Sex trafficking survivors say the hotel chain ignored obvious signs that they were being trafficked to protect its profits. The company is set to face hundreds of lawsuits across the country, write Richard Hall and Alicja Hagopian
“I think it’s just pretty suspicious to see teenage girls dressed in club wear at 9:00, 10:00 in the morning paying for a hotel room during the week,” she replied.
She spoke about witnessing a pregnant woman being beaten to a bloody pulp by her trafficker in the bathroom and how housekeeping staff came each morning to remove garbage cans filled with condoms and bloody towels.
she encountered many of the same hotel staff repeatedly. Those employees witnessed her trafficker being frequently violent with her and “loud sounds of abuse could often be heard from the room,” the lawsuit alleges.
And accepted up the chain even when employees tried to report it:
Vanessa Cole, a general manager at one of the hotels between 2011 and 2012, said in her deposition that prostitution was a “consistent problem” that she reported “up the chain,” including to Moyer. She said Moyer responded by saying: “yes, we understand we have to, you know, clean up the place, but we also need to sell rooms.”
Yuck, it does sound very blatant:
And accepted up the chain even when employees tried to report it:
“If we didn’t allow rooms to kidnappers, nobody would be staying in a red roof inn!”