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Can I speak to a Solicitor?
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16-08-2012 2:02pm#1This is going to be a long post and I hope this is the right place. If not apologies Mods. I would be grateful for any advice that people might have!
Myself and my partner recently stayed in a 4 star hotel (won't name the area!) for a family wedding. We stayed one night at the end of July. While the hotel was quite expensive we did notice the accommodation and decor was old and the cleanliness of the hotel was not top quality. We went to bed on the night of wedding and the next morning my boyfriend was itching like crazy on his leg and noticed he had two red lumps on his ankle. We thought maybe that he had been bitten in the garden by midgets as we had been outside quite a bit! Anyway we didn't think anything of it and headed home. Around 9 days later we both began noticing that we where slowly become covered with itchy red lumps that looked like bites all over us. I was completely flummoxed by this so decided to do some research online! I discovered some information in relation to bed bugs and decided to make sure we didn't have them I would inspect our mattress. To my dismay I discovered a small cluster of bed bugs feces and two small eggs on our mattress. When I discovered these I immediately rang Rentokil and reported what I had found. Rentokil where out to our apartment within a few hours and conducted an initial inspection. Based on my photographs of the eggs and feces found on the mattress the inspector confirmed the bed bug infestation. However he told us this was a very recent infestation and had we stayed anywhere or had anyone to stay with us in the last few weeks. We told them we had stayed in this hotel and he recommended that we contact them. He did warn us though that it was unlikely the hotel would admit they had them even if they did but I held out hope that if I spoke to the hotel first that they would carry out the necessary inspections and resolve the matter.
On the 9th of August at 12pm I contacted the hotel and left a message for the receptionist for the Manager. At 14.45 on the 9th the Manager of the hotel returned my call which I missed and he left me a voicemail. I returned this call after 3 and was told he was in a meeting. At 5 o clock I received a call from the Manager who had no understanding of bed bugs and to my knowledge had not attempted to inspect the room himself which I found to be surprising considered the important matter at hand. I asked him to be prompt with his investigation as my nephew who has had a recent operation has been around me and I did not want him exposed to anything that will harm his immune system. He told me he would get back to me in the morning which again I found surprising as I would imagine a pest control situation would be looked at immediately to avoid any spreading to other guests and I know that nearly all companies provide a 24 hour call out.
On the morning of the 10th of August when I had not received any word back from the hotel I rang them at 10.45. Again I could not speak to the manager as he was on a call. In the meantime I spoke to the Environmental Health department who told me this case was not in their remit. I heard back from the manager at 11.30 and he proceeded to tell me he had inspectors in and that they had declared the room free of bed bugs. To ensure this was in fact true I asked him for three things - could I get a proof of this sent to me, could he send me photographs of the bed so I could have piece of mind this was clear and also could I come and have a look at the room myself. To all questions he responded yes however he didn't give me any indication of when I would receive this.
Therefore in order to ensure this happened I emailed the hotel to ensure that these materials where sent and it was confirmed that I could visit the room. I did not receive a response so I emailed again and received a response to tell me that my email had been received. At 4 o clock I received a phone call from the Owner of the hotel. When I spoke to him he assured me that he would send me this proof but not via email only post. (eventually he agreed to email this copy on). He also told me that under no circumstances would he be sending me photographs of the mattress in the room nor was I to step foot inside the hotel to visit the room. He gave me the number of his pest control company to follow up with. He was extremely aggressive towards me and did not hesitate to tell me that if I took this matter any further he would take action against me.
So I then received the proof via email from the hotel. This was from a pest control company who I won't name and states that they did a 'visual' inspection of the room and found no 'insect activity' and they declared the room fine for service at 10.00am that same day. Now I have done my research and spoken to numerous people in relation to bed bugs and they have all told me the same thing. Visual inspections are not adequate you must do a thorough inspection of the room and the mattress, bed spreads must be checked, the bed should be dismantled as the bugs often live in the nuts and bolts of the bed particularly in a wooden bed similar to the one we stayed in in the hotel. You must check the carpets, the bed side lockers, light switches should be removed etc. The entire process takes 3-4 hours to complete per room. You very rarely actually see the bug because they come out at night unless you take apart the bed. Knowing this I tried to ring the pest control company to ask them to explain their investigation to me. I spoke to perhaps the most abrupt and rude man who would not confirm that they had checked the room thoroughly and told me to 'speak to the hotel'. I told him that the hotel had told me to contact him and he hung up on me. I have since also asked a friend of mine who used to work for a pest control company to contact them and he was received in the same way. Surely if a correct inspection has been undertaken and you are 100% sure that you have done your job you would be happy to take the person who made the complaint through this?? Surely the company must stand by their report and must be able to prove they carried out the correct inspections?
Based on all of this happening I did two things. I located the dress that I had worn to the wedding which had been on both the bed and the floor of the hotel room. This was due to go to the dry cleaners so I decided to check it first. When I went through the dress within the seems of the skirt I found what is the skin of a bed bug. This dress was bought brand new the day before the wedding and I have receipts and bank statements to prove this. I also decided to contact the Department of Health to try and get some kind of help in this matter.
The Department of Health investigated the hotel on the 13th of August and only got back to me today the 15th of August after I followed up with them. Again the HSE doesn't seem to have carried out the correct inspections of the hotel for bed bugs, they did admit to me during my first conversations with them that they have not dealt with bed bugs before and in fact no one seemed to know who was supposed to deal with it! I have subsequently asked the HSE to confirm that they did the correct inspections, that this took a number of hours and that beds etc where dismantled. I have yet to hear back.
This is a horrible situation for both me and my partner we are young we rent our apartment and because the bugs where brought into our apartment we cannot ask our landlord to foot the bill of the clean up. We also know that the bed bugs where not in the apartment before because we have lived there now for 2 years. Our landlord is not the most receptive so he won't help us out with the cost. We have been saving to buy a house and it has been going slowly - this situation is now going to wipe out our entire savings. The cleanup process and extermination is going to be lengthy - three weeks in total. We cannot afford to leave our apartment and stay elsewhere and we cannot stay with friends for fear of bringing the bugs into their house so we will be sleeping on the floor of our living room for the next three weeks hoping that we do not get bitten further. The costs we will have to pay are below:
Extermination - 369 euro
House cleaning - 150 euro
Laundering of clothes - 250 euro
Bed replacement - 400-500 euro
Potential couch replacement - 400-500 euro
Replacement of linens, duvets, curtains, rugs - 250-300 euro
Hotel stay - 179 euro
So essentially our stay in the hotel has cost us 2k if not more! Something which will wipe us out and this is only if the problem is completely eradicated.
I know we cannot 100% confirm the hotel gave us these bugs but everything points to it, the bites, the fact that we had stayed no where else, the bed bug skin in the dress I wore to the wedding, the lack of proper dialogue with both the hotel and the pest control company. We also had my sister and her BF stay with us a couple of weeks before we stayed in the hotel, they did not get bitten in our bed nor did they bring bed bugs home which means that we literally got them in the last number of weeks.
All I wanted to see is if anyone thought this was worth taking any further? Some people have mentioned the small claims court to me? The HSE and the pest control company have been zero help and all I want to do is recoup our losses. I don't want to in anyway damage the reputation of the hotel I understand these things happen to all types of places I just wanted them to look at the facts and act accordingly.
If anyone thinks its not worth it please let me know and we are going to just pay and never stay in a hotel again without thoroughly checking the beds!
Thanks
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Thanks everyone for your replies.
The reason you can't just squash the bed bugs or burn things etc is apparently they are resilient little pests that can hide in any place that a credit card can fit into. If you thought you killed them all and removed all of the eggs which are practically see through you still can't be sure you've got them all!
We have sent the Department of Health a couple of emails now at this stage asking them to get back to us - no joy!
We haven't heard of anyone else getting the bugs from the hotel but this seems to be an issue because not every person who travels to a place with them will get them - I think we where unlucky because I put my dress on the floor and that seems to be what carried them back. Also not everyone is likely to be bitten my OH is just one of these people that gets bitten by all kinds of insects
wmpdd3 i will PM you now any information you have would be great.
Like I said I am not trying to harm the reputation of the hotel and really I don't want any compensation other than covering the costs of the clean up.
If you are all itchy - imagine us lying in the living room every night knowing that our bed in the next room is potentially covered in them!
To highlight how hard these things are to find I have added the images of the egg we found and of the small skin we found in the dress I wore to the wedding! That dress with the skin is now bagged in a sealed plastic bag along with the skin in case I need to prove it!
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photo(1).JPG0 -
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