My wife and I planned a romantic 4 night stay at the Hotel Verneuil, from 9Feb07 to 13Feb07, largely based on this website%26#39;s reivews, so, based on our experience, I joined this site to express my/our opinion.
We booked a Deluxe room and found it small but adequate and as described on this site. At 0200 on our first night, we both found that we could not sleep (time change from Toronto) and agreed to turn on the bedside lamps and read....only to find a blood engorged BEDBUG sitting on the sheet by my wife%26#39;s face! She immediately squished the little beast and called the night clerk who brought us sheets to change the bed. He was in disbelief and only offered my wife a cognac. At 0200, with nowhere to sleep (we would not be getting into that bed again), my wife thought we should check the rest of the bed for more (BEDBUGS do not live alone!), to offer proof that my wife was not hysterical. Between the bed skirt and the boxspring we found all the evidence we needed, and put two more BEDBUGS into a glass, then gave it to the night clerk....Only then he told us that we could more to a small room on the first floor (off the lobby). We moved rooms and spent a sleepless night, my wife quite angry.
As frequent business and personal travellers, we had one previous BEDBUG experience about 5 years ago at a major five star Hotel chain, and are well versed (via Internet) about most aspects of the worldwide BEDBUG problem, including the fact that the bites would create painful, itchy whelts for the next two to four weeks.
In the morning, Saturday, we were assured by the day Manager that the situation would be remedied. After breakfast, the manager AND the owner (by phone) explained that we could move to another room (regular... no deluxe available) and that we would only be charged for a regular room...NO APOLOGY was ever offered, and certainly no compensation for our terrible night. We felt that that they never really believed us (the glass with the BEDBUG in it was not seen by us again) and the Owner said to my wife (fluent in French) that she was making a busines decision to charge us for the room, despite the fact that we actually paid to have a restful night%26#39;s sleep, NOT a fitful night, hunting for BEDBUGS and changing rooms. In fact, we did not sleep at all.
We are quite reasonable people and asked that we not be charged for that night only...they flatly refused (business decision) and we asked that they get us another Hotel, which they did and we went on to have another exellent PARIS trip, in a BEDBUG free Hotel. By the next day at supper, my wife had about 12 obvious BEDBUG bites around her face(2), forehead(4), arms(4) and legs(2). These typically show up 1 - 3 days after the bites occurred, are 0.5 cm red painful, itchy, swollen bites that can last for weeks.....my wife did not enjoy the rest of the trip as her face was pocked with these painful and painful looking bites.
Of note: we don%26#39;t think they ever really believed us, and wonder seriously if they did anything to our room after we left (they changed the sheets) and made a very bad business decision by treating us like WE were a problem for THEM and they were relieved when we left! I pointed out to the Manager that many potential guests (like us) at their Hotel would have read this website prior to booking and that I would make sure that I posted a full, detailed account of our experience and that we thought they had made a BAD business decision and should worry more about their BEDBUG problem and how they treat their guests. They took NO accountability for their infestation and that a guest was significantly harmed by the BEDBUGS.
DON%26#39;T stay here until the Health Authorities have inspected the Hotel Verneuil. We would not recommend that anybody stay here. We still have not recieved any email or phone call (and no reversal of the visa charge) from the management of the Hotel Verneuil. NO apology, no info re fumigation, nothing.
I%26#39;ll continue telling my associates (I am a Physician and work in a large Toronto Hospital) to avoid the Hotel Verneuil. I%26#39;ll gladly answer any questions you may have and point you toward a great alternative Hotel in the 6th. Sorry about the long post but the details really did need to be posted to convey the irritation we%26#39;ve experienced.
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I am so very sorry about your situation. Your wife must have been miserable. I can only image how uncomfortable she must have been for the rest of the trip. I thank you for the warning about the Hotel Verneuil. I think it is awful of these owners not to refund the one night for you. Who knows...maybe this is such a %26#39;regular%26#39; occurence for them, that it does not phase them anymore.......
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RPL could be right. It sounds to me as if the hotel has been through this before and has made the conscious decision to screw the guests.
Bedbugs are a very serious issue in the travel industry these days. If I had been treated the way James and his wife were, I would not stop with a posting here. I would write to the French Health Authorities, the Hotel Industry Associations, the French Bureau of Tourism, the Hotel Owners (not the managers onsite), French and other travel magazines. Like James said, bedbugs are not new to the world, but how a hotel handles them when they have them is very important.
If they choose to treat the guests and the problem as James has said they did, I would play hard ball too.
My keyboard could be heard clacking miles away. It may make no difference at all, but it would make me feel better.
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Did you take any photos of the bed bug in the jar? Did you take photos of your wife%26#39;s bites?
If you did send copies of them along with your narrative to the place listed above and also dispute charge with your credit card company and send all directly to them too.
It is too bad your trip had such a bad experience associated with it!
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Please post a review for the hotel on this wed site as well. When people read about the problem, it will surely hurt business and may even solve the problem for future travelers. This should not happen to anyone!
I%26#39;m so sorry about your trip. Hope the next one is MUCH better.
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Not only would I post a review of the hotel, I would e-mail (or snai-mail) them the review and a link to this thread
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So sorry to hear about this, James! Certainly is a sure-fire way to ruin a vacation. I agree with Pixfield about emailing them a link.
I think what is also disturbing is that you aren%26#39;t recounting a tale from a budget hotel, hostel, or some sketchy establishment. This is a 3 star hotel, in what seems to be a great location, and, from the website, it looks gorgeous. You would think that a place which appears to be so maintained and posts its accolades on its home page, would do a better job of handling this situation.
James, I%26#39;m mad for you!! :)
But, I do hope that you and your wife managed to salvage your vacation!!
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The first thing I do, no matter where I stay, is inspect the mattress and bedding. I mean it. I will removed the sheets to check the mattress. If it is infested, there will be evidence.
I know it sounds a bit weird, but I don%26#39;t want to end up as something%26#39;s dinner during my sleep.
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Recently I started keeping a list of terms and phrases I thought would be useful for searching this most useful website when preparing for the next trip. Thanks to your posting I%26#39;ve added %26quot;BEDBUGS%26quot; to the list. Cooties too. Am I missing any other terms for these little buggers?
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Jeez...and I always thought that cooties were what little girls got when they inadvertantly touched a boy at recess in the first grade...live and learn:)
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S___tuff happens. But you%26#39;re ABSOLUTELY RIGHT !! It does seem a horrible %26#39;..business decision..%26#39; on the part of the hotel%26#39;s management......and it wasn%26#39;t as if you were demanding that your entire stay be %26#39;.comped..%26#39; and they treat you to a 3-star Michelin meal because someone had forgotten to replace the TP roll in the bathroom.
But frankly, the attitude you ran into was the not-uncommon, unwritten code of %26#39;..Customer Service..%26#39; in France.....that, %26#39;..The customer is ALWAYS wrong..%26#39;....and even when the customer produces overwhelming, incontrovertible, unambiguous evidence of their claim (in your case live specimens of the offensive creatures), all they%26#39;ve %26#39;..proven..%26#39; is that they%26#39;re not necessairiy %26#39;..wrong..%26#39;.....which within the %26#39;..code..%26#39;...still isn%26#39;t quite the same as being %26#39;..right..%26#39;. (%26quot;..How do I know these are French bedbugs??...and not Canadian??...do they have a pasports to prove their origin??..%26quot;...a friend of ours actually had nearly that same conversation at a small hotel in Provence a few years ago)
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