed for the replacement of the sink. (Ladies beware.)

We had a "location" contract for this shoot and the contract stipulated, "Photography team is responsible for any damage that occurs to hotel property resulting from "working" on the premises." So, even with a contract, nine times out of ten, the photographer has to pay for damages. Luckily, this gig was financed by the record company and I submitted the bill to them. They paid it.

Ok, broken glass aside, this was a travel iron, so it couldn't have been that big, could it?

Anyway, I'm fascinated by the way people are responding in this thread. I'd love to see if everyone acts the way he/she is advocating in an actual situation. Will people all do what they think is the morally right thing? :-) Will we all jump up and call and say, yes we scorched your carpet? :-)

By the way, if you have a moment, gracieb, perhaps you should write it up and submit it to "The Ethicist" (in NYT's Sunday Magazine). I read that column once in a while and I find it entertaining. I don't know if this fits that column exactly, but I think that there're some interesting issues.

A sample column from past Sunday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/ma...0ETHICIST.html

Kate, of course I have insurance, which is why I mentioned the million dollar policy in a previous post. As you know, any professional photographer who plans on bringing people to a privately owned "location" for the purpose of work, this policy is required. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

In Rome, the beauty shoot was a case of returning a favor to someone who had helped me on a previous occasion. There was no official "job," per se, which is why I handled the situation the way I did.

111op, that's one of my favorite columns. Imagine a society with no ethics. We'd have millions of MK2's walking around wondering what happened to God.

Well, NYCFS, you're not all bad after all. I apologize for teasing you in that thread on designer jeans. :-)

I don't have any sympathy at all and think it was your fault and you should have paid. I think you are the one that caused a lot of the problems and it was not a simple accident like a little stain on a towel, etc. If you are going to use irons in hotel rooms at that level of heat, you have to be very careful. Of course it wasn't done intentionally, that is irrelevant, but it was done through carelessness and neglect. A scorch the size of an iron on a carpet is huge and no, I have NEVER seen a scorch that size on any carpet in any hotel I have stayed in from 2* on up.

It seems to me the staff calling the mgt was appropriate as it was for them to handle, being their hotel. I don't see anything wrong with them thinking you should submit it on your insurance, why not? I think many person's homeowner's insurance would cover this and it was your fault.

I never would have caused that much damage and not told the hotel immediately (I think I learned to fess up to breaking things when I was around 6). I think that is unconscionable and caused the problems. Waiting until you checked out to resolve the matter seemed very appropriate to me.

Anyway, any slight tendency to think maybe you have a point disappeared when you started bragging about your Hilton points and about how you won't stay in such lowly type places again.

Skatterfly -
Thanks for your insightful comments.

To those who expressed concerned - this incident did not ruin my vacation by any means. It was a "hiccup" in the course of the trip. So, was missing the train to Vernon by seconds. That just meant we had an unexpected extra day in Paris and a reason to come back to France sooner than planned. Another "hiccup" was rushing to return the rental car in Cannes by the deadline and then learning the rental agency (and most of France) was closed Monday due to a "Bank Holiday". The agent I reached in Avignon gave us her best advice on what to do. Neither was "getting lost" in Provence - we discovered beautiful towns I had not planned to visit.

That's part of the magic of travel. The fact that carpet was damaged and I paid 100 Euros toward the replacement of the carpet was not the unpleasant part of this "hiccup". The stinging comments and surprising (to me) proposal that I submit an invoice to insurance to pay for a full room of carpeting was very unpleasant.

Posters were right in that this manager was took great pride in his family-run hotel. My sharing with him that I had wanted to stay here for 5 years based on reviews and message board comments on Fodors.com seemed to be appreciated.

I do not want to slander anyone - just wanted input on what happened. Thanks to everyone who offered thoughtful input. It has been very much appreciated.

oh, BTW, whether they replaced it or not is irrelevant. YOu caused monetary damage worth a certain amount and that is the economic damages you caused them. How they choose to use the money is their decision and doesn't change the damages you made to their property.

Ok, Christina, let's be real here -- gracieb never claimed that that hotel or that type of hotel was lowly -- her exact phrase was "more quaint," unless I misread her message and was blind in some other way.

op111, in my post above I confessed...

Now that I've re-read gracie's original, I realize that she was enjoying Paris for three days. I'd like to think that I would not have enjoyed myself, walking around with these guilty feelings. On the second day I'd have gone to the manager.

Has anyone ever damaged another car in a shopping center parking field and driven off without leaving a note on the windshield?

Well, not that it addresses the specifics of this incident, but.....

Once in Yucatan, at a 4* resort, we used a small travel device to ensure the door can't be opened while you're in the room - the kind that fits over the lock plate in the door jamb. During the night, there was a torrential rainstorm (Gulf coast of Yucatan) and the wood of the door and jamb swelled. You guessed it, we were firmly imprisoned in the room! My BF tried to remove the door knob - no go - had nothing we could use on the linchpins in the door hinges - I convinced him to call the desk and 'fess up. One of the maintenance staff came up to our balcony via ladder and took the door off the hinges. We immediately went to the front door to pay for the damage - the front desk manager said that they would have to see what needed fixing/replacing, and that he guessed it may run as high as USD$50.00. We were fine with that - it was our damned gadget that caused the problem, after all. Turns out only the door knob/lock needed replacing and the resort waived the charges.

While we are each responsible for our actions and their consequences, I do agree with the OP that a heated dispute at checkout is a nasty way to end an otherwise pleasant hotel stay.

Well TuckH, if I were in a similar position, I'd say to myself, "Thank god that it's not my own carpet. Anyway, they'll never notice it." And then I'll be off to enjoy Paris. Why guilt?

Before everyone starts pouncing on me, of course I don't mean exactly what I say. But this forum can seem so merciless and literal at times. :-)

I have to underscore a few things as a few more posts came up while I was typing.

Gracie.... you keep saying ,"My friend says," and "My friend was right." I say, "your friend is responsible." Hope she at least split the 100 EU with you, if not paid in full. She was the one who knocked it over. She is probably the one who should have offered something up to the owner, or to you.

I also think it's patently absurd to imply this hotel was trying to scam you, especially if as you say, you have been there before. They have a reasonable right to ask you for covering damages... after all, isn't that what hotels and inns all across the US do when they take your credit card imprint? The big difference is that in the US many hotels are part of bigger corporations and have a high turnover rate and bigger repair budgets and housecleaning staff that doesn't have good benefits or job stability to feel enough ownership to report damages when they happen. It's just easier in the US to overlook these kind of things.

Would your reaction had been any different if they had approached you right away and said, "we saw the burn in the carpet"? Would you have said, "oh sure, let me pay for it?" I think the point here is that you doubt (or at least doubted) that you were liable for that much.

Not to mention that they wouldn't have said anything to you during your stay because of their respect for your privacy and laissez-faire. They were most likely expecting you to say something. It's what they would think the dignified and dipomatic thing to do. To say something during your stay would have been very rude.

It's a shame if this experience has tainted the whole family-run inn experience for you. I personally wouldn't travel to Paris or any other big European city just to stay in a Hilton or other large highrise hotel chain. Some of Europe's best, most charming experiences are in the family run hotels--whether small or larger, 2 or 3 or 4 stars. Like you said, in 20 years of travel, this has never happened to you. In all likelihood, it'll take another 20 years of travel for something like this to happen again, if ever. Sometimes these things just happen to the best of us.

Maybe I'm misreading it, but it seems like after all these posts you still feel that he was being unreasonable, even though you say you realize you got off lucky with 100EU. I get this sense because you mention the room number, as if someone would be able to check up on the guy to make sure he uses your money immediately to repair it, when in all likelihood he'll throw it into the funds and repair when it's appropriate for him.

Sorry you didn't get the vindication you were looking for.

Mostly, I hope that this doesn't ruin your stay or your memories. In a couple years, it'll seem like a funny little sidenote to what was hopefully a great trip. (I still think about that villa in Tuscany but now I can laugh about it, a few years later.)

And I know that talking about it with others like us, even if we're not all "on your side" helps get it out of your system.

~k

What a crybaby. Pay for the damges and move on.

And this bit about seeing many iron marks on hotel carpets is bogus.

I smell a troll or a real tightwad with no morals.

Wow, Christina.
Yes, I was very excited about the extra and unexpected perks at the Hilton Cannes, but the accumulated points came from many nights away from home on business at Hampton Inns in rural areas of the SE. That wasn't intended as bragging, but it does take a lot of nights in moderately priced ($55-$89 per night) rooms to accumulate that many points. The two star in hotel in Avignon and the three star hotel in Nice were exactly what I had hoped for - nice, clean, basic and less expensive than the hotel in Paris (yes, I know it was in Paris). I'm not calling them lowly by any means. I'm glad so many people can see things in such clear black and white and know exactly what my faults and mistakes are. If I were as much of a jerk as you think I am, I doubt I would have invited input from other travelers.

I have never traveled with a travel iron before, I have never damaged a hotel room before and I've never been in a situation where I've been asked to submit an invoice once I get home to travel and home insurance. I have no idea if this incident would be covered. We did reach a compromise and the damage to the carpet has been paid. I don't know what else there is to say but that I've learned a lot about people in reading these messages today.

Thanks, 111op, for your support.

I read gracieb's reference to Hilton points very differently. Not bragging, she purposely showed us she wasn't traveling in high style by mentioning her Hilton points were accumulated by staying in Hampton Inns. And I didn't hear her say that she wouldn't stay in such "lowly" places, just that she would avoid places that she was afraid would cause her the kind of embarrassment she suffered from this incident.

I also would be chewing this over for a long time, wondering whether or not I did the right thing. Unpleasant confrontations are very troubling. I believe everything gracieb has written here has shown her to be a reasonable person trying to handle the situation as well as possible.

gracieb,

>I've learned a lot about people from the responses today<

Hopefully you have learned something about yourself.

JoeG

Say you are upgraded to a much more deluxe room than expected. You then inadvertently cause damage. Following the logic of this story, you might be liable for damages up to $10K or more. Suppose there is a priceless Ming vase in the room and you knock it over? Yes, you'd certainly be obligated ethically to report it, but then what?

In thinking more about this, my main concern in the future will be that I have an insurance policy that covers hotel room damage. I have never so far as I know damaged a room, but now I have something new to worry about!

It's an interesting example, WillTravel, and I was thinking along the same lines too. I don't know what'd happen in that case. Could one make an argument that the hotel could reasonably expect the vase could be broken or stolen and so should have taken an appropriate insurance? It reminds me of something I read a while ago about restaurants in NYC. I can't remember what it was about really but there was an example a restauranteur gave of light fixtures in the bathroom being stolen constantly (a somewhat hip restaurant, I'm sure, but I can't remember the name). This was treated as part of the normal course of running a restaurant.

111op, it is an interesting question under American law for sure.

I doubt anyone here knows what the French law in this case would be, but if so, I'd be interested to hear.

... oh stop whining and pay the hotel for what you damaged!! Are you totally irresponsible ... you spend hours here seeking sympathy .. when you could have been doing the proper thing ... you admit you burned his carpet, they are small hotel and the cost would be a burden, they are not at fault, you are ... pay up!! Not rocket science, although you act as though your brains got caught in the after burner. My goodness, as if we didn't already have enough problems with the french.

Cast my vote as "no sympathy, nyet"!

willtravel,

Now you know why rooms with ming vases are only rented to select people and discounted to commoners...like us.

<i>&quot;Well, NYCFS, you're not all bad after all. I apologize for teasing you in that thread on designer jeans.&quot;</i>

Oh, honey, I'm <i>bad</i>, real <i><b>bad</b></i>. &gt;:-)

I don't remember anybody teasing me on that thread. Kidding. The joke really is, I just posted that thread because I thought the NY Times article was fun. As if I really care about ridiculously expensive denim.

Truthfully, apart from two or three <i>really</i> ugly posters here, I don't keep track of who says what, unless someone truly inspires me, of course. I'm good at keeping track of the &quot;good&quot; things. I'm very forgiving...just don't try and play me for a fool.

I haven't had time to go over all the responses here--75 replies just since this morning--so if these issues have already been addressed, please forgive.

First, in the US at least, hotels are not insured for this type of damage caused by guests. Think of the extent of risk!! Think of the cost of the policy!! Lloyds might even decline coverage. ;) This will be out of their pocket. Installation, however, is a half day job if that.

Secondly, the odds, unless they have some in storage somewhere, of being able to obtain the same carpet, made in tones that match the remainder of the decor aren't good. Carpet in our hotel, for instance, is made to order for this hotel only, not &quot;off the rack&quot;. If it were damaged and we had used our surplus stock, we'd be out of luck.

Lastly, your insurance <i>would</i> cover it with NO deductible. This is a <i>liability</i> claim and as such is covered in full. The $500 deductible applies only to claims you make for loss to your own covered items. You clearly were negligent, you clearly are liable, so sayeth the ex claims adjuster.

JMHO, but I suspect that iron sat there awhile, it wasn't just the amount of time it takes to rearrange the clothing. Not that that matters...

Apropos of nothing, our hotel chain is not only self insured for this sort of loss, but for liability claims from guests (injuries what have you) up to quite a substantial level after which insurance kicks in. Adjusters work the claim, but the company itself pays in all but the very most serious of injuries. (The collapse of the catwalk over the ballroom dance in the Kansas City hotel comes to mind immediately.)

Granted we are part of a large chain and you may have been staying at a small boutique hotel, I would think their coverage issues would be similar. There is simply too much exposure to risk for a policy covering any and all damage to be affordable, and my feeling is that they too are self-insured to a certain point, and that point would be far above 100 euro.

Well, NYCFS, you should tell me what the two or three really ugly posters are. :-)

I still think that gracieb has been pretty discreet in not naming the hotel, but it'd make for good gossip. :-)

I admit I've been trying to figure out what hotel also. I would guess it's a guidebook entry based on the comments about the number of Americans.

I've wondered about those cases where someone plugs the wrong item in and blows out the fuses or worse. Has anyone been charged for that?

I'd like to hear French legal opinion. I can't believe that gracieb is obligated to pay the value of the entire carpet, no matter how expensive it might be. That is what I was trying to get at earlier. I know many posters here say they would immediately fork over 100 Euros, but what if they had been told to fork over 1000 or 10000 Euros because the carpet was very expensive?