① Drinking water leads to sanitizer poisoning
Most hotels provide complimentary bottled water. Guests usually drink this water without any suspicion. However, a recent incident in a Chinese hotel where a guest had to induce vomiting after consuming this water has sparked controversy.
The Lu family, residing in Shanxi, China, went on a trip to Sanya, Hainan Province, for the Spring Festival.
They booked three rooms in a hotel in Sanya. The mother-in-law of Mr. Lu drank the Nongfu Spring water provided in the room and sensed something was off. The water had a strange smell and tasted salty.
Other family members also tasted the water and confirmed it smelled like a disinfectant.
Mr. Lu tried another water bottle in the room but found nothing unusual. Mr. Lu said, “The cap was closed before my mother-in-law drank the water, and the bottle was full,” adding, “It’s unclear if the bottle had been opened before, but the outside of the bottle looked new.”
Mr. Lu took the smelly water to the front desk. The staff took the water, apologized to Mr. Lu, and gave him a new bottle.
However, from that point, his mother-in-law started to feel nauseous and complained of pain. Mr. Lu returned to the front desk to ask for the smelly water to verify if something was wrong with it. The staff pretended not to know anything about it.
Eventually, when Mr. Lu reported the incident to the police, the hotel staff brought back the problematic water.
Mr. Lu’s mother-in-law was taken to the hospital, where she had to induce vomiting. The hospital diagnosed her with ‘sanitizer poisoning.’
② Guest demands compensation
Following the incident, Mr. Lu demanded approximately $30,000 from the hotel. The hotel offered to waive the room charges for their 3-night, 5-day stay.
Mr. Lu criticized, “Except for the hotel driver who took us to the hospital and paid the medical bills, no hotel manager has apologized.” The water distributor also offered Mr. Lu a consolation payment, but he rejected it.
Mr. Lu exposed the incident on social media, and it started to gain attention. Netizens speculated that the hotel cleaning staff might have mixed up the bottles or someone dissatisfied with the hotel might have intentionally put sanitizer in the water bottle. Some also argued that the compensation offered by the hotel was too low.
On the other hand, some netizens claimed that the incident could have been staged to demand compensation.
③ Controversy over Chinese luxury hotels
Meanwhile, several controversies have arisen in Chinese hotels. A rotten sock in a kettle was found in a 5-star hotel in Nanning, Guangxi Province. Mr. Xiao Zhou stayed in the hotel and drank two bottles of water provided in the room, but he still felt thirsty, so he boiled tap water in an electric kettle.
The following day, he tried to pour the water but found the kettle’s spout was blocked. When Mr. Xiao Zhou opened the lid, he discovered a rotten sock inside the kettle.
He said, “As soon as I opened the kettle’s lid, I found a rotten sock stuck to the bottom. When I saw the rotten sock, I thought of the water I drank last night and immediately felt nauseous.” Mr. Xiao Zhou notified the hotel and demanded an apology. The hotel staff showed an indifferent attitude, asking him to return the next day as the manager was not present. He revisited the hotel the next day, but the person in charge refused to meet him.
Mr. Xiao Zhou visited the hotel again and strongly demanded an apology, but the hotel staff yelled at him, asking if he had any evidence that the hotel had put the sock in the kettle. He made the incident public on social media and posted a photo of the kettle with the rotten sock.
Mr. Xiao Zhou said, “I didn’t visit the hotel multiple times to receive monetary compensation or damages. If the person in charge sincerely apologized for the incident, I was ready to leave immediately, but instead of apologizing, they treated me as a black consumer.” The incident spread through social media, and netizens criticized the hotel.
The local public security bureau advised that anyone who experiences unfair treatment or disposition when staying at a hotel or other accommodation should immediately report it. In addition, shocking hygiene practices in Chinese 5-star hotels sparked controversies. Investigators discovered cleaning staff using the same brush for toilets and cups; many of these hotels belonged to international chains. The repeated issues at luxury hotels have intensified the controversy.
By. Kim Min-jae (minjaaie33@mememedia.co.kr)
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