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New York's Park Central Hotel Has More Problems Than Just a Giant Rat

September 6, 2011 at 4:05 PM | by | Comments (3)

A giant inflatable black rat sits with pride of place on 7th Avenue in Manhattan, just south of Central Park. What's it doing there? Well, first off this rat is hardly a surprise to real New Yorkers, who fondly know it as the "Union Rat" often employed to silently (but very visibly) protest sites of labor tensions. The Union Rat is a very ugly, very menacing beast with beady red eyes and straggly inflated whiskers, but this rat is effectively pimped out; gold money bags in hand and a cigar jauntily clenched between teeth, it draws attention to a big issue in NYC: bed bugs.

Slow your sidewalk stride here to read the sign and be instantly grossed out: "Park Central guests have complained about sleeping with bed bugs." The Park Central is a massive tourist-friendly hotel in the center of Midtown, in front of which this rat sits. Back in the day, the Park Central's big claim to fame was offering a TV in each room at no extra charge; these days, the focus has obviously changed (and we highly doubt anyone would appreciate bed bugs being listed as an amenity).

Odds are the Park Central has bed bug issues it's not dealing with, or else the rat would be off bothering some construction site with shady practices. What's the over/under for number of days until locals cross the street before walking in front of the Park Central?

[Photo: HotelChatter]

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Return to » New York's Park Central Hotel Has More Problems Than Just a Giant Rat


This is silly...

Most intelligent people will realize that bed bugs are brought in by guests, not materialized by hotels.  With that said, hotels must take immediate action to correct any situation with bed bugs.  The best solution by far is heat treatment - not chemicals.  At 100-110 degrees, they'll die in 24 hours... at 120 degrees, they'll die in minutes.  How do you get a guest room to this temperature?  There are units specifically designed for this, as part of a process called thermal remediation.  Also, a hotel can first crank up the heat, then use a hairdryer to go over every seam/nook/cranny in the guest room, then place a few additional heaters in the room at the same time as turning the TV on and replacing all light bulbs with heat lamp bulbs used in a restaurant kitchen.  You'll be surprised at how quickly a room can get to 120 degrees.  Just make sure your fire sprinklers don't pop!  ;-)
bbphx on September 7, 2011 at 4:05 AM #Permalink

More to the Story

The union would not waste one of their precious blow up toys for the sake of customer awareness.  There is another issue at hand and the bedbugs are just salt into the wound.  This tactic has been used before to pressure management into An agreement of some sort.
HG2 on September 7, 2011 at 5:32 AM #Permalink

Spon On HG2

They are using non-union construction labor at another hotel.  That is what the protest is about. It is a known tactic of Local 78, the asbestos removal union.  It has nothing to do with if there are or are not bedbugs. If you read the flyer it cites bedbugregistry.com as their only source.  That is a site where anyone can make a claim about anyplace, there is no back up or research done to substantiate the claims.  What they are doing is walking the very thin line between a legal protest and an illegal secondary picket.  HC should have looked into the issue a bit more carefully before posting this piece.
izzy on September 7, 2011 at 5:32 PM #Permalink

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