I am calling out to all in distress!
I stayed at Harris Hotel Batam Centre Indonesia on 28Nov12 and the room’s bed was infested with bed bugs.
I was feeling itchy whole night and did not get any sleep at all. Initially, I thought I was just sensitive to the bed-sheet. But at 5am in the morning, the itch becomes very bad. I woke up and found a few bed bugs on the bed.
Kill some of the bugs and the freshly-bitten blood actually spilled all over the bed-sheet. I placed the bugs on the ledge in the hotel room. Do see my attached photo. I was bitten all over with swell on the neck, back and hands. The duty manager was informed and he witnessed the bed bug as well as the swollen bites. Checked out and paid for the room at 7am.
When I reached home, I poured piping hot water over my clothes and bag. In the process, my pants and victorinox bag were both damaged by the intensive heat. I have got no choice because this is the only way to get rid of bed bugs just in case a few crawled into my belongings and followed me back home.
The next day, Harris hotel Front office manager wrote to me and offered ONE NIGHT STAY at their hotel again. Will you stay in a hotel with bed-bugs again? I was furious and questioned whether they were “taking me for a ride”. Next, the Operations manager wrote to me and offered me a refund plus medical reimbursement. This is humiliating – Why would I need the hotel room refund and medical reimbursement? Am I so cheap to them? I rejected outright and offered the manager to stay in the same infested room for a night while I pay for his medical instead. I was furious with how the hotel treats their guests and try to brush off responsibility, so I informed them that I want a satisfactory response and will not hesitate to share my bad experience and the photos.
The general manager of Harris Batam Centre was then alerted and he called me immediately (sounding apologetic) to arrange for a meeting on 4Dec2012. My impression was that the hotel’s GM is finally taking it seriously, so I thought I should give them a chance to listen out what they have got to say.
During the meet-up, he informed me a long story of how he and his staff have worked to contain the infestation problem. He kept repeating that he felt responsible and offered that I can approach him anytime if there is anything he can do.
On the following day (5Dec12), I decided to move on, get out of the agony/ torment and go on a short vacation to ease up. So I counter-proposed to the general manager of Harris whether he can help fund half of my short vacation to Thailand, since he had offered "do something for me" in the first place.
On 8Dec2012, the general manager replied. To my shock, instead of just saying "no" and explain that my proposal is beyond his jurisdiction/ mean, he falsely maligned me of threatening him and holding him hostage to this incident. How absurd can it be? This is a simple request which he offered to “do something for me”. Half the vacation cost to Thailand – Is this amount so substantial that I deserve such an accusation from him? I have foregone my damaged Victorinox bag and pants due to de-pesting. I have suffered days of intensive itch. Instead of treating me as a customer who is a victim of their hotel’s bed bug infestation, he changed his stance and accused me.
He threatened me that he will engaged “professional help” and that with all the corresponding email between me and him, he will take actions against me if I were to post the photos of the bugs, swollen bites and about my bad experience with Harris Hotel on any website.
At this point, I realised that it is either I misread the general manager’s intention, or the meet-up was just pure hypocrisy. The hotel is in no way apologetic about the bed-bug incident.
Triple wham! After the torment & agony being bitten by bed bugs at Harris hotel, damage to my belongings, I got “slapped” right on the face with accusation by them.
This is about a hotel that failed badly in its cleanliness, does not feel apologetic and yet threaten its customers. A simple question is: What have they done for me (their paying customer) who was a victim for their hotel’s bedbug infestation? Nothing. Plain allegation.
