through this unpleasant experience.

On August 2nd, I was not experiencing the serious allergic reaction to the many bed bug bites that I would experience within the next 24-72 hours after my stay at your hotel. Upon my return to South Florida, I started to experience tremendous itching, redness, and a delirium I have never known before (i.e., psychological reaction to the realization that I had been bitten by many bed bugs on my body at one time as I lay there asleep during my deep sleep phase, then learning that bed bugs have the ability to anesthetize their victims so they do not wake up while they are sucking blood from their hosts, and that bed bugs can travel back home with their victims through their luggage and clothes).

On the evening of August 2nd and during the early morning of Tuesday, August 3rd, the allergic reaction to the bed bug bites became so toxic that I seriously considered going to the emergency room of Adventura Hospital near my home in Hollywood, Florida. However, I opted--foolishly and in fear that I would appear silly to the Emergency Room staff--to wait until morning and then go see my personal physician about an emergency visit to seek his professional help and to feel better. Kindly know that my personal physician is a veteran doctor, he is a graduate of Tufts University Medical School, and he was scared and pulled away from me when he saw the bug bites on my face, forehead, back of neck, hands, forearms, biceps, triceps, and above my waist on my back.

While I am still recovering, have bite sores and scars, and I still itch occasionally, I can now wear a short sleeve shirt or polo shirt in public. I am very disappointed by your lack of response to my two e-mails (with attachments of pictures of many bed bug bites) and one fax detailing the expenses I incurred to treat the bites and a possible trasnporttation of the bed bugs (i.e., in my luggage, briefcase, clothes, shoes, etc.) to my home in South Florida.

Currently, I am much better now than I was during the the first four days after my stay at your hotel. In fact, I did not sleep well or soundly until the night of Friday, August 6 and Saturday, August 7, 2010. Between Monday, August 2nd and Thursday, August 5, 2010, I slept very badly and I woke up several times each night with fright of being bitten, uncontrollable itching, and general fatigue. To exacerbate matters, I had to go to work with little sleep and work 10-11 hour days for the rest of the week.

Given the psychological trauma, sleep deprivation, and serious allergic reaction to this bed bug experience I had at your hotel, I want to--at the minimum--be reimbursed for the expenses that I both incurred to treat the beg bug bites I experienced and to prevent a possible infestation where I live and to protect this from happening to my family. Thus far, you have ignored my two e-mails (with attached pictures) and fax (copies of receipts/expenses incurred) sent to your attention.

Kindly know that I am a college dean of a large, public urban postsecondary education institution, and I have never complained or done something like this before, but I too have never been bitten by bed bugs until now. In my youth, I was a Boy Scout and I camped out in several national parks and many rustic camp sites. Please know that I have lived in modest homes and apartments as a poor college student for many years, I have stayed at YMCAs, youth hostels, and cheap hotels as a graduate and doctoral student for years, and this has never happened before. Lastly, I have lived and/or worked in 13 states in the United States, I have traveled all over the continental United States, and I have traveled through Canada, China, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain, and I have never been bitten by bed bugs in any hotel until I stayed at your hotel.

As you know, I have stayed at your hotel several times before and this has never happened during my previous visits and/or business trips. Thus, you and your staff know how much I have appreciated your hotel, great staff, amenities, and excellent location, but this is one incident that I cannot accept or forget without being made whole in some small way.

Accordingly, please reimburse me for the expenses I shared with you. Kindly note that I had to purchase Benadryl tabs (to alleviate the allergic reaction), two tubes of Cotizone 10 (to alleviate the itching and scratching), I had to purchase two Allerease Bed Bug Allergy Protection mattress protection covers with zippers (to seek the peace of mind that bed bugs would not migrate to and infest my mattress and box spring, and to prevent further bed bug bites), and I had to use my personal supply of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol, GermX, and Caladryl to disinfect and alleviate my bed bug bites, itching, wounds, and scars. Given that I threw away the receipts to those items that I had to buy, which I did inadvertently, I cannot or will not bill you for these items. However, please reimburse me for the specified amount I did request(under $820.00) that I incurred as a result of the bed bug bites I experienced while a guest at your hotel.

At this point, it has been more than two weeks since I first wrote to you on August 14, 2010 at 2:48 a.m.. If I do not hear from you by e-mail, mail or telephone, I will be forced to seek legal counsel for damages in court, I will pursue this matter with the appropriate governmental offices of Arlington County and the State of Virginia, and I may report this incident to both the local chamber of commerce and the metro area media.

I hope you know that I have never done this before and I do not seek anything other than what I have requested in this e-mail. However, if you ignore me further, I will be forced to seek a financial remedy that may be far more costly than what I am seeking. Please e-mail me if you have questions or need additional information. Thank you.

A very unhappy and disappointed hotel guest,

Peter