Super 8 Motel has some 2000 locations across North America. And, according to the company's website , here's the profile of its typical customer:
Our typical guest is a cost-conscious but discriminating working professional traveling for business or leisure, or retired leisure traveler. Wherever they are, our guests can count on clean rooms at reasonable rates at any Super 8 motel along the way.
Bahman and Sorour Payman, two of those discriminating guests, were so displeased with their stay at one of the chain's properties that they sued the company in the Justice Court of the Town of Newburgh (Orange County) for damages caused by the motel's assignment of a "substandard room."
Dissatisfied with the $69 they were awarded by the Justice Court (after a non-jury trial), the Bahmans appealed to the Appellate Term, 9th and 10th Judicial Districts. Since it could discern no irregularity, and found that "substantial justice" had been effected, the appellate court affirmed the outcome.
At one time or another, most of us have had a horrific hotel experience. (It's like a rite of passage.) In the majority of instances, complaints are addressed promptly and satisfactorily, with rooms reassigned or some form of compensation offered for the inconvenience suffered.
But the next time you've got some hotelier being needlessly hostile or resistant, you may want to vacate, and not pay, man!
For a copy of the Appellate Term's decision, please use this link: Payman v. Super 8 Motels, Inc.