My hotel was infested by bedbugs — can I get a refund?

January 8, 2013

Sarah Gaines wants a refund for her short-lived hotel stay at the Windsor Hotel on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The reason? She claims the property was infested with bedbugs.

The site through which she booked the hotel, Hotels.com, refuses to refund the $750 she paid, even though she checked out after staying in her room for just a few hours. Appeals to her credit card company have been unsuccessful, and now she wants me to get involved.

Here are a few specifics about Gaines’ case: Shortly after making her reservation through Hotels.com last fall, she looked up the property online. She found multiple complaints about bedbugs at the hotel.

“We immediately called and were assured the problem had been dealt with,” she says. “They even told us if we happened to find any problems upon arrival, they would be happy to move us to a completely different floor, as they were ‘sure to have vacancy’ still.”

That didn’t happen. When they checked in, the hotel was running a full occupancy.

“Both rooms had infestations,” Gaines reports. “We crammed into the one with fewer bugs — some of us on the floor. We left the next morning as soon as we found a new hotel.”

Gaines says she contacted the hotel after she checked out and asked for a refund. It refused, citing its refund policy. Then she contacted Hotels.com, the online agent that sold her the room. It also refused, citing its policy. Finally, she disputed the charge with American Express.

“Today we received our answer from American Express that the charges have been reapplied as neither Hotels.com nor Expedia guarantee ‘the condition of the hotel’,” she says. “Note, we stayed for about six hours in one room, and were charged the full amount for both rooms for both nights, and woke up to a bedbug on my six-year-old’s pillow!”

Oh my. As the father of a six-year-old, I can tell you that I would be pretty upset if I found a bedbug on my daughter’s pillow in a hotel.

Gaines adds,

I say their ‘no refund’ policy surely cannot apply when the hotel presents a health risk!

And worse, possibly, is that Hotels.com still has The Windsor on their site!! When I looked at it tonight, a pop up menu announces, “This hotel has been booked three times in the last 24 hours”!

Shameful!

It’s not immediately clear why Gaines didn’t investigate the property before making her reservation. Or why she didn’t make more of an effort to switch hotels prior to her stay — or why she didn’t ask for the hotel to help her once it became clear she was staying in an undesirable room. There may be, as commenters on this site would say, some “missing” details.

Once you’ve left the building, getting a refund is really difficult. From a hotel’s perspective, you’ve abandoned a room that they probably won’t be able to resell, so they’re out the $750 you spent. Their policy says: no refund.

But I’m not entirely happy with Hotels.com’s response, either. Saying that the site isn’t responsible for the condition of its rooms is absurd. After all, its tagline promises it will find you the “perfect place” — and a room infested with insects is not the perfect place.

I was going to put this case up for a vote, as I do every Tuesday, but shortly after I finished writing this story, I heard back from Gaines. Hotels.com offered her a full refund. Case dismissed.

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LeeAnneClark

Looks like the right thing happened. Even with some gaps in the story, this one seemed pretty cut-and-dried to me: insect infestation is not acceptable, period. The rooms were unusable. She was entitled to a full refund.

While I usually don’t do this, I’m even giving her a pass for not having done the research beforehand. Reason being: even if she had learned of their past problems, she might still have booked the hotel after talking to them and hearing their promise. They assured her that a) the problem was gone, and b) even if she does encounter it, they would ensure she was given a usable room. Turns out neither of those statements were true: the problem wasn’t gone, and when she encountered it, they did NOT give her a usable room.

I have to admit I’m stunned at Amex’s response! This scares me…I thought they were way more customer-friendly than that. I mean, how can they consider an insect infestation to be an issue of “condition” that is not “promised”! Would they also decline a refund if a room was flooded? Is that also an issue of “unpromised condition”? Shocking and disturbing!

Final comment: Why does it not surprise me one bit that Hotels.com caved right before the article went to press? Typical.
TonyA_says

Hotels.com has nothing to do with this. The hotel is the one responsible for fixing their problem. Bedbugs are quite common in NYC hotels because ditry guests take bugs with them when they use hotels. The hotel should have found the OP a clean room, or walk them, or refund them. Once hotels.com has paid the hotel, how can it get the money back? The hotel has to agree to refund first, right?
http://www.balivillaholidays.com/ Bali Villa Holidays

It’s a shame a hotel like that would be smudged by that very sensitive detail. That’s why it’s important for hotel owners or managers to keep a meticulous check up with their cleanliness and sanitation.
Fred Young

It’s a difficult question.

Generally speaking,hotel should supply a clean and comfortable resting room for their clients.But some low ratio things will pop up beyond hotel’s control.If there is always plenty of bugs in that hotel,I think that is not a suitable hotel for rest.Only 1 case in a year,just negotiate with the clients.
http://flyicarusfly.com/ Fly, Icarus, Fly

Nice resolution. I was expecting hotels.com to at least have stepped in to mediate with the property instead of sweeping her complaint aside. Kudos to them for refunding her directly, even if it didn’t happen initially. However, I “missed” the part where the OP got the hotel manager involved, brought him to her room, showed him the bedbug and stood there while he came up with a solution. Up and leaving the hotel does not sound like she pressed the issue enough there and then.
Ed Boston

As LeeAnneClark mentions, I am most shocked at Amex response of “Hotels.com nor Expedia guarantee ‘the condition of the hotel’,” While it is true that Hotels.com (and how did Expedia get brought into this?) can’t control the actual condition, it is still their responsibility to sell a product that is, for lack of a better word, safe. You think a grocery store would be able to get away with selling a product, say a bag of flour, full of pests using that explanation? I can see if it was because some amenity wasn’t up to par (there was a pool but it was closed for cleaning/maintenance), but not because of a health risk.
TonyA_says

Sounds like the OP prepaid Expedia Hotels.com for the two rooms for two nights.
Then they only spent one night in one room and left.
The hotel and Expedia both did not want to refund because it was a non-refundable rate.
This is the reason why people should think twice to book a room through Expedia’s merchant model. First of all you prepaid and they already have your money. Then they give the hotel a one time use credit card to pay the net rate for your stay.
What the hotel should have done was only bill one room one night to that Expedia Card and tell Expedia to refund one room for three nights. Obviously they did not care.
Next time always post pay at checkout. You have a lot more leeway disputing the bill with your credit card company.
TonyA_says

Chris Elliott, are you suggesting that a slogan or tagline FINDING YOU A PERFECT PLACE constitutes an implied contract or warantee the hotel room will be bed bug free?
By now we know that these are likely meaningless and empty words.
Maybe it should read YOU NEED TO FIND A PERFECT CONSUMER ADVOCATE :-)
TonyA_says

Expedia owns hotels.com. It is a brand of Expedia.
http://twitter.com/Plannergrrrl K. A. Keyte

I’m afraid I had to vote no as she 1) shoudl haev left immediately after finding the bigs in the room and 2) she didn’t raise the issue of refund/dispute until after check-out
Cybrsk8r

Most ridiculous comment of the day. The hotel set themselves up to be “smudged” as you put it. It not a shame, it’s totally justified.
TonyA_says

Say what? What did this Chinatown hotel do to eradicate their bed bug problem and assist guests with bed bug issues? Nothing. They deserve to be castigated.
Ed Boston

still trying to figure out what sensitive detail is being referred to here. Only thing I am coming up with is yu don’t feel the public has a right to know about potential health issues with a business and pointing out an existing problem is smudging them?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Alan-Gore/100000957978287 Alan Gore

New York City guards the health of its subjects by forbidding them to drink large sodas, and yet it allows a $750-a-night hotel to have bedbugs? Somebody well connected to Tammany Hall must own that hotel.
Hal

After a comment like this, really makes me wonder about the quality of those villas you have to rent. How many of them are infested?
Raven_Altosk

Wow, I’m really shocked AMEX didn’t side with the cardholder on this one. Kinda makes me sad because bedbugs are one of those things that Raven Don’t Mess With. YUCK.

Glad this had a happy ending.
http://www.facebook.com/akardoff Alan D Kardoff

It is often too hard to prepay. This may not work.
http://www.facebook.com/akardoff Alan D Kardoff

This is a given
TonyA_says

What do your mean hard to prepay. Most hotels sold by Expedia are prepaid. Like this one.

Note the Expedia Cancellation policy: We will not be able to refund any payment for no-shows or early check-out.
SoBeSparky

Forgetting the legalities of the website not being responsible for the day-to-day condition of the many thousands of hotels being available for booking, Sarah prepaid for something she never researched. How many things do you buy sight unseen on line when you have several review sites right in front of you to give guidance?

Did you buy your $750 camera without looking at reviews or consulting experts? Or your new LED TV for that matter? Did you peek at the Amazon or Consumer Reports reviews, or perhaps cnet.com?

Then why does she look after she spends her money? No laws and no policies can protect people from themselves when they are so gullible that they pay in advance, sight unseen, for something without doing some research or “due diligence.” Once more, P.T. Barnum is proved right.

Am I picking on the victim? I guess so, considering her chutzpah to ask for a refund when she paid for something in advance, probably to save a few bucks, and then discovers she wasted her money. Now whose fault is that? Once more a consumer tries to get a “deal” and ends up on the wrong end of the stick.

Experienced travelers know you never prepay a hotel stay unless you know the property. Almost every hotel has “dumpster view” rooms and other less desirable characteristics. Just how much leverage does a customer have once the vendor has your cash? Do you think you will get assigned the best room in your reservation class when the hotel knows you have prepaid, compared to a pay-at-checkout customer who wisely inspects rooms before agreeing to it?

In all consumer transactions, you should retain as much leverage as long as you can to protect your individual interests.
TonyA_says

Try about $100 a night near Chinatown.

http://cls.cdn-hotels.com/hotels/2000000/1180000/1178400/1178390/1178390_3_b.jpg
Miami510

Lesson One: Not
too long ago, I looked on one of the travel sites, whose initials are
Hotels.com J) and found a price for the hotel in which
I wanted to stay. Instead of booking, I
called the hotel and found their price was $40 more. I asked to speak with the reservations manager. I asked her why they wouldn’t give me the
room for the same price that the travel site was selling it. Without any hesitation, she agreed. Perhaps there’s a general lesson there.

Another
lesson: I’d collect (cotton Q-tip and
medicine vial) the bedbugs and tell the manager (after writing down his name)
that I was going to file a report with the city department of health. I’d show the manager the vial and suggest
that I could be dissuaded from doing so if the hotel could see its way to give
me an immediate refund of the entire room costs. I might also point out that the time,
paperwork, and aggravation dealing with the city probably wouldn’t be worth it,
and they could avoid all that unpleasantness by refunding the money.
TonyA_says

It is a reasonable expectation (even here in NYC) to be rented a hotel room that is free from bed bugs. That said, I cannot blame a person for not doing research about it. The hotel has all the power to do things right. Apparently, they did not.
TonyA_says

You don’t have to go this far for a reputable hotel to address your bed bug issues.
TonyA_says

AMEX must have been infested with too many bed bug complaints :-)

Look even the Ritz Carlton has one reported http://bedbugregistry.com/hotel/NY/Manhattan/Ritz-Carlton-Hotel-Central-Park
emanon256

I am glad she got a refund, I think she deserves on in this case. No Hotel should offer an infested room.

http://bedbugregistry.com/hotel/NY/New-York/Windsor-Hotel

Yikes!
emanon256

First and last time I used hotels.com (many years ago before I was a savvy traveler), I booked a hotel room for a conference I was going to be attending. I of course booked the cheapest room at a no name hotel. The hotel went out of business before the conference. I don’t know the details, but it shut down. I called hotels.com and they said it was non-refundable. After talking to a supervisor and arguing, I finally got a credit minus $100 that I could use towards a new hotel.
emanon256

That shocked me too. I have only disputed on Amex once, but they called me and were every through and very nice.
Joe_D_Messina

Not sure what the “general lesson” is… it’s not at all a certainty the hotel would have been any more responsive than Hotels.com was in this case. (Indeed, the hotel lied about the problem being corrected and also failed to move them to a different room as had been promised. That doesn’t sound like they’d have been terribly responsive to a refund request.) And threatening to call the health department might work if you’re the very first person to bring the bedbugs to their attention. But, odds are, you won’t be.
TonyA_says

Boy what a class act they are :-(

They (Expedia) collect your money ahead of time but they only pay the hotel (the net rate) during or after your stay. So if the hotel closed before your stay and you called Expedia (companies), they should have been able to return your money without a problem. If they cannot deliver their part of the deal, they must return your money.
TonyA_says

LeeAnne, do you think (maybe) if Windsor Hotel was the merchant on record, Amex would have acted differently?
Since the merchant was Hotels.com (an Expedia company) and all they had to do is facilitate the booking, then the service has been provided.
y_p_w

I wouldn’t do it that way. A hotel shouldn’t need to respond to such threats. They need to respond because its the right thing to do. It could also be considered blackmail in some states.

Threatening to call a health dept is one thing, but offering to not to do so for what’s really a cash consideration may be illegal.
TonyA_says

#1) where would they go if they left immediately? Unless they are able to secure another hotel in the meantime, they will crime targets in the middle of little italy and chinatown in nyc.
#2) the OP called the hotel before they came and they were promised if there were bed bugs they would move them to another room. But there was no room available and they all squeezed together in one of the rooms (that also had bed bugs). Since it was obvious the hotel would not do anything to fix the problem, then they left (after booking another hotel). What should the OP do, make a scene at the lobby?
#3) The OP obviously know his/her card was charged by Expedia (or hotels.com). So they called Expedia to get a refund after the hotel could not fix its own problems. If this was a decent hotel, it should have TOLD THE CUSTOMER IT WOULD WORK WITH EXPEDIA TO REFUND THEIR STAY. There is no point in making the guests hope the bed bug problem would disappear the next day. The rooms should be put out of service and a professional called to get rid of the bugs.
TonyA_says

The NYC Health Dept will probably just laugh off the bedbug hotel rant.

As far as I know, you need to be a tenant in an apartment (or similar) to complain with the Housing Dept.

The short term solution for hotel guests is to find an un-infested room in the same hotel or else leave and get a refund.
Joe_D_Messina

“Experienced travelers know you never prepay a hotel stay unless you know the property.”

In the case of bedbugs, “knowing” the property is extremely difficult. The OP saw the reports of bedbugs and the hotel told her the problem had been corrected. How was the OP to know they weren’t telling the truth? And a previously clean hotel can develop a bedbug problem almost instantly. Even if you’d stayed there the night before you could have been lucky and just had a clean room.

I’m also not sure how prepaying comes into play in this example. Let’s say the OP hadn’t prepaid… how would anything have changes in this case? It’s almost guaranteed the hotel would have still charged them for the two nights they’d reserved if they’d bolted the second they saw a bedbug. Given the hotel’s lying about the problem, I think the OP probably had an easier road getting hotels.com to refund them than they would have had with the hotel.
Jeanne_in_NE

Agreed on why the OP didn’t move in the middle of the night. I’ve done walks in Manhattan that take me through Chinatown and Little Italy, and while I love the ambiance during the day, I’d sure be nervous late at night with a pile of suitcases and no alternate place to take them. Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve walked past this hotel – that picture you posted to Alan Gore sure seems familiar.
TonyA_says

especially with a six year old (with an iphone?)
Jeanne_in_NE

Not seeing the iPhone reference. ???
TonyA_says

I just imagined that (up).

I assume that most people have iphones around here except me.
And if the mom just took off she will be on the cellphone calling up hotels or looking at a GPS map.
Knowing how popular smash and grab is here, she will most likely have been a victim.
Jeanne_in_NE

Agree that most people have smartphones of some kind and that they are definitely a “must-have” – and some people don’t use cash to “have” them! Have to keep reminding my husband that devices make one a target – will show him this thread to remind him. But aren’t you (your agency) in Queens?
DavidYoung2

One would presume the room had to be ‘habitable.’ A hotel room with bedbugs isn’t ‘habitable.’ Shame on the hotel, but triple shame on Amex. We expect much, much better from Amex.
LeeAnneClark

I don’t see how it can be viewed as acceptable that just because there was an intermediary, the customer no longer has the right to expect to get what they paid for. Hotels.com sold her the rooms, they were unusable, she deserved her money back. That’s the risk you take if you are going to sell something that you are not providing yourself – you can’t just keep the money if the provider doesn’t provide. By your account, what if she walked into the hotel and they said “tough, we’re not giving you a room”? Would you then say that Hotels.com didn’t have to give her back her money?

She paid Hotels.com for a product, and didn’t get it (it was unusable). They owed her the money back. Now it’s up to them to go back to the Windsor and demand their money back from Windsor. Not the customer’s problem.
TonyA_says

Yup our office is right beside a NYPD precinct.
Personally moved the office there sometime in 1995 since before that our people got mugged at night (near Long Island City). Next block is a Jewish center with plenty of kids; and our street is known for being safe to walk even at 3AM. Have done it many times. I would not recommend the same anywhere in Queens.
LeeAnneClark

While I agree that the hotel is the one responsible for fixing the problem at the time, the fact is they DIDN’T. Hence, the OP didn’t get what she paid for.

I disagree completely that Hotels.com is now out of the picture. As I wrote in my reply to you above, the customer paid Hotels.com for something, and didn’t get it. Hotels.com sold her something that she didn’t get! That seems about as clear-cut as you can get. Not her problem that they have to try to get their money back from Windsor now.
LeeAnneClark

I wouldn’t stay there only because they use this forum basically as a marketing tool. Their comments are nonsensical, it’s just for the purpose of getting their name out, not actual participation in the forum. Christopher should ban them…it’s just spam.
LeeAnneClark

Excellent simile (infested flour). That’s the point I was trying to make. This is not just an issue of quality. This is an issue of basic usability.
TonyA_says

What I am saying is that the Windsor hotel has her money (minus the commission of Expedia). So if any refund is due, because the hotel did not deliver its part, it is the hotel that must return the money. Expedia can also return its commission.

Same thing happens when we sell an airline ticket that needs to be refunded. The airline returns (refunds) the money to the customer and charges us back (recall) the commission it paid us.

I am only reciting the proper procedure for doing a refund.
TonyA_says

As you can see AMEX (a very credible organization) does not agree with your position. AMEX must have read the T&Cs of Expedia and determined that Expedia delivered the service (facilitation) it said it will.

PREPAID HOTEL RESERVATIONS
You acknowledge that the Expedia Companies pre-negotiate certain room rates with hotel suppliers to facilitate the booking of reservations on your behalf. You also acknowledge that the Expedia Companies provide you services to facilitate such booking of reservations for a consideration (the “facilitation fee”). The room rate displayed on the Website is a combination of the pre-negotiated room rate for rooms reserved on your behalf by the Expedia Companies and the facilitation fee retained by the Expedia Companies for their services. You authorize the Expedia Companies to book reservations for the total reservation price, which includes the room rate displayed on the Website, plus tax recovery charges, service fees, and where applicable, taxes on the Expedia Companies’ services. You agree that your credit card will be charged by the Expedia Companies for the total reservation price. Upon submitting your reservation request you authorize the Expedia Companies to facilitate hotel reservations on your behalf, including making payment arrangements with hotel suppliers…

As you said, without being put to shame in Elliott’s column, you don’t think Expedia would have gave the OP any money. That’s the whole point of the story. It was cheaper to pay her off than get negative publicity.
y_p_w

http://www.nyc.gov/apps/311/allServices.htm?requestType=listService&filterServ=Complaint&serviceName=Bed+Bug+Information+or+Complaint

“The City accepts reports of bed bugs in private residences, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) property, hotels, single room occupancy buildings, day care centers, New York City public schools, CUNY colleges, and subways. To report bed bugs in a private house or apartment, you must be a tenant in the building.”

I couldn’t find a complaint form per se, but apparently the way to lodge a complaint is to call 311. I don’t know if it would work with a cell phone, and finding a pay phone can be an issue these days.

Even so, I would never, ever threaten to report someone if they didn’t refund my money. Such a threat could get one arrested for blackmail or extortion. I might say that I intend to report a violation or issue, but I wouldn’t flat out say that I might consider not making such a report if I get some sort of consideration. Many hotels have cameras and recording devices. It would be pretty easy to get everything on video.
mbods

Yes, negative publicity is a great thing! Businesses can certainly treat their customers horribly and get away with it BUT how many of us, who faithfully read this column, will ever stay at The Windsor while in NY? Not me and I won’t be booking hotel through Expedia or Hotel.com either.

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