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Bonaventure Hotel Sued Over Bed Bugs
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel. (Photo by Michael Locke via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
A Delta Airlines attendant has filed a lawsuit against the famed Westin Bonaventure Hotel, saying that she'd suffered bed bug bites during a stay there, according to City News Service.
Ritchie Chery's suit, filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, alleges battery, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, fraudulent concealment and private nuisance.
According to the complaint, Chery checked into her room at the Bonaventure on November 5, 2014. She'd slept for about an hour when she began to feel "severe itching and burning all over her body, including on the right side of her face, her arms, her left index finger and down the side of her right thigh," per the suit.
Chery says that she was bitten about six to seven times, and that she could see blood stains on her bed. The suit mentions that she'd taken photos of the bugs.
A manager and hotel security came to confirm the presence of bed bugs, and Chery was given another room to stay in, according to the complaint. Chery says she dumped all her belongings, including her Delta uniform, immediately after the alleged incident, and that she'd suffered months of insomnia and anxiety because of it.
On the Bedbug Registry, a site for guests to self-report bed bugs, the Bonaventure had 23 reports posted between 2010 and 2015.
We reached out to the managers at the Westin Bonaventure for a comment, but no one was immediately available for a comment. Chery's attorney was also unavailable to speak.
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Another bed beg-related lawsuit was filed at Los Angeles Superior Court in August; a family from the Bay Area claimed that they were bitten by bed bugs at the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland. Unfortunately, bed bugs aren't exactly uncommon in the L.A. area. Earlier this year, pest control service Terminix released a ranking of the most bed bug-infested cities, and L.A. landed in the fourth spot, right after Cleveland, Ohio. You may be surprised (?) to know that New York City was placed all the way down at 15.
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