Four young women who say they were sex trafficked are suing chains that own Atlanta-area hotels where, the women allege, they were not only forced to perform sex acts for money, but hotel staff helped their traffickers in exchange for a cut of the profits. Hotel staff are accused of ignoring signs that should have tipped them off that the women were being trafficked, including that their traffickers had multiple rooms under one name, dozens of men visited the same rooms each day and there were an "extraordinary number of used condoms" in the rooms' trashcans, the lawsuits said.
In exchange for a slice of the money, hotel staff members would stand guard or warn the traffickers when police were on the premises and when guests complained, according to the lawsuits. The other three chains released statements saying their hotels were operated by franchisees; Red Roof Inn and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, which owns La Quinta but is not named in the suit, condemned human trafficking.
None of the chains spoke to specific allegations. The traffickers advertised the plaintiffs, at least two of them 15 and 16 years old at the time, and subjected them to "violent beatings, controlled and forced drug use, manipulation, threats, fraud and coercion," the lawsuits say.
The traffickers also traded the plaintiffs among each other, according to the lawsuits. The activity continued for years despite police stings, police and guest complaints to management and online reviews detailing the alleged drug and prostitution activity at the hotels, according to the lawsuit.
In the case of the Red Roof Inn, someone purporting to be the manager responded to some negative reviews on TripAdvisor, the lawsuit says. The city ranks third in the country in terms of reports of human trafficking, according to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The lawsuits cite a study commissioned by the US Department of Justice that says Atlanta is one of the most profitable cities in the country for sex traffickers. The hotel staff put up the sign "so that commercial sex acts cannot be accomplished quickly at the Smyrna Red Roof Inn without also paying for a room," according to the lawsuit.
