Federal sex-trafficking law has led to an increase in suits against hotel chains
In June 2024, Red Roof Inn agreed to a major settlement with 11 women who said they were victims of sex trafficking at two of its Georgia hotels.
Before the parties agreed to a confidential settlement, hotel employees had started to testify at trial that they were aware sex trafficking had been occurring at the hotels for years, but they either looked the other way or helped conceal it.
Red Roof said in a statement that it “denies all allegations and condemns sex trafficking in all forms.” The company also said the parties came to an “amicable resolution” and “resolved the matter to the satisfaction of all involved.”
The case was one of hundreds that have been filed against hotel chains in recent years based on claims they were complicit in sex trafficking, which violates federal law. The lawsuits push the hospitality industry to take seriously the potential for trafficking on hotel premises and appropriately train their employees, according to lawyers who represent survivors.
Pat McDonough, a Georgia lawyer who represented the plaintiffs in the case, believes it is the first sex trafficking case against a national hotel brand to get to trial. He hopes the publicity over the case created enough buzz to make people aware of the issue of sex trafficking and inform survivors that they have legal recourse.
“The lawsuits have put hotels and motels on notice and attack them where it hurts, which is, unfortunately, in their pocketbooks,” says Meagan Verschueren, the lead attorney in Singleton Schreiber’s sexual assault and human trafficking practice group. “We want to show them that if they don’t stop what’s happening on their premises, we will bankrupt them.”
Verschueren, who practices in San Diego, says she has about 47 clients who are trafficking survivors. Their cases are in different stages of investigation and litigation.
In one lawsuit, filed in Washington state federal court by Verschueren, a woman says that she was trafficked for nine years, ending in 2023, rotating between hotels in the Seattle area.
Multiple hotels, including Motel 6, ignored numerous red flags, such as requests for rooms away from other guests, lots of used condoms in the trash, male traffic to and from the rooms at night, signs of physical abuse and loud noises and acts of violence heard by other guests and staff, according to the complaint.
“The hotel industry has provided the means, environment and support for the human trafficking industry to become the second-largest profitable criminal activity in the United States,” the complaint states. “As the trafficking industry grows, so have [the hotels] and their profits through the expansion of their properties and rooms rented for this explicit and apparent purpose.”
The suit appears to be headed for trial, Verschueren says.
Representatives from Motel 6 did not respond to a request for comment. The American Hotel & Lodging Association says the hotel industry “is a leader in human trafficking prevention,” and it has shifted its approach from awareness of the issue to “direct survivor support and creating lasting impact in both prevention and recovery.”
A foundation of the association started No Room for Trafficking, an initiative that provides hotel employees with resources such as free online courses and signage to help staff identify and report suspected signs of human trafficking. In addition, the initiative helps support sex trafficking awareness and prevention training, the association said in a statement. Additionally, AHLA says it has launched a survivor fund that provides grants to community organizations supporting trafficking survivors.
‘Multiple pressure points’
Litigation against hotel franchises centers on the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
The federal law was originally passed in 2000. In 2008, Congress amended the statute to enable sex trafficking survivors to sue entities or individuals that benefit from trafficking they knew—or should have known—was illegal. The statute has been reauthorized multiple times.
The 2008 amendment was an effort to help the fight against trafficking by holding businesses that benefit from trafficking accountable, says Mary Graw Leary, a professor at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law who studies the issue.
“Human trafficking is a tremendously challenging and complex problem, and the only way we can successfully combat it is to have multiple pressure points,” Graw Leary says. “Civil liability is one of the pressure points.”
According to her, the lawsuits should not be considered a “threat to the hospitality industry” but rather a reminder of what companies need to do to address human trafficking—and that if they don’t, they will be held accountable.
But Bridgette Carr, co-director of the University of Michigan Law School’s Human Trafficking and Immigration Clinic, says she’s frustrated by the way the cases have evolved.
The cases brought under the trafficking statute do not always have the factual basis they should have to prove human trafficking, Carr says. In addition, because they result in “small settlements” rather than large class actions or consolidated cases, they don’t seem to be making significant industrywide change or establishing caselaw that would help in that effort.
Lawsuits against the hotel industry “are being rushed for individual settlements,” Carr says.
McDonough hopes the litigation will compel larger changes in the hospitality industry and says he’s seen signs of that happening.
“Trafficking has received a lot more news coverage, and litigation helps with that,” the Andersen, Tate & Carr partner says.
He adds that news coverage pressures “national brands” to train employees about the issue and what to do when they see something suspicious.
“If you call the police every time you are suspicious of trafficking, guess who won’t go there? Traffickers,” McDonough says.
This story was originally published in the June-July 2025 issue of the ABA Journal under the headline: “Stopping Traffic: A federal law that targets sex trafficking has led to an increase in lawsuits against hotel chains.”
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