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| - There's a certain level of trust you place in hotels to provide reasonably safe and clean accommodations, but I feel the Mirage breached this trust with us on Thanksgiving weekend. At first glance, our room on the 21st floor seemed fine. After a long day, I was pretty tired and decided to call it a night, but my husband was going to meet up with our friend who was staying at the same hotel. I laid down on the bed and was checking my phone when I felt some itchiness on my leg. I really didn't think anything of it, but when I looked down, I saw a little bug moving across the sheets. I quickly jumped off the bed to investigate closer. I wasn't alarmed just yet and went to get a tissue to remove it, but then I noticed another bug of a darker color move in the upper right hand portion of the bed. I promptly took photos of both bugs and quickly called the front desk and used my cell to call my husband because I was completely alarmed at this point and just wanted to pack up and move.
They were able to move us to another room on the 2nd floor. I was so scared at this point as I had heard of BED BUGS, but never experienced them until this stay and I wouldn't wish this on anyone. They're very insidious and aside from skin bites and inflammation, they can easily burrow themselves into your luggage and clothes and then infect your home. I then called down to the front desk again to speak to the night manager and he said they have closed our previous room and a company would come by to inspect it at 7am the next morning. I asked if there was any way they could confirm with us if they were bed bugs so we would know how to proceed. He said most of the time, it's something else, not bed bugs, but assured he would contact us after the inspection was complete.
By 10:30 the next morning after a very sleepless night, we still hadn't heard anything, but were more than ready to check out. I called the front desk again and asked to speak to the manager regarding our previous room. She placed me on hold and then said he was on the phone with the company, but they would go ahead and comp us our night stay. In all honesty, I felt this was the least they could do and I would have gladly paid double to avoid this entire ordeal. I informed her we were ready to check out, but hadn't heard the results of the inspection and wanted to know so we would know how to proceed. She said she understood and would let us know as soon as possible. I told her we would be in Las Vegas for the rest of the day and she could call or text me anytime and then confirmed all my contact information.
My husband and I arrived home late Sunday night and left our luggage and shoes outside to avoid any possibility of infecting our home. In the dark of night, we unpacked our belongings outside and promptly put all our clothes in a hot wash a couple of times. As we hadn't heard anything from the hotel, we weren't sure what to do, but I had spent the rest of the day in Las Vegas researching bed bugs on my iphone and how we can try to prevent bringing them into our home. Suffice it to say, it was very difficult to enjoy our last day there.
I called to speak to the manager again the next morning and said that no one had reached out to us regarding the inspection and we just needed to know as our luggage was still outside. She said that as they waived the cost of our stay, there was nothing more their department could do, but she would immediately send an email to Risk Management. I then told her I was very concerned and scared about bringing bed bugs into our home and was there anyone who could tell us the test results so we would know how to respond further. She put me on hold and placed some calls and was able to confirm the room tested positive for bed bugs. She said normally they would offer to launder our clothing for us, but I said we were already putting our clothes through the hottest wash we could and our luggage was outside of our house, but I would be throwing them away as well as some of our fabric shoes.
The hotel offered another stay and credits, but this has been such a frustrating and traumatic experience and I told them I don't think I would ever be comfortable there again. They then offered a partial reimbursement for the luggage that we had to throw away, but it didn't cover the full cost of what we had lost. My husband and I decided just to absorb the cost of our luggage ourselves so that we could share our very difficult experience at the Mirage with others and caution them to be vigilant to avoid a situation like ours. It's a week later and we're still dealing with the bites and itchiness, working on replacing our luggage, laundering the clothes we had in them again and throwing away anything else that can spread the infestation. This was such a sad and disappointing conclusion to our Thanksgiving weekend and we hope it doesn't ever happen to anyone else.
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