During any vacation, you should be prepared to investigate the quarters you are staying in to avoid being bitten by any vermin or rodents. It is crucial that you look in the common areas to find roaches, fleas, rats, and bed bugs. Bed bugs are one of the most frustrating creatures to deal with while at a hotel because of how stealthy they are and how long it can take for you to notice an infestation. To make matters worse, the bugs can travel home with you and infest your house as well as your belongings. If you were staying at an Indigo Hotel and you were bitten by bed bugs, it is in your best interest to take legal action. If you do not know where to file a claim against Indigo Hotel for bed bug injuries, look no further than our law firm, the Bed Bug Legal Group.
Facts About Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are small creatures that are only between 1 and 5 millimeters in length. They are round-bodied and flat, and they can only move around by crawling. Sometimes, individuals will mistake them for fleas or ticks, but there are noticeable differences. Fleas, for example, can jump great distances and are differently colored. They also tend to stay near animal beds and on animal. Ticks burrow beneath the skin and most commonly found in forests. Bed bugs, on the other hand, are found in establishments and homes near where their victims sleep, and they feast on human blood.
Bed bugs can easily drink blood because their saliva allows them to bite victims without damaging them or eliciting a pain response. The victim is anesthetized because of the saliva, and then the open wound is kept open thanks to the coagulant present as well. Bed bug bites appear a few hours or days after the incident. They tend to go for exposed flesh so they can rink, often for 10 minutes at a time. If you find bites, you should hunt for the bugs.
The creatures themselves are reddish-brown in color and flat bodied. Once they have fed, they will engorge and swell, turning a deeper shade. You may notice a faint musty or sweet aroma in the area where the bed bugs are. They prefer to make nests in damp, dark places that do not get a lot of sunlight or natural light.
The bugs like to nest anywhere they can easily reach their victims. As a result, the bugs are usually found in hospitality establishments and modes of transportation because of the high turnover rate of users. Clear signs of bed bugs include the shed exoskeletons of juveniles, small cream-colored eggs, brown mounds or droppings, blood stains on the sheets, and a musty or sweet odor.
Because they like to stay in dark, damp places, they are often found in the following locations:
- In linen bunches and sheets
- Behind headboards
- In small corners of the room
- Below chairs
- Behind baseboards
- In mattress covers
- Inside cushions
- Inside upholstery
- Inside drawers
- Underneath dressers
- Underneath box springs and bed frames
- Beneath carpets and rugs
- Behind electrical outlets and picture frames
If you have found evidence of bed bugs in your hotel, it is important that you take legal action. You should contact an attorney to determine how to report a bed bug in a hotel and how to file a lawsuit against Indigo Hotel for bed bugs.
Can I Sue Indigo Hotel for Bed Bugs?
You can sue Indigo Hotel for bed bugs if the bugs bit you or if they cause you some kind of monetary loss. That is, if the bed bugs latched onto your clothing or crawled into your luggage, they could have gone home with you and infested your house. They may have made it so that you had to throw away a lot of furniture and spend a fair amount of money on exterminators. Throughout the ordeal, though, you may not have gotten bitten. You could still file an Indigo Hotel bed bug lawsuit despite the lack of bites.
Can You Sue Indigo Hotel for Bed Bug Bites?
You can file a bed bug lawsuit against Indigo Hotel if you were bitten by the creatures. The presence of bites allows you to file a personal injury claim. Personal injury lawsuits are based on negligence; if you were in the hotel, you were owed a duty of care by the hotel owner, and that duty of care was breached, resulting in an accident that caused physical harm.
While staying at a hotel, you are considered an invitee, or a customer who is on the premises for a mutual benefit, and thus, your safety is of the highest importance. Other types of individuals include licensees, or social guests, and trespassers, or those with no reason to be on the property.
Bed Bug Laws
The Indigo Hotel bed bug policy is simple: there must be no infestation present in the room and rooms should be adequately cleaned and inspected before being rented to guests. The law in California states that all dwellings must be free of vermin and filth, as well, so if there is a bed bug problem, the hotel can be fined for the violation.
Premises liability dictates that property managers can be held responsible for the injuries and accidents that stem from bed bugs. If you wish to file a lawsuit against the hotel for the creatures, you must be able to show that the hotel manager acted in one of these manners:
- The manager caused the hazard in some way
- The manager knew about the infestation but took no actions to fix it
- The manager was not aware of the infestation but reasonably should have been in his investigating
You may not know all the laws regarding bed bugs or what constitutes an infestation. You should strive to speak with a lawyer with experience in Indigo Hotel bed bug lawsuits if you wish to move forward with a claim.
Here Is How to File a Bed Bug Claim Against Indigo Hotel
- Hold on to any copes of medical receipts after you ahvve gone to the doctor for treatment
- Make copies of medical notes
- Take photos of your injuries
- Photograph the bed bugs and evidence of them
- Write down the necessary contact information or insurance information of the hotel
- Print out your credit card statement and keep any receipts showing you were a guest at the hotel
- File an incident report with the hotel after you have gathered your evidence
- Do not take any compensation from the hotel, like free rooms, discounts, or more, as it can negatively impact your claim
- Call one of our experienced lawyers for Indigo Hotel bed bug lawsuits to move forward with legal action
Worth of a Bed Bug Lawsuit
The value of your bed bug lawsuit will vary depending on the extent of your injuries and how many losses you received. The insurance agent will determine the worth of your case and we will have to negotiate a fair deal. The typical hotel bed bug settlement is often very low, totaling less than $10,000. But the biggest bed bug lawsuit settlements can net you well in excess of $1 million because of the different types of negligence and the serious injuries and damages you could have suffered.
Some forms of Indigo Hotel bed bug compensation you can receive include:
- Medical expenses from the past and future for your injuries
- Property damage if your personal items were lost or needed to be repaired or replaced after the infestations
- Vacation fees
- Travel costs
- Exterminator costs
- Lost wages from the past and future if you could not go to work and earn income for various reasons after the infestation
- Pain and suffering damages for PTSD, anxiety, fear, psychological anguish, emotional stress, and more
To find out where to file a claim for bed bug bites while staying at a Indigo Hotel, call our law offices for more assistance.
How Our Firm Helps
The Bed Bug Legal Group is one of the premier law firms available to help victims of bed bug infestations. We have sued many hotels and motels throughout our tenure as professional lawyers and we know the most successful and tactical ways to secure you the compensation you deserve. We are known for being aggressive with the insurance agency and for negotiating ruthlessly until we win our clients the best possible settlement. We are also highly empathetic to our clients and will always put your needs first.
For a free legal consultation, call our law offices today. We can help you get started and will walk you through the process. We will tell you the value of your case and what we think your next step should be. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you will never have to worry about your case details or private information being shared elsewhere – all consultations are completely confidential.
Hire our attorneys to secure our zero fee guarantee. This states that you won’t have to spend any money for legal services throughout the claim. We will cover all the costs of the case and will only be paid if we win. The money will be taken as a portion of the settlement from the hotel. In the event that we lose, we won’t get paid, and you won’t owe us any money. You will never have to pay our firm directly.
Contact the Bed Bug Legal Group today to sue Indigo Hotel for bed bug bites.