Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite your patrons Hotel Quebec, otherwise you might just have to sue them.
What started as an unpleasant stay for one guest at the family-friendly hotel has evolved into a lawsuit over bad reviews and allegations of bed bugs.
On April 26, Laurent Azoulay booked a two-night stay at Hotel Quebec in Québec City as part of his eight-year-old son's hockey tournament. The father says he woke up during the middle of the night Friday to find bed bugs nipping at his legs.
"I not only saw them, I videotaped them. I kept them in a glass that I brought downstairs to the front desk to show them," Azoulay told CBC Radio's Daybreak Montreal.
Hotel staff tried to accommodate Azoulay but given it was the middle of the night and all other rooms in the hotel were fully booked, Hotel Quebec could only move him to a nearby chain hotel to stay the rest of the evening.
But Azoulay, who had travelled with his son and hockey teammates, says he didn't want to move everyone in the middle of the night only to wake up a few hours later to catch the hockey tournament.
And so he stayed for the remainder of the night.
After returning back from the hockey game on Saturday and being moved to a different room, Azoulay got in touch with one of the hotel's general managers who offered him a $40 rebate for his first night stay, an offer which he called "insulting".
Azoulay reportedly told the general manager she should beg him not to tell another person about the incident according to court documents obtained by La Presse.
After deciding he had had enough with the hotel, Azoulay left but not before telling nearby patrons about his bed bug experience. Once arriving at home, the Montreal native then wrote a scathing review on TripAdvisor detailing his experience with Hotel Quebec, according to the Daily Dot.
Since the review went live on April 27th, Jaro Hotels, the chain that owns Hotel Quebec and a handful of other properties has seen a flood of calls and concerns over bed bugs and a dip in business. Management at Hotel Quebec don't dispute finding bed bugs in Azoulay's room but insists the incident was a one-off, notes SweetIQ.
Azoulay, for his part, has refused to remove his review, leaving the hotel's general manager, Jacques Robitaille to file a lawsuit against him for damages and loss of profit worth $95,000.
The case has yet to go to court and none of the allegations have been proven in court.
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