Disney pays $100k to settle suit alleging ‘extreme’ bedbug attack at Disneyland Hotel

The Disneyland Hotel agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to a former guest who said she was bitten by bedbugs during her stay in 2018.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court says that the guest, Ivy Eldridge, stayed in a room at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, on April 9, 2018. There, she was exposed to “slum-type conditions” that resulted in “financial loss, personal injury and emotional distress,” court documents said.

Eldridge noticed that her room had bedbugs during her stay and reported them to hotel management, who may have received complaints about the same matter before, the lawsuit said. As Eldridge slept, she suffered “numerous bites” that caused pain and made her sick, documents said.

The bites also caused anxiety and distress, loss of sleep, and humiliation, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit accuses the resort of failing to “maintain the premises in a reasonable safe condition” and ensuring proper pest control on the property.

According to the lawsuit, the hotel violated the California Code of Regulation, which states that hotel bedding should be in a “clean, dry and sanitary condition, free from filth, urine, or other foul matter, and from the infection of lice, bedbugs, or other insects.”

The lawsuit also accuses hotel staff of failing to fix the problem after Eldridge notified them about it.

The settlement was first reached in March, but Disney only fulfilled the payment within the last several days, The Los Angeles Times reported.

“We have robust preventative measures in place so that our guests are comfortable and safe during their hotel stays,” a Disney spokesperson told the outlet.

Eldridge and her attorney sought damages to cover the amount Eldridge paid the hotel, as well as unspecified amounts for mental distress and physical injury, the cost of medical care, loss of wages, and attorney fees.

“Closure has value for both sides,” Eldridge’s attorney, Brian Virag, told McClatchy News. “I think everybody’s happy that it resolved itself.”

Virag, whose Encino-based firm specializes in cases about bedbugs and who’s “represented folks in most every conceivable bedbug situation you can imagine,” said cases like this can go on for years and years.

“The path of least resistance is usually a good path,” Virag said. “Everybody’s pleased with the result.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Disney pays $100k to settle suit alleging ‘extreme’ bedbug attack at Disneyland Hotel."