Is Filing A Defamation Lawsuit Really The Best Way To Respond To A Potentially False Hotel Review?

from the bed-bugs dept

I'm catching up on some slightly older stories and this one was submitted a few times, but I'm just getting around to it. It involves the Carleton Hotel in Oak Park, Illinois, suing a couple for defamation for posting an online review that claimed the hotel had bed bugs -- a big concern for hotels these days. The hotel denies that it has bed bugs. Actually, it goes further than that. It shows the report from the pest control company that came in and inspected the specific rooms that the family stayed in after hearing from them that they had discovered bed bugs in their house, and believed they came from the hotel. That report says: "Not a single bed bug, dead or alive, was observed. Additionally, no fecal, blood evidence was found." Additionally, the hotel notes that the couple its suing are well aware of this, because the hotel's manager sent them the pest control report the day after they contacted him... which was four days before they posted the review to TripAdvisor. In response, the husband told the manager via email: "I will do whatever I can through media outlets or publicity to say that your hotel is negligent in admittance of this bedbug issue."

From the info provided, and without hearing the response from the family, it certainly looks like the hotel has a decent case for defamation here. However, I'm still a bit troubled that it would go after the family, demanding $30,000 -- especially if the family truly believes (even in error) that it got bed bugs from the hotel. If anything, I'm less inclined to stay at a hotel that potentially sues its customers.

Now, of course, others will say, "but what else could be done" in situations where a false and potentially very damaging review is posted. It seems here's a situation where "more speech" should be the answer. The details laid out in the filing are very clear and quite convincing to me (again, not having heard the other side). I don't believe the hotel has bed bugs. So it seems like a better way to handle this would be to post that same info in response to the review, such that people can see that the review itself is not at all credible. Yet, in our legalistic society today, the first move always appears to be to sue. That's unfortunate.

Filed Under: bed bugs, defamation, hotels, reviews
Companies: carleton hotel