Couple Says They Woke Up Covered in Bites at French Hotel; Management Denies Bedbugs

A couple staying at the Abbaye des Vaux-de-Cernay, a country resort near Paris, says they woke up covered in bites and have been left with about $800 in medical and cleaning bills and an unpaid hotel charge of roughly $1,050 after the property refused to reimburse them. The guests contacted their dermatologist after checkout, who reviewed photos and advised treatment, and they saved receipts for dry cleaning and prescriptions.

The hotel responded slowly and then sent a pest-control report, dated a week after the stay, saying no bedbugs were found in the room. Julien Davain, the hotel’s deputy general manager, told the columnist that the room had been closed after notification and inspected by a Paris pest-control firm, which used a detection dog and found no sign of infestation.

He said reimbursing the guests would amount to an admission of guilt and suggested the bites might have come from insects outdoors on the hotel grounds. Experts consulted for the column said the bite patterns in the guests’ photos were consistent with bedbugs. Ed Rajotte, an emeritus entomology professor, and Jeffrey Lipman, a lawyer who handles bedbug cases, both concluded the marks could be caused by bedbugs but noted that definitive proof usually requires clear photos or specimens of the insects on site.

Key Topics

Health, Paris, Julien Davain, As De Pic, Ed Rajotte, Jeffrey Lipman