A woman is suing the famed Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas after she allegedly received bedbug bites while staying at the hotel.
Cindi Avila said she stayed at the hotel last January, and when she awoke, had bite marks all over her body, which she captured on video.
Avila, of Miami, told Inside Edition: “One morning I woke up and I noticed I had some bites on my body, within a minute.”
“I then saw a bug jumping on the bed and I smashed it. All of sudden my body was just popping out with bites everywhere. It was immediately very painful, very itchy.”
Avila, who said she called hotel management, said she checked the room out before she checked out.
“I could not believe my eyes. I pulled up the mattress and there were hundreds of bedbugs. I knew this had probably been there for months and this bed skirt had never been changed,” Avila told the website. “I think that’s what I was most stunned about…and how many other people did this happen to? How many other people is it going to happen to?”
In a video she posted from the hotel room, alleged bedbugs can be spotted crawling on a bed skirt—along with what appears to be bedbug droppings.
Avila said that after she was bitten, “things are just swelling up everywhere all over my body. It’s literally unbearable,” according to NBC Miami. “I haven’t slept in days and I just want to crawl out of my skin, die or go to the hospital. It’s literally the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
Atlantis issued a statement on the lawsuit.
“The resort offered to reimburse Ms. Avila for any medical bills resulting from her experience, which she declined. Since that time, Ms. Avila has repeatedly, and through three different attorneys, attempted to extract a large financial settlement from the resort and threatened intimidation in the media if her financial demands were not met,” the hotel said in a statement to NBC.
Avila denied those claims.
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