Red Roof Inn has paid settlements to women and girls who filed lawsuits accusing hotel employees of allowing sex trafficking and prostitution.
What You Can Do & How We Can Help
The Schmidt Firm, PLLC is currently accepting Hotel Sex Trafficking induced injury cases in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know is a survivor of sex trafficking at Red Roof Inn, you should contact our lawyers immediately for a free case consultation. Please use the form below to contact our Sexual Abuse Litigation Group or call toll free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.
Red Roof Inn Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Ends in Settlement for 11 Women
In July 2024, the first hotel sex trafficking lawsuit to go to trial ended with Red Roof Inn paying a settlement to 11 women who accused the hotel chain of knowingly allowing prostitution at two hotels in Georgia.
How Much Was The Settlement?
After 5 years of litigation, Red Roof Inn agreed to pay a settlement to 11 sex trafficking survivors. The amount of money was not disclosed, but the women were all “thrilled and very excited” with the payout, according to attorneys who successfully represented them in the case.
The trial would have been the first lawsuit to hold a national hotel chain responsible for intentionally permitting sex trafficking, but because it ended in a settlement, the jury did not get an opportunity to award damages. Red Roof Inn also denied any wrongdoing.
What Happened?
The sex trafficking lawsuit involved two Red Roof Inn hotels in Georgia from 2009 to 2018. The hotels were the Red Roof Inn in Buckhead and the Red Roof Inn Plus on Windy Hill Road in Smyrna.
Red Roof Inn was accused of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which allows sex trafficking survivors to file lawsuits against businesses who profited by allowing them to be exploited.
Sex Trafficking Lawsuits Claim Hotels Knew About Abuse
Lawyers claimed that employees knowingly allowed sex trafficking, ignored obvious signs of prostitution, and profiting by repeatedly selling the rooms to sex traffickers over long periods of time.
During the trial, an employee of the Red Roof Inn in Buckhead said that many other employees were aware of sex trafficking “because there was so much activity at that property.”
One of the women also testified that employees were aware of prostitution because she had sex with 4 different employees, including an employee who asked her trafficker to “see the girls.” Other employees acted as lookouts and warned traffickers of police activity.
The lawsuit is W.K. et al v. Red Roof Inns in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta Division) — Case Number 1:20-cv-05263-VMC.
Another Settlement for Red Roof Inn Sex Trafficking Survivors
In November 2023, Red Roof Inn paid women another sex trafficking lawsuit settlement involving two Atlanta-area hotels, just before trial was scheduled to begin.
The plaintiffs were each seeking damages up to $150 million, claiming they were repeatedly raped, drugged, beaten, and tortured at Red Roof Inn hotels between 2010 and 2017. According to the lawsuit:
“At a point in time, most of the Smyrna Red Roof’s business came from traffickers renting hotel rooms. The Smyrna Red Roof was full of girls hanging over balconies to advertise, and traffickers directing commercial sex buyers to hotel rooms. There were often more than 100 buyers at the hotel in a single day. Hotel employees also saw traffickers openly beat victims in the public parking lot.”
Do I have a Red Roof Inn Sex Trafficking Lawsuit?
The Schmidt Firm, PLLC is currently accepting Hotel Sex Trafficking induced injury cases in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know is a survivor of sex trafficking at Red Roof Inn, you should contact our lawyers immediately for a free case consultation. Please use the form below to contact our Sexual Abuse Litigation Group or call toll free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.
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