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I fell asleep with running a bath at a hotel, partially-flooded the room, and they are charging me $3,000 (self.legaladvice)

Hotelguy3344 が 投稿

I was staying at a hotel for 1 night, ran a bath, feel asleep and woke up a few hours later with roughly a quarter inch on water on the floor throughout the room. I was on the first floor.

I tried to clean it up but kinda freaked out, packed up all my stuff, called the front desk to let them know, and then I left at like 4am without ever seeing any of the hotel staff.

Just checked my credit card statement and have a pending charge from the hotel for $3,000. I'm not actually against paying it, as I did fuck up, however, it does appear to be fairly expensive.

I see my options as the following: 1. pay the charge, do nothing else 2. dispute the charge with my credit card and have them figure it out 3. call hotel to get itemized bill and negotiate with them

So, what should I do?

edit: this took place in California.

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[–]grasshoppa1Quality Contributor 110ポイント111ポイント  (13子コメント)

Water can cause a lot of damage. Ask the hotel what the $3,000 is for.

[–]masoj3k 66ポイント67ポイント  (7子コメント)

My guess is maybe some replacement carpet (and associated floor materials) and damages for the days they were unable to let out that room to customers while repairs being done.

[–]grasshoppa1Quality Contributor 56ポイント57ポイント  (2子コメント)

Yep, doesn't seem outrageous to me at all.

[–]SmushyFaceMastiffFTW 40ポイント41ポイント  (0子コメント)

Not to mention labor to redo everything. This is probably a lowball and OP is lucky.

[–]jlong1202 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

And replacing the drywall for the ceiling below, betting that shits soaked

[–]andpassword 47ポイント48ポイント  (4子コメント)

1/4 inch of water on the floor means it touched the walls all around...so ruined drywall on the perimeter of the whole room plus bathroom, remove and re-put up trim (if any) or wall base, clean/dry carpet, repair/replace any particle board cabinetry items that touched the floor and swelled up with water...that's just off the top of my head, but $3k seems about right for that.

It's also a hotel...they can't just run some fans, they have to actively remediate mold and other hazards. I'd feel better that the hotel takes it seriously than if they never mentioned it again.

OP, call and ask them what it's for, try to get an itemized bill, but don't be surprised if this is the legitimate cost.

[–]fuzeebear 3ポイント4ポイント  (3子コメント)

Bathroom would have tile baseboard or cove base. I doubt 1/4" flooding would cause damage to the bathroom. Rest of the place, however...

[–]sciendias 11ポイント12ポイント  (2子コメント)

I've seen hotel bathrooms without baseboard, or those crappy vinyl baseboards that aren't caulked - so water could get behind it. Even if the baseboard was tile, no guarantee it was caulked/grouted well. If it were my bathroom I would be putting a bunch of holes in the drywall to investigate damage and see if water penetrated. If so, then you would have to pull the baseboard.

Also, I would assume the hotel has to cover lost time for the room as well. Honestly, 3K seems pretty reasonable depending on location. There is also potentially pulling up carpet if it's a wood subfloor to let that dry.

[–]fuzeebear 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

I guess I need to spend more time in crappy motels.

I wasn't doubting the 3k figure either way, though.

[–]sciendias 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

I've spent enough time at crappy hotels for the both of us, feel free to keep avoiding them. But even in more mid-scale hotels like Holiday Inns, some Travelodge's, etc. (can't say I have experience with the really nice hotels - thanks grad school!) you can find some really slip-shod work. I can understand why if you're 20 bathrooms a day that quality has the potential to suffer. But it does make those areas vulnerable to this type of problem.

[–]Iswallowedafly 46ポイント47ポイント  (2子コメント)

3,000 for a floor isn't much. Plus the time lost by the hotel where their room was not able to be rented.

Get a list of what you owe. Work from there.

But 3 grand for a floor is certainly doable.

[–]Nametag_job 11ポイント12ポイント  (1子コメント)

Hotel person here:

Comtact the general manager at the hotel and inquire about the charge.

Ask why the tub overflow drain did not work. This shouldn't have happened.

if they want to charge you for room being out of service, ask exactly how many room nights were turned away because they sold out. Hotels have rooms out of service all the time they have to show that you prevented them from earning revenue. Argue this.

Carpet and labor can cost $3000. Theyve probably put a preauthorization on your card waiting on final invoices.

[–]ferengi_esquire 17ポイント18ポイント  (0子コメント)

Ask why the tub overflow drain did not work.

This isn't legal, but a bathtub can overflow even with a fully functioning overflow drain, just because in your typical bathtub, more water can come out of the faucet than the drain can take it at any particular moment. Once the water level gets above the drain, it's game over. Sure, water is constantly draining, but because it's at a slower rate than the water is coming into the tub, it can't stop the inevitable.

Overflow drains work well if you forget about your bath for thirty minutes. They can't prevent an overflow if you let the water run for hours on end like OP did.

[–]AnnArchist 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

sounds reasonable tbh.

[–]briguytrading 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

I would do 3 before I'd do 2.

[–]CallingYouOut2 14ポイント15ポイント  (0子コメント)

I had a refrigerator leak water on my hardwood floor and into some walls. Because there was over 800 square feet of continuous hardwood they had to replace the entire kitchen living area The flooring cost $12k to replace. Water damage adds up very fast. The bill from my water remediation company was $2k alone.

[–]WTFDOITYPEHERE[🍰] 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

Honestly? That seems very generous considering that when my friend flooded his bathroom he had nearly $10k in damages alone.

[–]untaken-username 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

I worry for OP that this $3,000 charge is just the first of many to come. This could be for remediation, later ones for actually replacing the carpet, drywall, etc.

[–]Wellington1815 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Entirely possible. It's also possible that if the hotel has insurance that covers this sort of damage (that is, they don't just self insure), the $3,000 represents their deductible. As pointed out by several others, even if this is in a relatively low cost area of California, there is almost no chance that $3,000 covers all of the hotel's out of pocket costs.

[–]amosite 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

IANAL but we do mold remediation. $3,000 may just be a hold on your card, it may be far more than that. If all they have to do is clean-up and replace flooring $3k may cover it but if they have to remediate sheet rock or wood studs (depending on type of construction) it could be several times more than that.

I am always surprised at how many people "fall asleep" in hotel rooms with bath tubs or showers running.

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Original Post:

Author: /u/Hotelguy3344

I fell asleep with running a bath at a hotel, partially-flooded the room, and they are charging me $3,000

I was staying at a hotel for 1 night, ran a bath, feel asleep and woke up a few hours later with roughly a quarter inch on water on the floor throughout the room. I was on the first floor.

I tried to clean it up but kinda freaked out, packed up all my stuff, called the front desk to let them know, and then I left at like 4am without ever seeing any of the hotel staff.

Just checked my credit card statement and have a pending charge from the hotel for $3,000. I'm not actually against paying it, as I did fuck up, however, it does appear to be fairly expensive.

I see my options as the following: 1. pay the charge, do nothing else 2. dispute the charge with my credit card and have them figure it out 3. call hotel to get itemized bill and negotiate with them

So, what should I do?

[–]wiredinmycoffee 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

had a broken radiator once, leaked water for a few hours, 30k of damage, downstairs unit looked like a bomb went off (collapsed ceiling)

water damage can add up really quickly

[–]AmoebaNot 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

Questions for lawyers please:

Would any of OP's insurance policies (home owners/renters) give him any coverage while traveling? I doubt it....but I am trying to think of an avenue to reduce the out-of-pocket cost.

Next: what happens if he refuses to pay? He can contest the charges on his card, sure, but if he loses the dispute, won't the charges remain on his credit card? Could he go to court somehow to fight them?

[–]_CommanderKeen_ 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'm also curious. Doesn't the hotel have insurance for this kind of thing? Or is considered some sort of negligence?

[–]macimom -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

lol-water where its not suppose to be causes thousands of dollars of damage in minutes. Ask the what its for-they had to empty the room of furnishings, pull up the carpet and if possible blow it dry from underneath (allow two to there days for this-so there is the loss of the room fee if the hotel was full), dry or remove and replace the bottom of the drywall to prevent mold, repair the damage to the ceiling below the room-which means scraping off all the damaged, water logged plaster or drywall, repairing, painting-room out of circulation for that time too-cleaning all that furnishing and bedding. and this is at a minimum Frankly $3000 is cheap.

[–]griffyn -4ポイント-3ポイント  (2子コメント)

Wouldn't the bathroom have an floor drain to prevent this kind of thing? I thought any wet area would. If it failed because it was blocked, could that he an avenue to avoid liability?

[–]MdmeLibrarian 8ポイント9ポイント  (0子コメント)

I have never seen a floor drain in a bathroom except in gym locker rooms and a very small number of retail store bathrooms. I don't think they're very common in the US in private/hotel bathrooms.

[–]gooberfaced 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

I thought any wet area would.

Nope.