A couple who stayed in a hotel apartment in Noord pending completion of their new-build home will receive eight thousand euros in compensation because bed bugs were present in their residence. The court ruled this week.
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The two stayed with their baby in the hotel apartment from April 18, 2020 to June 6, 2020. They had brought their own bed and their baby’s crib. When they were in their new home, they noticed that their baby was not sleeping well. In August they turned the mattress of the baby cot and found bed bugs on it.
Specialized company
Then they called in a specialized company against vermin. That company found that the bed bugs were present on the four floors of the house. A construction company has closed all the cracks and holes in their home. After that, a steam, insecticide and heat treatment was carried out several times. The couple also took things to the laundromat and threw things away.
Then they held the hotel liable. The couple felt that the hotel apartment should have been checked and warned about the possible presence of bed bugs. They had already been discovered there in 2019 and were then professionally combated. In addition, in the hotel apartment next door, which belongs to the same hotel, bed bugs were discovered during the couple’s stay.
bed bug traps
The hotel refused to pay damages and said during the lawsuit that there had been no complaints for months and that the bed bug traps were empty. Also, the bed bugs could not have overflowed, because there is a thick wall between the two apartments and the apartments are cleaned by different cleaners.
The subdistrict court found it plausible that the bed bugs have never completely disappeared since 2019 and were therefore not properly combated. No other explanation could be found. When a complaint was made by the guest next to the couple in May 2020, the hotel should have suspected that the bed bugs had not been removed properly from the neighbours.
Justly
The couple should therefore indeed have been warned after the complaint of the other guest and the hotel apartment in question should have been checked. Because that was not done, the compensation that the couple demanded is therefore justified.
Bed bugs can be found in several places in the city. Doctor and microbiologist Thecla Hekker of Amsterdam UMC told AT5 in 2019 that there are must act quickly if a bed bug is discovered. “If you don’t raise the alarm quickly, it can really get out of hand.”
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