ORLANDO, Fla. – Two women who say they were forced into sex trafficking for years are suing the operator of an Orlando hotel, alleging the business knowingly rented rooms to their trafficker and benefited from the crimes.
The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Circuit Court, identifies the women by the initials J.G. and A.M.
Capital Investment Orlando Inc., which operates the Days Inn at 3300 S. Orange Blossom Trail, is the only defendant named in the litigation.
The women allege they were abducted, drugged, beaten and forced to perform commercial sex acts at the hotel by an unnamed sex trafficker from 2015 through 2022. They estimate they stayed at the property 500 to 600 times, sometimes for days or weeks at a time.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Anthony Chiarello, spoke generally to News 6 about hotel operators that he claims profit from sex trafficking.
“They know what’s going on,” Chiarello told News 6. “It’s actually part of their business plan.”
According to the complaint, the women’s trafficker and his associates used the hotel rooms, parking lot, and Wi-Fi while advertising the women for commercial sex.
The complaint also describes alleged warning signs visible to hotel staff, including frequent short-term visitors, little or no luggage, visible injuries, drug use, loud arguments, and sexual activity in and around the property.
“They know if they create this safe space where the traffickers can feel safe and feel like they’re protected from the police, they’re going to stay,” said Chiarello. “And they are going to come back again and again and again.”
The lawsuit points to online reviews posted by other guests that referenced prostitution. In several responses cited in the complaint, hotel representatives apologized for guests’ experiences and said their concerns had been shared with management or staff.
“What you never see is, ‘We’ll take care of the actual prostitution or trafficking that you saw,’” Chiarello said.
Capital Investment Orlando Inc. denies the allegations and says in court filings that it had no knowledge of any alleged sex trafficking.
If an incident occurred, the company argues that the plaintiffs failed to take steps to avoid it, including using telephones in the rooms to call for help.
The plaintiffs seek damages under the federal 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The law provides for penalties against those who knowingly benefit financially from sex trafficking.
Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, which owns the Days Inn brand and licenses it to franchise operators, is not named as a defendant. The company did not respond to an opportunity to comment on this story.
A statement about modern slavery on Wyndham’s website says the company provides franchisees with human-trafficking prevention and awareness training.
Chiarello, whose law firm Victim’s Voice only represents sex trafficking victims, told News 6 he is pursuing lawsuits against other Orlando-area hotels on behalf of the same two women.
“If they’re not gonna comply with these rules, well then they should go out of business,” Chiarello said of hotels that knowingly profit from sex trafficking. “I have no real sympathy for them there.”
