Quebec Hotel Sues Guest, Laurent Azoulay, Over Online Review

Laurent Azoulay is being sued over a review he left of a Quebec City hotel after claiming both him and his son where attacked by bed bugs during their stay.

Hotel Quebec is suing Azoulay for $95,000 in damages over a review he wrote on the travel site TripAdvisor, according to Montreal Gazette.

Hotel Quebec and Azoulay have very different opinions as to what really went down.

Laurent Azoulay wrote the following on TripAdvisor:

“At first this hotel looks okay, until you wake at 3AM (sic) because you’ve been scratching all over and realize your bed is infested with BED BUGS!

“Beware of BED BUGS! If you are looking for a scratch-free night sleep, stay elsewhere, you will be doing you and your loved ones a favor! Trust me… and that’s why the Internet is a great tool!”

According to Montreal Gazette, the review received 176 votes from readers as being helpful and is one of only 16 reviews marked “terrible.”

The hotel claimed that they tried to help Azoulay out at the time, but he wasn’t willing to be cooperative,

“Cleanliness is the name of the game in the hotel business,” said Quebec City lawyer William Noonan, who filed the motion in Quebec Superior Court here last month on behalf of Hotel Quebec.

“During the (first) night,” reads the motion, “the defendant claims to have discovered in his room a scourge for hotels around the world — bedbugs.”

The hotel, it adds, was unable to give Azoulay another room because it was fully booked that night.

Montreal Gazette reported that Azoulay also refused to go to another of the chain’s hotels nearby (wanting to remain in the same hotel as his son’s hockey team) and returned to his room for the night.

The next morning, Azoulay is alleged to have insisted on meeting Robitaille to discuss the situation, and, when that didn’t happen, the report continued on to say that he checked out of the hotel and threatened to write a bad review about the property on TripAdvisor.

Which he did, and now Hotel Quebec is claiming it has lost costumers because of Azoulay’s review.

“His actions have hurt the hotel a lot. We’ve had numerous people call and tell us they weren’t staying because of it, and cancel reservations,” Noonan said

Azoulay’s lawyer, Muriel Librati, stated, “The way he’s been treated is deplorable. They are insisting my client put bed bugs in his room and that he is just trying to get money from them.”

As far as where the bed bugs came from, it really seems to be a case of he said, she said.

The hotel claims that his room is the only infected room, which is odd; and Laurent Azoulay has video of captured bed bugs and photos of his bites that both him and his son received from their stay.

[Image by KDS444 via Wikimedia Commons]