When you pay good money to stay at a hotel, your health and safety should be the number one priority. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. While most hotels do their best to create an enjoyable experience for guests, issues like poor cleaning services, poor pest control, and systematic health code violations can lead to serious bed bug infestations. Not only are bed bug bites itchy, irritating, and unsanitary — they can also necessitate costly medical care and property replacement while causing emotional trauma and distress.
As a paying guest, you have a right to expect clean and sanitary conditions, including bed bug free rooms, from every single hotel that is one of the 6,300 hotels franchised by Choice Hotels. If you had to receive medical treatment or discard costly personal property because of a bed bug infestation, you may be entitled to compensation for your financial losses. If you were bitten by bed bugs, you may be entitled to recover compensation for pain and suffering, including for any permanent skin disfigurements, caused by the bites.
The Maryland hotel bed bug lawyers of Whitney, LLP can help. Our skilled legal team has extensive experience handling bed bug litigation stemming from personal injury claims, and offers free initial consultations for new clients. If you were bitten by bed bugs while staying at one of the 6,300 hotels franchised by Choice Hotels, or reserved your hotel through ChoiceHotels.com, call our law offices today at (410) 583-8000 to start exploring your legal options in a free and private case evaluation.
Choice Hotels Locations
Choice Hotels franchises and operates over 6,300 hotels. It also provides an online booking service that allows users to make hotel reservations at thousands of hotel and motel locations across the country. Because Choice Hotels is headquartered in Maryland, the state of Maryland may have jurisdiction over any resulting litigation, regardless of where the hotel in question was physically located.
In other words, it does not matter if you were bitten by bed bugs while staying at hotels operated by Choice Hotels in New York, California, Texas, or anywhere else in the United States. No matter where you made your reservation, you can potentially bring a lawsuit against Choice Hotels in the state of Maryland. Whitney, LLP has successfully filed dozens of bed bug lawsuits in Maryland, with some of those cases arising in another state.
Choice Hotels operates a variety of boutique specialty hotels and popular franchises, including but not limited to the following:
- Ascend Hotel Collection
- Cambria Suites
- Clarion
- Comfort Inn
- Comfort Suites
- Econo Lodge
- MainStay Suites
- Quality Inn
- Rodeway Inn
- Sleep Inn
- Suburban
If you’re planning a vacation or business trip, it is always a good idea to contact your hotel ahead of time to request information about whether your room has a history of bed bug outbreaks. The front desk clerk should provide you with accurate and truthful information about past incidents, and should also change your room if it brings up a history of infestations.
How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Maryland?
Even if you aren’t quite sure whether you have a case or not, it is important to contact our attorneys as soon as you possibly can. In all but a few exceptional cases, a law known as the “statute of limitations” sets a strict time limit on how long plaintiffs have to bring personal injury claims. The statute of limitations on Maryland personal injury claims is three years, beginning from the date of the incident.
Three years may sound like more than enough time, particularly if your experience occurred recently. However, it is always prudent to seek legal help sooner rather than later. The earlier our legal team can get started examining the circumstances of the infestation, the more time will remain to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation.
Health Problems Caused by Bed Bug Bites
It’s a common misconception that the only side effect of bed bug bites is itchy skin. As a result, bites are often dismissed as mere annoyances. Unfortunately, this myth could not be further from the truth.
The risk of contracting disease from bed bug feces has recently been confirmed in a peer-reviewed journal article in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, published online November 17, 2014, which focused on bed bugs as vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, R. Salazar, et al., “Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) as Vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi,” American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, published online November 17, 2014.
Chagas disease is a slow killer, which remains hidden for years and can lead to sudden death or heart failure. The authors of this study concluded that “bed bugs have a high potential for feces-mediated transmission.” Thus, review of the research literature on bed bugs and disease demonstrates that there is high potential for bed bugs to transmit deadly disease in addition to the known risk of serious systemic allergic reactions, secondary infections, and mental suffering.
In order to determine what diseases bed bugs carry, the attorneys at Whitney, LLP can arrange for the actual bed bug to be tested for disease.
Bites inflicted by bed bugs can lead permanent scarring and disfigurement of bitten areas, which in turn can cause severe emotional distress for the victim. If a bite becomes infected, the victim may have to purchase antibiotics and antiseptic medications.
Furthermore, some people have serious allergic reactions to bed bug bites. A severe allergic reaction may require emergency treatment with an injection of adrenaline, corticosteroid, or antihistamine.
In addition to their physical and emotional suffering, bed bug victims often sustain major financial losses as well. Bed bugs are adept hitch-hikers and can easily follow hotel guests when they leave, infesting their homes and everything in them. Victims often discard and replace their mattresses, clothing, carpeting, pieces of furniture, and any other infested items.
If you were bitten by bed bugs while staying at a hotel franchised or operated by Choice Hotels, or booked through ChoiceHotels.com, you may be able to recover compensation by filing a personal injury lawsuit in Maryland. To start discussing how we can help in a free and completely confidential legal consultation, call the law offices of Whitney, LLP right away at (410) 583-8000.