NO one was creeping or crawling out at Holbrook yesterday to throw light on which motel had had spiders in the beds.
Except that Greater Hume mayor Heather Wilton was angry that NSW Fair Trading had published some details of a spider incident without actually identifying the motel concerned.
Cr Wilton said the decision not to name the business had blackened the reputations of all the town’s accommodation providers.
NSW Fair Trading mentioned Holbrook in a report of 530 complaints received statewide about hotels and motels over 17 months up to May this year.
It said a family had paid $175 for a night’s accommodation and had found spiders after entering their room.
The husband complained and refused to stay even after the manager said an exterminator had been there two weeks earlier.
The manager also sprayed the room with fly spray and told the family he would take a 50 per cent cancellation fee even though they had just paid for the room.
They had argued for 10 minutes and the manager had then lowered the fee to $25.
Cr Wilton said she was disappointed Fair Trading would not identify the motel.
“It blackens the whole town’s accommodation,” she said.
“They have done it to a few towns and I am sure the town’s business people are concerned especially because it has come out right at the beginning of the school holidays.”
Fair Trading commissioner Rod Stowe said Cr Wilton’s remarks were an “exaggeration”.
“These are just issues that have come to our attention and we don’t normally name the business unless there has been an ongoing problem,” he said.
Fair Trading also highlighted other incidents involving businesses at Moree, Macksville, Wollongong, Cootamundra, Newcastle, Barrington, Melbourne and the Hunter Valley.
Some guests had reported mice droppings in bed linen.