Over the weekend, checking in a hotel over at the southern part I noticed something black was blown off onto the bed when the air-condition was switched on. On examining, the black thing is a dead insect. I just can't help thinking about the possibility of bedbugs living within the domain of the mattress. You know.....hotels don't normally have their beds scan for bugs and conduct extermination.... They may have kept those beds for us over a very long period of time. A single female bug can lay up to three eggs a day, with bugs taking on four times their own body weight in blood in just 15 minutes, they multipy extremely fast and not easily detected.
My mind just shifted to a particular lawsuit involving a US lawyer and his wife who claimed that hundreds of bedbugs attacked them during their five days stay, resulting in painful, red, itchy eruptions. They further claimed that these little critters travelled back with them to their Manhattan apartment. As a result their apartment needed fumigation and numerous belongings destroyed.
The lawyer accused the said hotel in the lawsuit for fraud, deceptive trade practice, negligent, reckless, intentional infliction of emotional distress and nuisance.
With lawsuit fo bedbug cases filed in excess of millions of dallars, liability is a major concern. Hoteliers may not be able to stop themselves from being sued, which highlights the importance of good insurance but they can work out appropriate risk management with their insurance consultant to better manage potential exposures . Early detection is a crucial first step. Blood stains from crushed bugs or dark spots of insect excrement on sheets, mattresses, walls and even in picture frames ares sure signs of an infestion.
Getting rid of bedbugs may not be the end to their problems - as a service industry reputational risk is a key consideration. One infestation can taint a hotel's reputation for good. Class action suits are becoming more common place - in February this year, a long-running legal action over conditions at a holiday hotel in Spain resuted in almost 1,000 British holiday makers receiving 2.5 million pound group settlement.
So, it is important for the industry to bear in mind such extention or have all the Public Liability or Comprehensive general Liability policies that you had sold over the years are overly exposure to this nature of claim?
2 comments:
Why are those people not able to feel it when bitten by bugs? This is just craps. Anyway hoteliers do cause checks for bedb bugs very often so there is no need to worry about them existing in the matteress.
get used to them! dont be such a ninny!
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