To whom it may concern:
I sincerely hope this message is going to the Manager of the Super 8 on Pleasant Valley Road in Fairmont WV. I was supposed to stay in a Jacuzzi room at your hotel this past Saturday night (June 28, 2008) with my boyfriend. I reserved the room online, like I am accustomed to doing, and was certain everything was okay.
Upon arrival at the hotel, the desk clerk (I apologize but I did not get his name, he was the only one working at 5:45 that evening) asked how I was paying. When I replied "Cash," he said I would have to hold the room via credit card for the evening and pay cash upon check-out the following morning. I'd never encountered that before, but that was fine with me anyway. He took my information and said (exact words) "I just need to get an imprint of your card." I handed him my debit card, he filled some more papers out, handed me my keys and said "thank you."
To my room I went. Unpacked my bag and prepared to take a shower. Mid-way through my shower I heard someone enter my room. It was the desk clerk! And I was in the shower! He said "excuse me." and I said "excuse me I'm in the shower!" so he said (still in my room), "your credit card was denied." and I said "ok, I'll take care of it when I get out of the shower."
Once out of the shower (and after attaching the safety lock on my door to prevent future invasion), I contacted my boyfriend, who was on his way to the hotel, and asked him to give the clerk his credit info when he got to the hotel. Before I could even finish dressing, another knock - and another intrusion - by this large man the desk clerk. He couldn't get through since I'd put the security lock up. But he was Yelling this time. "YOU NEED TO COME TAKE CARE OF THIS." I said, "sir my boyfriend is on his way, he'll be here in minutes." NO YOU NEED TO COME NOW. "Five minutes sir."
He left. I called my boyfriend who promised me he was on his way. I finished dressing, picked up my phone and room key and went downstairs (leaving my purse/wallet/money/car keys/etc. In the room). I waited for my boyfriend for a few moments by the back door. I then heard a lot of voices coming from the lobby, so I thought it safe to go that direction (the desk clerk was honestly scaring me at this point). He was behind the desk when I got there, and I told him my boyfriend was on his way and I was waiting for him there rather than in the room.
"you're too late" was his response. He requested that I leave the hotel. "whatever, I'll go get my things and leave the room," I said.
When I got to my room, there were POLICEMEN in there. Five of them. Going through my things. Dumping my purse and all my belongings onto the bed.
Seriously? I weigh one hundred pounds. Was this large 300 pound plus man afraid of me?
So I told the police officers what had happened and they chuckled. Laughed out loud actually. They said "I'm sorry but he is asking you to leave."
"Gladly" was my response.
Sir, I'm not sure what to do from here... Everyone is telling me to contact my lawyers and have this gentleman fired for sexual harrassment. I was scared and felt in danger by myself in that room! First of all, this is a terrible experience to go through and I'm sorry that you were subjected to it.
I agree 100% that you should contact the regional headquarters of this chain. The national headquarters office is located in the following:
Super 8 Motels
1 Sylvan Way
Parsippany, NJ 07054 (Map)
Phone: 973-428-9700
Fax: 973-496-7307
Toll Free: 800-800-8000
Secondly, unlike the last responder that I read I think that you had a legitimate expectation of privacy in your hotel room. To the best of my knowledge (and the U.S. Supreme Court) that in a situation such as your own the clerk had the right to attempt to resolve the situation from the common area of the hotel/motel. However, the clerk had no right to enter your room that you had arguably secured with your online reservation absent such a right.
Additionally, a hotel can not authorize the police to enter into a hotel room where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. As a matter of fact:
The Restatement (Second) of Torts at 搂搂 652A-652I, classifies four basic kinds of privacy rights:
unreasonable intrusion upon the seclusion of another, for example, physical invasion of a person's home (e.g., unwanted entry, looking into windows with binoculars or camera, tapping telephone), searching wallet or purse, repeated and persistent telephone calls, obtaining financial data (e.g., bank balance) without person's consent.
That would be applicable to your situation.
There wasn't sexual harassment unless he did something more then break into your room and attempt to talk to you. But their was a violation of your expectation of privacy that the law might provide a remedy for.
(I can't find the specific U.S. supreme ct case I'm thinking of with hotel rooms and expectations of privacy but it was within the last 8 years).....
Also see:
The right to be let alone 鈥?the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. To protect that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928) (Brandeis,J., dissenting). WOW! That is really a messed up deal! I know that online reservations are different than direct ones and cannot be altered. Not sure about the legal aspect here but if you wrote a complaint to their headquarters you might at least get some free hotel stays at some of their OTHER locations. Good luck! Call the hotel chain 800 number, Start there. They will be willing to work something out with you to save face. Then contact a lawyer. You do have a sexual harassment case as well as Threats and intimidation. you gave them a bogus credit card, you are lucky you were not arrested. There are very specific laws about defrauding an innkeeper. Yup, sue them. If at any point you felt threatend or harrased in an kind of way or even scared then sue them so this will not happen to anyone else. Although the clerk was less than professional, and certainly shouldn't have entered your room, there was no sexual harassment.
With your credit card denied as it was, you had not, technically, secured your right to the room. That fact permitted the desk clerk to enter, and gave the clerk authority to permit the police to enter. Why the clerk over-reacted is anyone's guess.
You don't have a lawsuit. You have every right to sue the desk clerk for invasion of privacy and not doing his job properly. If the card was denied and, he had no right to come into your room while you werer taking a shower. He should have waited, called you, and let you know. Get the hotel manager invovled, sue the hotel, sue the clerk, but the cops were doing their job. They got called from the hotel and were asked to inspect. That's a terrible experience. Writing a formal complaint might get you a free stay next time but as far as legal concerns go...I don't think there was anything 'illegal' about what happened. The part about the guy coming into your room was kind of freaky, but since you were in the showerr, you didn't hear him knock, and he can use that as an excuse for coming in. Since your credit card was declined, it was his responsibility to get payment from you....but he went about it totally disrespectfully. |
