Canadian Hotel Sues Guest For $95K Over Bad Review, Bed Bugs 432
An anonymous reader writes "A guest at at Quebec hotel was bitten by bed bugs, brought some down to the front desk and asked for new room. While the fully booked hotel offers to get him another room in a different hotel, he stays out the night then leaves — telling people at the hotel — some of whom also check out. When he wrote about it on Trip Advisor, the hotel demanded he take it down and when he did they sued him for $95,000."
Clearly .... (Score:4, Interesting)
You're not allowed to remove the bed bugs from the room, since they count as hotel property. If he would have just put them back after showing the front desk, maybe none of this would have happened?
But seriously, businesses are really getting fixated on maintaining good appearances via social media these days. They view the whole thing as a marketing/advertising playground for them, so honest review sites with negative reviews are a real thorn in the side for them. I don't think the hotel has any legal grounds for this lawsuit if the review is truthful .... but that doesn't mean it won't try intimidation tactics anyway.
It amazes me how companies pay people to watch Twitter feeds like a hawk these days. You can be a Twitter user who never tweets a single thing and basically has no followers. But if you have problems with a product or service and figure out the right name to tag on a tweet to get the company's attention? They're almost always right on top of replying and trying to do damage control. Never-mind the fact that same user might have posted something just as negative over on Facebook or elsewhere, and the company never so much as notices that comment.
Re:Sue the man, or the website owners? (Score:4, Interesting)
There is no "First Amendment" in Canada. We have our own set of laws, and American laws don't apply.
Actually, since tripadvisor is located in the US it is a interesting legal arguement. Would Canada want US law to apply of a Canadian posted something that was actionable under US law simply because the website can be viewed in the US?
Yesterday vs. Today (Score:5, Interesting)
Yesterday: I figured there were hotels in Canada, but I never really thought about it.
Today: If I ever go to Canada, I'd better avoid the Hotel Quebec, because those bastards have bedbugs and sue people out of house and home rather than fix their problems. Either that, or the place attracts crazies with some pathology that causes them to make things up. Regardless, I'll just avoid it.
Re:Free speech (Score:5, Interesting)
Hotels don't handle this stuff very well IMO (Score:4, Interesting)
I stayed at a hotel in Vegas recently, one right on the strip. While taking a dump one evening I caught motion out the corner of my eye and a bug larger than my thumb was found to be racing at me! I had to lift my feet for the damn thing to run by before it became trapped in the corner behind the toilet. The lights were full on too, he was bold as brass.
I trapped the bastard in a glass and called down to the front desk a bit freaked out - it was after midnight. I explained there was a bug issue and they sent up some poor guy from maintenance, he arrived with a vacuum cleaner. Imagine his surprise when I showed him the bug! I told him I had no idea what it was and that I hoped it was some sort of weird mutant Vegas bug. His eyes big as saucers he told me "no sir, that's a cockaroach!". He stepped back out of the room and radioed his superiors - who told him they wanted him to bring the bug to them! (lol)
He covered it with a washcloth and off he went none too happy. Management promptly called offering to move me but I was tired and declined, I spent the night with the lights on clothed.
The next morning I went down to speak to a manager and was again offered a different room, I took one close by so I wouldn't have to schlep my stuff too far. Within the next three days I saw a "Do Not Disturb" sign back on that door. The room was out of service for maybe two nights and I was able to confirm this when I found it noted on my bill. Two days was all they spent cleaning up. Now this wasn't bed bugs which are hard as hell to kill but it was the largest roach I've ever seen and the damn thing had wings too! No way in hell did this sucker grow up and spend his life in that room and no way in hell did he get in through some sort of crack, I looked all over for possible entryways with a flashlight. This fucker HAD to have squeezed under the door from the adjoining room or from the hall - asshats leaving their room service out in the hall probably provided him a damn good sustenance.
At the end of the day this hotel, which I had thought pretty decent, seemed pretty nonplussed by this whole thing and not the slightest bit embarrassed. Room out of service a bare minimum and no effort I could see to do anything about adjoining rooms or the source of this issue. I have to say I'm not sure I'll be staying there again!
P.S. I used to travel with a blacklight. I found one or two memorable things with it and honestly I no longer carry it - some things I just don't want to know!
Interesting Anecdote (Score:5, Interesting)
Upon returning from our trip, we decided to rate and write a hotels.com review to warn others. We were not disrespectful or profane. We stated the facts and our displeasure with them only. A week or so later, my GF noticed the review still had not posted. Then she received an email stating that it would not because it violated the TOS of hotels.com. No explanation of how, just that we had. There were no names given (except the name of the hotel), and as I stated earlier, nothing but facts about ther visit, and our displeasure (admittedly and opinion).
I know where hotels.com gets its bread buttered now, and it is not from us customers. A chain hotel can exert much more fiscal pressure than a single customer.
I am owed a free night from them, and I am thinking of booking hotels using another source after that, but will the result be any different? My cynical brain says no.
Other posts? (Score:4, Interesting)
If you look at the review site [tripadvisor.com] you will find a total of 28 reviews that grade the hotel as poor or terrible.Why only sue one reviewer?
Re:New insecticide (Score:5, Interesting)
What about diatomaceous earth? It's fossilized algae, and a natural insecticide, absorbing the lipids from the exoskeletons of insects.
I've read that if you pull your bed from the wall, take 4 empty/clean tuna cans with diatomaceous earth in them, and put one under each leg of the bed, you can get rid of them. They crawl in and out of it on their way to feast on you.
If I had them, in addition to the cans-under-legs, I'd be dusting the floors, the sheets, the bed-frame, the bed-boards, the electrical sockets, etc, to get rid of them.
There was also a BBC show, either Edwardian Farm, or Victorian Farm, where they showed the housewife scrubbing bed frames down twice a year with lye to keep them under control.
Re:How can you win over facts? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't advocate the hotel's position here for one minute, but I think they might have a case under willful defamation.... even though true, the facts were publicly presented with malicious intent to publicly discredit them, where they were presumably making every effort to resolve the situation once they became aware of it.
I suspect it might come down to who has the better lawyer.
Re:Free speech (Score:2, Interesting)
Freedom of speech has never been unlimited. There isn't a country in the world that has unlimited freedom of speech (standard example: yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre). It's fair to say that Canada's hate crime laws do place more limitations on the right than some countries do. Specifically, you can express what you want "to the exception of acts of violence and threats of violence" (e.g., you can't claim that my fist hitting your face is an "act of expression" protected by the Charter), but it's still the case that unless you're being threatening or inciting hatred (e.g., "people of a certain background should be killed"), you can pretty much say what you like. More importantly in this case, hate crime laws aren't the least bit relevant to the situation. The facts are a valid defence if you are accused of slander or libel when expressing yourself, which is a protected right. The End.
I mean, sheesh. Even the example you cite from MacLean's was dismissed from the relevant tribunals, even though the articles were pretty darn awful and/or provocative, depending upon your perspective. In the end, the articles were considered protected speech. If you think they didn't even deserve to go to a tribunal for consideration, and people shouldn't have been "dragged" up there to consider the question, then I don't think you really understand how these things are supposed to work. You don't generally dismiss public complaints without any consideration at all.
Somewhat ironically, I personally don't think we need the kind of babying that the Human Rights Commissions provide. I'm quite able to recognize hateful stuff and give it the derision it deserves. I don't like the para-legal way these commissions work, and I think the hate crime laws go too far. I think the conventional laws prohibiting threats and such were good enough, if properly enforced. But claiming these laws are a significant barrier to free speech is a bit ridiculous, given that I see plenty of hateful stuff expressed all the time and people face no repercussions beyond the equally hateful comments made by people disagreeing with them. That's what freedom of expression is all about.
Re:New insecticide (Score:4, Interesting)
I suppose I should tell my friend that she's working for a fictitious company then... since that's exactly what they do.
Well y'see, that's where things differ. The company my friend works at doesn't just do that... they practically put the entire building they are going to work on into what looks a lot like a huge-ass enormous sleeping bag. The whole building is evacuated, and they then go through the entire building, basically insulating the entire building from the outside environment with insulation, and then they pump the heat in. I've actually seen buildings that have gotten this done while the bags were in place, and based on what I saw for myself, I'd guess the process is at least a full day of labour for a whole team, maybe even two.
I have no doubt that some heat escapes, but apparently not enough to keep them from maintaining the temperature for the necessary period. The company my friend works for guarantees their work, and she's told me that while she's worked there, nobody she knows of has complained that the treatment was ineffective.
That's apparently exactly what they do... but it is also apparently a VERY costly operation.
Yes... but the treatment this company does leaves the bugs with no place to scamper to. They are fully contained inside of the big insulated bag which is heated to the necessary temperatures and the temperature held there for quite a long time.
Re:Free speech (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked in 3 hotels for about 6 years, big names, one was a Bestwestern. In all three hotels, we got bed bugs on a regular basis. We have protocols on how to put the room and the linens in quarantine as soon as this is discovered. Then we call someone to spray something ll over the room to kill the bed bugs. It's also common thing to put in quarantine the rooms beside the affected room.
So there is such a thing as "only one room infested", I also think that the guest over-reacted... Was it it's first time in an hotel ?
I still agree that the hotel should not sue the guest, maybe just explaining to the public what I just said... Informing them.
Re:Free speech (Score:2, Interesting)
That's what landlords say in Ontario and there's no recourse. You have to really be able to prove that the bugs were there before you and have made the landlord aware which is really difficult. Mostly here it's the tenants that get the burden, they do their room, the bugs go to the other rooms, and then they come back. Rinse and repeat.
Re:How can you win over facts? (Score:4, Interesting)
A $40 refund and a room in another hotel down the street at 3am or later in the morning isn't exactly "every effort to resolve the situation".
Re:Free speech (Score:3, Interesting)
. Then we call someone to spray something ll over the room to kill the bed bugs.
I'm not aware of any poison that works on bedbugs - is there really one? Heat works well - get a room up over 120 and keep it there for a day (even inside the walls), or over 140 for a few hours. Washing cloths does nothing, but the dryer on hot works great by all accounts.
I somehow doubt the hotel was bedbug-free after "spraying something". More likely the population was reduced to where they weren't obvious, only to "mysteriously" re-appear.