Were Chelsea Paterson and her friends “wrongfully evicted” from their room in Boston?
Did the hotel leave five grown women to fend for themselves in their pajamas on the frigid streets of the city? That is the question we are trying to answer in today’s case from the trenches of consumer advocacy.
This one’s a live case, completely unedited, unvetted and with missing details. In this instance, there’s one very important detail: We don’t have the Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Boston’s version.
“This weekend my friends and I — five young professional women — were evicted from our hotel room for a noise complaint,” she says.
“We may have been somewhat noisy, as it was early morning, but not excessively loud and we did not receive a proper warning,” she adds. “Three men showed up at our door, threatening to call the police and evict us. We were a little surprised at their demeanor, but explained that we were going to sleep and apologized.”
One of the men said that if they heard “one more peep” they’d be evicted.
And, apparently, someone peeped.
She recalls,
No sooner did we close the door to our room and climb in bed than one of them yelled, “That’s it, you’re gone!” and they entered our room with their own key card and again threatened to call the cops if we were not out in five minutes.
They threw five grown women in their pajamas out on the streets of Boston with all of our luggage in the middle of the night.
We walked around until we were able to find another hotel with vacancy — a mere $600 later.
Paterson says she spoke with the manager on duty at the time of the warning “… before he conveniently disappeared and was unavailable.” Now, she’d like to know who to complain to.
Our advocates are trying to help, advising her to file a complaint to the hotel and its management and, as always, to put everything in writing.
But we’re mindful that there’s another side to this story: the hotel’s
First of all, it’s Spring Break, which means hotels everywhere are being extra vigilant about any report of unruly guests. I know because I’m staying at a hotel right now and I have kids. Enough said.
Based on Paterson’s forum profile, it appears the five ladies in the room were in their 20s, which means they could have been mistaken for Spring Breakers. That would have made hotel security even more vigilant, probably.
Noise complaints don’t happen in a vacuum. It usually takes several complaints from another guest to merit a visit from hotel security. They usually start with a polite call. So there may have been some warning (look for the flashing light on the hotel phone for your message). We just don’t know because we don’t have Marriott’s side of this story.
But kicking five young female guests out of a room in their pajamas in Boston seems extreme. I would only do something like that if guests were vandalizing a hotel room. Let’s just say the expulsion looks a little over-the-top from where I’m sitting.
Paterson may find some useful information in the state’s lodging laws, although she’ll probably come up short. Those laws are typically written to favor the innkeeper, not the guest. (Here is our guide on how to solve your consumer problem).
What should Paterson ask for? What is she entitled to? If you have any thoughts on how to resolve this one, we could use your help.
