If you overlooked the drab furnishings and one-star reviews (“coffee was empty, no one at the desk for 5 minutes, icemaker not working, clogged toilet”), the Super 8 by Wyndham Charlotte/Amusement Park Area might be an adequate place to hang one’s hat for two nights. And it had plenty of rooms available. But in the end, I opted for somewhere closer to the country club where the bride’s family had arranged a meet-and-greet for me and the groom, my son.
As it turned out, I made the right move. As it turned out, the rooms available at the Super 8 by Wyndham Charlotte/Amusement Park Area weren’t necessarily earmarked for tourists, but for traffickers.
Hotels and motels, be they posh or sleazy, are often ideal haunts for criminals.
According to a lawsuit filed in federal court on June 26, the motel was a hub for illegal activity—despite customer complaints and repeated warnings from law enforcement.
The lawsuit, filed by a woman who alleges that, at age 16, she was trafficked, beaten and raped up to 20 times a day for two months at the Super 8 in 2014, accuses motel staff of being complicit in the torture.
Instead of helping her, they placed her and other victims in rooms at the back of the property, away from prying eyes.
Why act on the red flags when you’re making a profit on hosting the victims in your rooms?
The lawsuit alleges motel staff could not have missed the signs of abuse: the older man frequently at her side, the shouts, her obvious injuries, the trash bins brimming with condoms, the refusal to let housekeeping in the room.
The lawsuit claims the Super 8 was a notorious red-light district all by itself—a hotbed for drugs, prostitution and violent crime. A one-star review on its site even comments: “There was drug dealers/users in front of entrance.”
Hotels and motels, be they posh or sleazy, are often ideal haunts for criminals. With a constant revolving door of people, frequent cash payments and low security at most locations, a trafficker can make a tidy living under the radar there.
Add to those factors the vulnerability of many who seek the temporary shelter of a hotel or motel—those who have lost their homes, drifters, runaways, drug abusers—and one has not only a location in which to operate but also a constant flow of prospective victims within easy reach.
According to 2018 data, 80 percent of commercial sex occurs at hotels and 20 percent of traffickers house their victims there.
That problem is not going away, and lawmakers in North Carolina—currently one of the top 10 US states by number of reported cases to the National Human Trafficking Hotline—are doing something about it. Effective this past December, the Tar Heel State became the second to make purchasing sex a felony. And, effective July 1, human trafficking awareness training will be mandatory for North Carolina hotel staff, vacation rental managers and contractors.
No longer will staff and owners be able to plead ignorance of the warning signs of human trafficking, nor turn a deaf ear to the screams for help coming from that room in the back, away from the parking lot.
America keeps the light on in five million hotel rooms for the weary tourist or business traveler. If more states follow North Carolina’s lead, those lights can keep shining for the honest, not flicker low to shelter shadows and crime.
