Extent of hotel's legal liability for bed bugs?

[Blu]

I have postedhere about our stay in a hotel last night which had bed bugs.

The hotel have processed a refund for our room booking, and I have replied thanking fo that but my acceptance of a refund does not represent any agreement from me that it is a full settlement of any eventual claim, that I will seek professional advice about preventing infestation via our baggage and claim for any costs.

What are they liable for? I know that bed bugs can happen anywhere, are they responsible for any infestation or prevention that I do?

We had to drive home (2 hours) in the middle of the night, very upsetting for DS, we are all now tired out, we missed our day out, spent petrol money to get there for only one day's benefit, not two, and I have spent all day putting stuff on a hot wash, vacuuming clothes, bags, car, putting not washable stuff in the freezer.

I am certainly not a 'sue everybody and seek compsnsation' type, but don't want to have to pay a big Rentokil bill, either!

OR endure the horror of bed bugs.

Was it in the UK?

Yes, it was.

In a hotel booked through Laterooms .com

In a day or two you will get an Email from lateroom.com asking you to do a review.

You can then choose to disclose some of your suspicions about the bed bugs. If you phone up the hotel manager before you fill the review in ask him what they have done about the bed bugs.

Yes, I have already sent an e mail to Laterooms telling them - I would hate them to send more visitors there atm! I will also call the relevant local environmental health team tomorrow.

We caught a bug and gave it to the hotel in a plastic bag, and we have close up pics and video the bugs in the bed. There is no doubt that they are bed bugs, and that all 3 beds in the room we occupied had them.

They owe you a duty of care, if you can prove they have breached that duty and you have sustained consequential loss as a result you would have a claim. What for would depend what you could support (they would expect receipts and possibly expert evidence). Any claim for financial loss under £5000 or personal injury under £1000 (although I note there is no mention of injury in this post) fall under the Small Claims limit and can therefore be dealt with by you without legal representation in the Small Claims Court. You would be put to proof however that the loss was sustained as a direct result of the breach (you seem to have collated some evidence) and this could be a difficult job without expert evidence. Have you reported it to the local EHO? A visit could not only result in them solving this problem to avoid future families having to go through what you have but could also assist you on the evidence front if you were to make a claim (although what the EHO will let you see following any investigation is another matter). To start your claim you should write a letter of claim to hotel outlining what had gone wrong, what your losses are and what you are seeking in recompense. They should then either attempt to resolve the matter themselves or pass it into the hands of their insurers who should investigate and give you a decision as to whether they will meet your claim after a few months. If the matter does not resolve that way, then look at Court action. Advisory leaflets on Small Claims Court actions are available on the Court Service website. If you have legal expenses cover for civil disputes on your household insurance or you are a member of a union, they may be able to assist you in appointing Solicitors on your behalf to do this for you. Good luck.

They are only liable for any loss that you have actually suffered.

They have refunded your room.

you have not yet got a bill I assume for the cost of treating your luggage.

You can present it to them but to be honest they may argue.

You need to weigh up what it will cost you to pursue this with what you will actually gain from it.

Add up what it has cost you. £200 maybe? It will cost you more than that pursue it.

Take it from somebody who nearly died from the stress of suing over the house we bought, you really need to look at the bigger picture here.

It had bed bugs. They are revolting. They refunded your bill.

Move on.

I am not sure if this will help - but my dh had a similar experience many many years ago at a conference. A very strongly worded letter on duty of care from a solicitor that didn't cost much... and he got sent a 4-figure cheque.

And for the record, my DH ended up with literally thousands of bites (I counted them, and also took photos as proof...) and it has had long lasting effects, he still has increased sensitivity to bugs/plants/bites on his skin, so I do not think it is over the top to request some form of compensation.

Good luck and HTH