summersquash

Sorry, Gracie, but your friend should pay for th damage. I manage a hotel for a chain & we also require reimbursement for damages. If it is something that can be cleaned up or if it is normal wear that just happens to (wear out)at the wrong time then certainly the guest is not responsible, but broken windows, fruniture, scorched carpet is damages, as is missing items. If it' your fault you are responsible, and if your room is held with a credit card the hotel can charge it off to your card. Accidents happen but that does not releive you from your reponcibilty. If you have a car wreck it is usually an accident but if it is your fault you are still lialabe.

suze

This funny threads been going on for awhile now, so maybe I already said this ... but what the heck do people haul around travel irons for? Even small ones weigh too much. Pick packing-friendly fabrics and you're good to go.

Don't even get me started on hair dryers, curling irons, flat irons, laptops, videocams... Although short of the sheep shearing example above, these appliances probably have less likelyhood of serious damage to a hotel room

l_jackson95814

Although I can not wait to see Patrick's sheep sheering demonstration, you should have come clean right after it happened. It is likely that the owners would have passed it off as an accident or asked for a small fee to cover the staff time to move the furniture around. I think the hotel owner did not help with the situation and could have acted more professionally.

Sue_xx_yy

Patrick, you asked: how long would the travel iron require to make a scorch mark.

Leaving aside the issue of whether your query is relevant to the question (whatever the degree of carelessness, the carpet was damaged) - a reasonable guesstimate would be - not long.

Synthetic fibres such as are used in most commercial carpets have a high ignition temperature (e.g. nylon, 424 - 532 deg. C.) but a very low melting point (nylon, 160 to 275 deg. C; olefin, 180 deg. C; and acrylic, 91 to 125 deg C.)To give some perspective, an ordinary incandescent light bulb can reach temperatures of 100 to 300 degrees C. This leads me to suspect that a shadeless table lamp, knocked over and lying on its side on the floor, could also damage a synthetic carpet quite easily.

BTW, this seems as good a place as any to point out that due to the melting properties of synthetics, a wool, rather than synthetic blanket is a better choice to throw over any person whose clothing has ignited. Wool can ignite, but at least it won't melt into the person's skin.

SeaUrchin

Sue, who knew? And this is why I love this site !!

Not only now do I know about the ignition times of fabrics but I have pictures in my mind of Patrick shearing sheep in hotel rooms of Europe !

Greek sheep?

Sue_xx_yy

Hey, Seaurchin, aren't you glad he asked?

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About...oh, heck, forget sex, let's make it Carpet Fibres....

Dallas

I had a similar accident on my first trip to England. I stayed at the Pickwick Hotel (small, family run) in Warwick. A lovely little hotel, and the family was wonderful.

I needed to do some ironing, and the lady of the hotel loaned me her iron and ironing board. The only plug-in was located behind the bed. I had to pull the bed out and reach behind the headboard to plug in the iron.

This stretched the cord so far, it tipped over the iron which landed face down on the carpet. I grabbed up the iron as quickly as I could, but it scorched a big place on the carpet.

When I took the iron and ironing board back, I 'fessed up as you say. The family wouldn't hear of me making restitution. They said their insurance would cover it.

I would think even small hotels have insurance.

Patrick

OK, my apologies, I fabricated the story just a bit. I realize that this is the Europe board, and my problem happened in New Zealand!!

itsallgood

Notice how gracieb has not replyed to any of the new messages. I guess most of us were right. Fess up and pay for your wrong doings.

don76

I have to add my 2 cents .
I stayed at a b&b in Washington DC and spilled a chemical on the owners rug and left a permanent stain. She is a single lady working to support herself.
I brought it to her attention and offered to pay and we agreed she would replace the rug at a discount store and then advise me as to the cost via the internet.
I never heard from her so I figured she lost my e-mail address. After months went by I placed a $100 bill in an envelope and mailed it to her.
She responded that in all the years she had been in business no one had ever done so before.
I feel that if you damage it or break it you pay for it!
I don't understand this " not responsible" mentality.

Clematis

When you hear a story like this it is the holes that trigger doubt. The key to the story is how the incident occurred. Gracieb's obvious lack of details was a telling point - "My friend had been ironing and the travel iron fell over, leaving a scorch mark on the carpet." Later she says "The scorch mark was made by a travel iron that fell over as the article of clothing was being adjusted. " Well, since this was her personal iron, where was she ironing? On the carpet? On a dresser? None of this is good for the poor owner. Since she says it "fell over" it seems more likely the "friend" was ironing on the carpet. Now that would be a quick grab just inches away and the iron is righted. Carpets have pile and when falling over there is not the hand pressure that can quickly scorch a synthetic blouse, for example. Also this story assumes the iron fell not only "over" but also flipped down to make contact.

If I were dealing with someone who didn't admit their mistake I would certainly be wondering how much they were negligent beyond the obvious fact that they turned my carpet or desk into an ironing board. Were they talking, drinking, kissing, what that they didn't notice they were now burning a scorch into the carpet?

I agree with the posters who said it doesn't matter whether the owner uses the 100 euros to put in all-new carpet right now. Perhaps he cannot afford to add to that now to make the repairs and will have to try to hide the damage until it is in his budget to replace the carpet. I think it's telling that in a forum where most of us are travelers and not hotel owners, we have sided with the hotel owner in this story - and we haven't even heard his side of it!

Patrick, the sheep example - perfect.

travdog

It does seem odd that the hotel owner's insurance wouldn't cover such an accident, but I have to say that the bottom line was that you did damage his property. Was he wrong to wait until the last minute as you were reconciling your bill to bring it up? Seems weird, but perhaps he didn't know until the night before and that is why he wanted to be in the next morning to meet you face to face? The owner only spoke French, so maybe he wanted to make arrangements to confront you when he had his son/translater around. Should you have confessed to the accident after it happened? Absolutely! I believe that had you done this instead, the outcome could have been different. I'd have apologized profusely and offered to pay. Especially considering this was a "mom and pop" type of hotel, this is the way these people make their living. What would you have done if you accidentally put a hole in the wall or broke the television? I think its silly to be "offended" by this since you were really the one in the wrong. I'm not trying to belittle you or be condescending. But, you did ask for opinions on this. I wonder what you might have done had the same thing happened in a good friend's house.