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Waldorf-Astoria Bitten By THIRD Bedbug Lawsuit
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 5, 2011
Modified Jan 5, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 5, 2011
Modified Jan 5, 2011
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The Waldorf-Astoria has been hit with a third lawsuit by a guest who claims she was ravaged by bedbugs during a night at the tony hotel. Svetlana Tendler, a doctor who's currently a stay-at-home mom, visited the Waldorf during a trip to NYC with her family in August 2007. That makes this the earliest known incident of bedbug biting at the hotel, and suggests the Waldorf has been struggling with an infestation for much longer than previously believed. (The other two lawsuits are the result of bedbug bites from 2010.) Tendler wants $10 million from the hotel to compensate her for what the bedbugs did to her, and says she needs plastic surgery!
Tendler's attorney, Irina Lust, tells us her client waited over three years to file her lawsuit because she was hoping the hotel would compensate her without a costly legal battle. According to the lawsuit, Tendler suffered red, irritated, inflamed, swollen and itchy welts all over her body, resulting in an allergic reaction which caused "a serious infection and significant prominent scarring." The prolonged use of cortisone and antibiotics led to a fungal face infection and severe facial folliculitis with complications to chest, upper back, neck and scalp! The treatments have been costly, and Tendler wants the hotel to foot the medical bills and the plastic surgery she wants.
"For the last 3 years I tried to recover from the bed bugs incident and forget about it," Tendler says. "But I felt like something very important was taken from my life that night and was never returned. I felt like I was eaten alive by bed bugs which have attacked my body." Her lawyer adds, "My client is terrified of staying at hotels after the incident and always carries bed bug spray, a magnifying glass and a flashlight to help her locate bed bugs whenever she is forced to stay at hotels. Mrs. Tendler developed anxiety and sleep disorders. She is always scared that she might bring bed bugs back to her family home after staying at a hotel."
Lust, the attorney, tells us that Tendler informed the hotel management of the bedbugs the morning after the second day of her two-day stay, and that she even brought one of the critters down to the front desk in a cup. (Lust says Tendler's husband was not bitten because they slept in separate beds, and he got the lucky mattress.) According to Lust, manager Brad Mills apologized, offered a discount on their stay, asked permission to take photos of bites, and took the bug away in a ziplock bag. The couple checked out and later received a letter from the hotel asserting that no bedbugs were found in the room. And that's the last they heard from the Waldorf! (By the way, she stayed in room 1651. You don't need to be Shining to know to STAY OUT of that room when checking into the Overlook Waldorf.)
Fortunately, they didn't bring the bedbugs back home with them (the couple lives out of state), which was the fate allegedly suffered by a Michigan family who stayed at the Waldorf last year. But when Tendler got home the swelling became worse and worse. She had fatigue, headaches, drowsiness, and Lust says, "Her face has never been the same. Her face is in disarray. She's very embarrassed to go out. They had a vacation to Bermuda a couple of days later and she couldn't go out in sun." We know, your heart bleeds for her—but don't bleed too much, the bedbugs will track your ass down.
Now that this is the third known lawsuit (filed yesterday) against the hotel, we asked Lust if she was considering a class-action lawsuit. "Possibly," she replied. The Waldorf-Astoria has not yet responded to requests for comment.
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waldorf astoria
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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