China
16:37, 10-Oct-2018
Needle found in five-star hotel bed injures guest, raises security concerns
Updated
16:26, 13-Oct-2018
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The latest case which raised security concerns in highly-rated Chinese hotels, involved a needle hidden under a bed sheet, leaving a guest injured.
On Oct. 5, a Chinese woman was pricked in the thigh after she found a sewing needle sticking out of a mattress in the five-star Longchamp Garden Hotel in central China's Hunan Province.
Pictures of the needle visibly sticking out of the mattress can be seen, as a stab wound was left on the guest's thigh. The needle reportedly looks the same as the one supplied in the sewing kit by the hotel.
A stab wound can be seen on the guest's thigh. /Screenshot via Weibo
A stab wound can be seen on the guest's thigh. /Screenshot via Weibo
However, it remains unknown how the needle ended up on the bed, after the hotel revealed that it didn't come from the sewing kit in the guest's room which was reportedly intact.
“We don't know where the mysterious needle came from. If someone hid it on the mattress on purpose, then there's a risk of being infected by other unknown diseases,” Nanfang Metropolis Daily reported one of the guests as saying.
The hotel apologized to the guests and admitted oversight in room inspection. It offered to return the room's fee, and the guest has said that the hotel should take responsibility she's found to have any more injuries after blood tests.
The room at the Longchamp Garden Hotel in Changsha City, where the injured guest stayed./Screenshot via Weibo
The room at the Longchamp Garden Hotel in Changsha City, where the injured guest stayed./Screenshot via Weibo
In recent years, hotel security for guests has remained a prevalent issue following reports that several renowned hotels had poor hygiene and safety standards.
The most recent case revolves around an alleged mass leakage of client information from Huazhu Group, one of China's major hotel operators, after Chinese media reported in September that about 500 million pieces of private information about its customers had emerged in an online post.
In 2017, five luxury hotel brands in Beijing – including InterContinental, JW Marriott and Hilton – faced hygiene scandals that rocked the high-end tourism industry.
The hotels allegedly didn't change the bed sheets in guest rooms or wipe down toilet seats, according to tests done by a consumer group using hidden cameras and UV lamps. Three hotels claimed that they couldn't verify the accuracy of the results in statements released on social media.