At the end of 2021, a couple from Helmond left Van der Valk hotels in Leeuwarden, Sneek and Drachten with hefty bills. After sometimes thousands of euros in room service, they left without paying.
“I’ve seen photos in the file; the hotel room in Sneek was a mess,” says the police judge in Groningen on Monday morning when he goes through the case against the absent Helmonders (he is 36 and she is 28).
According to the judge, their room service bill rose to around 3,000 euros within a few days. When cleaners later enter the room, they find a mess. The chocolate spread is in the carpet, the leftover food is everywhere and it smells really bad. The cleaning fee: 150 euros.
Another 4500 euros credit from hotel pirates
Also at Van der Valk hotels in Leeuwarden, Drachten and Cuijk in Gelderland, the two ate and drank that it was a delight, sometimes together and sometimes separately. When the staff approached them about the increasing bill, they left with the northern sun and then turned up somewhere else.
The four branches together still have 4500 euros in credit from the hotel pirates.
The couple could always go that far, because it reserved in the name of the man’s company. It is generally customary for employees to eat and drink ‘on receipt’ and for their employer to pay for it later. “And the suspects abused exactly that trust,” said the public prosecutor.
‘Lots of money? Sometimes I earn that a week’
It turned out to be a preconceived plan. The Helmonders had no money. They later admitted that. In Sneek, the cleaners found a list of other hotels where payment could be made afterwards. When the police told the man how much he and his girlfriend were spending in a short time, he responded laconically: “Sometimes I earn that a week.”
The officer openly doubts that. “There was only a benefit payment. And during the time he spent in the hotels, he only consumed. There was no question of working.” The officer believes that the couple still has to pay the bills and demanded a community service of 100 hours and a month in prison against both.
The court largely agrees. Only he thinks that Van der Valk should recover the outstanding amount from the civil court. The duo must immediately pay the costs for cleaning up the mess in Sneek.