Candlewood Suites is an extended-stay hotel brand owned by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the same company that owns Holiday Inn and over a dozen other hospitality brands.
Below, we’ll go over some of the most common reasons you might need to sue Candlewood Suites, but there are of course countless other possible reasons. Guests at Candlewood Suites have encountered everything from drowning scares to hazmat exposure to snake attacks. If you don’t see your specific type of case represented here, or would simply prefer to speak directly with a lawyer, feel free to reach out any time by phone or chat.
Candlewood Suites Must Protect Guests from Foreseeable Threats, Including Fires
When people think about premises liability, they usually imagine something along the lines of a slip-and-fall — a serious but small-scale incident where a business makes one obvious error, such as failing to clean up a spill, and injures one person.
Larger incidents, like structure fires, tend to stick in the mind as “disasters” rather than “accidents.” As a result, the overwhelmed victims don’t always pay as much attention to the role a specific business may have played in what happened.
The truth is, hotels are responsible for anticipating all foreseeable threats to their guests, large and small, and taking all reasonable steps to mitigate those threats. Following the fire code is always one of the most essential, life-saving parts of this duty. It’s even more important for extended-stay brands like Candlewood Suites, due to the additional risks that come with kitchens and laundry rooms.
Hotels can’t always control how fires get started. In the past six years, various Candlewood Suites locations have had fires start not only in guest kitchens, but also from a suspected lightning strike and a malfunction of an outdated city grid.
In situations like these, a hotel still needs to be prepared to contain the blaze if possible, alert emergency services promptly, and most importantly, provide guests with a quick, safe escape.
Generally, Candlewood Suites’ fire alarms, sprinklers, and designated escape routes seem to be doing their jobs. Most fires associated with the brand have been extinguished or contained quickly and without injury. What’s more concerning is how many Candlewood Suites fires have been sparked by equipment the hotel does control.
In April of 2024, guests staying at a Candlewood Suites in Short Pump, Virginia left their room to report smoke coming from the HVAC system. Shortly afterward, flames apparently jumped from the room’s AC vent to the curtains above.
Automatic sprinklers successfully extinguished the fire, but IHG should have known better than anyone how important HVAC maintenance is, because almost exactly the same thing happened less than five years earlier at the Candlewood Suites in Springfield, Illinois.
Between those two HVAC incidents, in November of 2022, there was also a gas explosion in a water heater room of the then-unfinished Candlewood Suites in Smyrna, Georgia. The blast set fire to the room and severely burned two construction workers.
If you’ve also been harmed in a fire at a Candlewood Suites, it’s a good idea to talk to a lawyer about what happened. If Candlewood Suites contributed to the fire, or made it more dangerous than it needed to be through poor planning, you may be owed compensation.
Criminal Violence Also Counts as a Foreseeable Threat in Many Cases
Victims of violent crimes are even more likely to overlook the role that private companies like IHG may have played in putting them at risk. After all, there’s one clear guilty party — the person who committed the act of violence — so looking to place blame elsewhere might feel unnecessary, distracting, or simply unintuitive.
In these situations, it’s important to consider the context of the attack. Was this a truly random, isolated act of violence? Was it connected with a conflict from the victim’s past that the hotel had no knowledge of? Or was it part of an ongoing pattern of crime on the property or in the surrounding area?
Inviting guests to stay in a hotel where violence is a known threat, without making an effort to provide appropriate security against that threat, is just as negligent as ignoring a malfunctioning HVAC system or a spill on the floor.
Hotel crime is not limited to low-end brands, and many Candlewood Suites guests have been violently injured, terrorized, or killed during their stays.
In June of 2019, right here in Georgia, a man apparently waited all night in his car in the parking lot of the Candlewood Suites in Columbus to ambush and shoot a guest who was staying there with his ex. The victim ended up in the ICU with multiple gunshot wounds, and the fleeing suspect led police on a high-speed chase, ending in a crash with a bystander.
That same year, a man saw two women exiting the Candlewood Suites in Emporia, Kansas, and chased them in his truck, waving a gun at them. He reportedly believed that the women, both employees of the hotel, had stolen some pills that he and his partner had left in their room when checking out. The two women crashed their car into a nearby parking lot, and the man and his partner were arrested and charged with, among other things, several drug offenses.
A year later, there were two fatal shootings at different Candlewood Suites in California, one in Hawthorne and one in Anaheim. Police believe that the Anaheim incident was gang related, and the Hawthrone one was a murder suicide.
Since then, there have been at least two more fatal Candlewood Suites shootings, one in Normal, Illinois, and one in Beaumont, Texas. Both took place in parking lots, typically the most neglected area of a property from a security perspective.
If you’ve been attacked or lost a loved one to violence at a Candlewood Suites, make time to speak to a lawyer about that location’s history, security, and policies toward crime. Pursuing a claim against the hotel will not affect any criminal proceedings against the attacker, but could provide you with compensation you wouldn’t otherwise receive.
Both Standard and Extended Stay Hotels Have a Duty to Fight Sex Trafficking
Sex trafficking is so commonplace in the hospitality industry that every hotel should consider it a known threat. Low-cost motels are popular with sex traffickers for obvious reasons, but some traffickers also use more expensive and extended-stay brands as venues for sexual exploitation.
Knowingly enabling or profiting off of sex trafficking is both a crime and grounds for a civil lawsuit, although applying this rule to hotels has only become common in the past five years.
Like most large hotel brands, Candlewood Suites was called out for allegedly catering to sex traffickers in 2019, during the first wave of lawsuits aimed at holding the hospitality industry accountable. Specifically, a woman anonymously sued the Candlewood Suites in Houston Texas, along with two other neighboring hotels, stating that her trafficker had kept and prostituted her there for years after kidnapping her at the age of 15.
Even before 2019, the Candlewood Suites brand name came up disturbingly often in attempted sex trafficking crackdowns from law enforcement.
Over the previous six years, police arrested suspects for alleged sex trafficking at Candlewood Suites in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Wyoming, New York, and North Dakota. Two of those cases involved couples reportedly taking in displaced women with promises of help and then forcing them into prostitution. Other arrests were made as part of stings, sometimes prompted by complaints from the local community.
If you have been coerced in any way into performing commercial sex acts at a Candlewood Suites, you are far from alone, and you may be owed compensation. A lawyer can help you examine all of your options, including the possibility of suing Candlewood Suites anonymously.
IHG’s Franchise Structure Can Make Lawsuits More Challenging
Although IHG owns the Candlewood Suites brand, it doesn’t own the actual properties that use that brand. Smaller hotel management companies typically own one or a few individual hotels in an area, and pay IHG for the use of a recognizable trademark. Franchisors like IHG have the right to set quality standards for their franchisees, but they’re under no legal obligation to do so, or to enforce those standards.
The relationship between franchisor and franchisee can be a contentious one. Three years ago, the owner of a Candlewood Suites began a class action lawsuit against IHG for several alleged abusive practices, including forcing franchisees to pay above-market rates for supplies and renovations. Within two months, four other franchisees had joined the suit and added accusations of retaliatory behavior from IHG.
Few situations can pit franchisors and franchisees against each other more viciously than a valid lawsuit from a guest, however.
When an accident or crime happens at a franchised hotel, it’s standard practice for franchisors like IHG to deny all responsibility and argue that the franchisee is the true owner and solely liable for what happens on the property.
Most of the time, this argument works. Even if IHG is collecting most of the profits and making most of the decisions, liability usually does fall on the local Candlewood Suites franchise owner.
There are exceptions, however. If the franchisor imposes rules that directly threaten guest safety, the franchisor can be held liable for any resulting harm. Franchisors also have the same legal duty as franchisees to avoid knowingly profiting off of sex trafficking. So, for example, if IHG has reason to suspect that sex trafficking is happening at a specific Candlewood Suites, but continues to collect fees from the offending property, IHG itself would be fair game for a lawsuit.
The Stoddard Firm is committed to holding large companies accountable whenever possible, and we’re not afraid to take on giants like IHG. Our first commitment, however, is always to our client. If your best chance of a fair settlement is to sue a Candlewood Suites franchisee instead of IHG, we’ll tell you so honestly and work with you to build a winning strategy.
Hotel management companies may be smaller than their mega-corporation franchisors, but most of them are still large enough and well enough insured to provide injured guests with appropriate compensation.
What to Do If You’ve Been Harmed at a Candlewood Suites
If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one to violence or an accident at a Candlewood Suites, you can set yourself up for the fullest possible recovery by following these steps:
- Protect yourself and your loved ones from further harm. Death and permanent injuries can only be compensated, never reversed, so if you’re in active danger, escaping safely should be your first priority.
- Collect evidence. Without putting yourself at greater risk, keep as detailed a record as you can of what happened, and the effect it’s had on your life.
- Get medical care. This is actually part of steps one and two. A prompt medical exam can help protect you from further harm by identifying hidden injuries before they can worsen. Official medical records are also the best way to prove that your injuries are real and establish a timeline for your condition.
- Minimize contact with Candlewood Suites and IHG. It’s not a bad idea to notify hotel management that an incident has occurred. However, if you feel pressured to give a detailed statement, discuss fault, or come to a quick agreement, it’s best to cut off contact until you have a lawyer.
- Find a qualified hotel lawyer in your area.
The Stoddard Firm has Georgia-based experts on franchise law and innkeeper laws, as well as premises liability, personal injury, wrongful death, negligent security, and sex trafficking law. We’ll work with you to get the best possible outcome, while minimizing the hassle to you.
To get started talking with a hotel liability lawyer in Atlanta, reach out at 678-RESULTS or though our online chat function for a free consultation.
Attorney Matt Stoddard
Matt Stoddard is a professional, hardworking, ethical advocate. He routinely faces some of the nation’s largest companies and some of the world’s largest insurers – opponents who have virtually unlimited resources. In these circumstances, Mr. Stoddard is comfortable. Mr. Stoddard provides his strongest efforts to his clients, and he devotes the firm’s significant financial resources to presenting the strongest case possible on their behalf. Matt understands that his clients must put their trust in him. That trust creates an obligation for Matt to work tirelessly on their behalf, and Matt Stoddard does not take that obligation lightly. [ Attorney Bio ]
