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Revealed: Horrific scars suffered by sisters bitten by bedbugs at London hotel

By Chris Slack
Last updated at 1:14 AM on 24th August 2011



Two sisters bitten 130 times by bedbugs at a London hotel have each been awarded £1,600 damages in an out-of-court settlement.
Melanie Carmen, from Seasalter, near Whitstable, Kent, and her younger sister Joy McDonagh, from Sidcup, Kent, received the money to cover medical costs and lost earnings after learning their room was known to have an infestation.
The sisters were staying at the Airways Hotel in Victoria during February 2010 to celebrate Ms McDonagh's 50th birthday.
Pay out: Sisters Melanie Carmen and Joy McDonagh have received a £1,600 payout after being bitten more than 100 times by bed bugs
Pay out: Sisters Melanie Carmen and Joy McDonagh have received a £1,600 payout after being bitten more than 100 times by bed bugs
They spent three nights at the hotel after Mrs Carmen's husband Leslie booked the two-star hotel on the internet.
But their stay was ruined when they suffered bites from the bugs all over their bodies.
Mrs Carmen was bitten 86 times during her stay, while Ms McDonagh suffered 52 bites.
It took the sisters around four months to recover.
Following their stay, Ms McDonagh realised that she could claim for personal injury using her home insurance.
She contacted travel law specialists Irwin Mitchell who fought the case on their behalf and won the settlement.
Painful: Mrs Carmen was bitten 86 times during her stay, while Ms McDonagh suffered 52 bites. It took the sisters around four months to recover
Painful: Mrs Carmen was bitten 86 times during her stay, while Ms McDonagh suffered 52 bites. It took the sisters around four months to recover
Mrs Carmen said: 'We hesitated at first to stay there, but although the curtains were a bit grubby, the linen in the room looked clean.
'It wasn't until the following morning I woke up and thought I'd picked up a rash from something. After going to the cinema the next night, the irritation increased and started spreading to my arms.
'Joy had the same thing and that's when we asked to move rooms. I showed the reception staff the state of my neck and arms and they told me we should've have spoken up after our first night there.
Infestation: The hotel said it had no way of tracing how the bugs got there (file picture)
Infestation: The hotel said it had no way of tracing how the bugs got there (file picture)
'We ended up with a room on a higher floor. There were newspapers under the beds that were three weeks old, so it was clear to see nobody had swept there and then Joy actually found a bedbug on the pillow.
Since the pair's stay at the hotel, travel website TripAdvisor has been flooded with 'poor' or 'terrible' reviews from fellow guests.
On the website 147 people have rated the hotel terrible, with 79 poor.
One reviewer who posted on the website last week said 'he wouldn't recommend the hotel to his worse enemy.'
A spokesman for the hotel's management said: 'It's very unfortunate what happened to these two ladies, but we have no way of being able to trace exactly where these infestations came from. This incident happened 18 months ago and very often we have a fully booked hotel.
'Experts say there are 20,000 cases of bedbugs in hotels across the UK every year, that's five-star hotels included, so we're not immune to the problem.
'We have a full-time contract with a pest control company and when problems are reported they come in immediately to deal with any issues.'