The Fragales and others who spent the night at the Reyton Inn on Ohio 122 on Sept. 3 were forced to leave their rooms because they reportedly spotted bed bugs, they said. She said after getting out of the jacuzzi, and climbing into bed, they noticed the bugs.
Ashleey Fragale, 19, and her husband, Anthony, 22, packed up their clothes and drove about 45 minutes from Middletown to Clarksville, where they live.
But the assistant general manager of the Reyton Inn, formerly the Ramada Inn until a name change in December of 2009, and the City of Middletown Health Department, said they hadn’t heard about any bed bugs in the hotel.
Tina Marshall, assistant GM, said if bugs are reported, the guests are moved into a different room, then the room is “taken off the market,” and inspected for bugs. Even if bugs aren’t detected, she said, the room is treated by the exterminator.
She called bed bugs “awesome hitchhikers” who have the ability to travel from one business to another, one customer to another.
The hotel, she said, does “everything in our power” to keep bugs out of the rooms.
When told about the alleged bed bugs, she was “quite surprised.”
Carla Ealy, director of environmental health for the City of Middletown, said the department had not received any complaints of bed bugs in the Reyton.
Another family also was displaced hours after the wedding reception. Crawford and Lori Crowe, of Lebanon, and their two children, Kylie, 12, and Dylan, 8, left the Reyton after Dylan reportedly was bitten.
They immediately packed their suitcases and drove home.
Once back in Lebanon, they removed their clothes, washed them and dried them “forever,” she said.
When Crowe called the hotel, demanding a refund of the $67.44 room, she was told the hotel didn’t offer refunds, but management would approve a 50-percent off coupon for her next stay.
“Like I’d ever go back there,” she said.
She was told refunds are against company policy, which she called “unacceptable.”
Marshall said if the hotel refunded customers their money “everybody would be claiming” they saw bed bugs.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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