Crashing at a hotel only to leave at the end of your stay feeling itchy, possibly sounds like a nightmare for many. Well, for a pair of California men, they turned their bed bug fiasco into a $2 million award.

Alvaro Gutierrez and Ramiro Sanchez filed a lawsuit against The Shores Inn in Ventura, California, after their February 2020 stay left them with "painful bed bug bites, severe skin rash, allergic reaction, scarring and personal injuries over the entirety of their bodies," according to the complaint obtained by USA TODAY.

The lawsuit filed in December 2021 by lawyer and bed bug specialist, Brian J. Virag, of My Bed Bug Lawyer, Inc., alleged that the couple discovered the bedbug infestation after checking into their room and were moved into another, where they "continued to be massacre(d) from bed bugs (sic) bites." It also alleged, based on Google and Yelp reviews left by prior guests, that management had previously been informed of the same issue.

Guitierrez and Sanchez awarded millions in court

Gutierrez and Sanchez were forced to seek medical treatment after their stay at the hotel, the suit alleges, as bed bugs "latched onto the Plaintiffs while they slept, sucked their blood until they were gorged, and resisted eradication."

The two experienced pain, illness and emotional and mental distress due to the incident, said the complaint. As a result of the bed bugs, they left the hotel after only one night despite having reservations for a week-long stay, according to the lawsuit.

On May 23, jurors awarded Gutierrez $400,000 for pain, disfigurement, grief and emotional distress, while Sanchez received $600,000 on similar complaints. Each man was also awarded $500,000 in punitive damages.

The hotel intends to appeal or otherwise challenge the decision, appellant lawyer Wendy Lascher told the Los Angeles Times. After the verdict, a note was found in one juror's notebook suggesting that two jurors may have gone near the inn during the trial, and another juror allegedly commented to others during the trial that the hotel was “an eyesore and should be tore down," the outlet reported.

Shores Inn did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Thursday, June 5.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2 hotel guests in California awarded $2 million in bed bug lawsuit

Reporting by Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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