Should small businesses avoid Marriott Hotels? Learn how one small business was abused by Marriott.

Feb. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- I HATE CPAP LLC is a small company that is dedicated to informing the public about alternatives to CPAP that can be used to treat sleep apnea. Their website http://www.ihatecpap.com supplies information on Dental Sleep Medicine and oral appliances to patients and helps promote the practices of Sleep apnea Dentists. This is vitally important because numerous studies have shown that the majority of patients do not tolerate CPAP treatment.  CPAP stands for continuous positive air pressure and consists of a compressor connected to a mask by hoses.  

Sleep Apnea is a deadly disorder that can have severe adverse effects (including heart attacks, strokes hypertension and many other conditions)  on patients lives.  CPAP is the Gold Standard of treatment but the majority of published studies show that the majority of patients do not tolerate treatment.  Dental Sleep Medicine is the art and science of treating sleep apnea with comfortable oral appliances that prevent the collapse of the airway.

The company and its associates contracted with the Marriott Renaissance Hotel in Baltimore to hold a small lunch meeting with 35 invited guests.  The American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine was hold a meeting at the same hotel. The company made the nature of its business quite clear to the Renaissance.  The company had prepaid for both the room as well for lunches for 35 participants.  The hotel offered of its own accord to move the company to the same floor the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine convention was being held because that room was available.

This is when the problems began.  The Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine was upset over the placement of the room given to I HATE CPAP.  There were several incidents that then occurred.  The first was that hotel employees intimidated an employee trying to force her into a room.  The hotel announced that the company would have to vacate the room.  At this juncture Dr Ira L Shapira the companies founder was informed of the problems that were occurring.  The hotel tried to lock the company out of their contracted and paid for room and announced that they would not serve lunches that had been paid for.  

Dr Shapira offered to move his signage into the room so as to be inconspicuous but he wished to have their lunch meeting go on.  He was told this was not gong to happen but the hotel would pay to move the meeting but they did not have a location to move it nor did they provide a method of informing the participants that the meeting was being moved.  This was not an acceptable solution.

The hotel increased their unfair behavior and called in the police and reported that a ruckus was being created by the company and a very tough looking Baltimore cop arrived under the impression that the company was creating a disturbance.  The appearance of the policeman left an permanent and indelible impression on the hundreds of potential clients attending the meeting.  The only bad behavior was on the part of the hotel.  When it was explained to the officer that there was a signed contract (which was shown to him) he said that any dispute was a civil matter and told the hotel that the meeting could continue as planned.  The officer was  extremely polite after he understood that the company was actually promoting life saving treatment.  The officer was asked if he knew what CPAP was or what this was about and he did not.  When it was explained what CPAP was he was aware of fellow officers who did not use their CPAP.  Dr Shapira  explained to the officer that oral appliances helped keep patients that do not tolerate CPAP alive

The hotel then took it upon itself to place 9 foot black curtains around the display, intimidated the companies employees as well as potential customers.

The Renaissance Hotel and Marriott Corporation has still not returned any of the monies paid by the company for the room and lunch.  They have also not reimbursed the company for expenses related to the meeting. They do understand how difficult it is for a small company to bring suit out of state.

The Marriott Renaissance decided that it was better to abuse a small start up company than to upset a large customer.  They acted in this manner  knowing the company had a valid contract.

The company has tried to work with Marriott who refuses to even admit that putting up 9 foot black curtains might have hurt the companies business and reputation with hundreds of potential customers who viewed this.  

Dr Shapira and the company  are looking for other companies and individuals who feel they have been treated unfairly by Marriott hotels and would like to tell their story.  Dr Shapira has set up a dedicated e-mail abusedbymarriott@gmail.com to allow other companies and individuals to report bad experiences they have had with Marriott.

What bothers Dr Shapira the most is that the lifesaving information that www.ihatecpap.com supplies has been much less effectively transmitted to the public.  He worries that patients may be dying, having strokes or injuring themselves or others because of consequences of the actions of Marriott.  He is especially interested in locating patients who do not tolerate CPAP who have had adverse medical consequences or motor vehicle accidents that possibly could have been  prevented if they were aware of the availability of comfortable alternatives to CPAP.

The literature reports that patients with untreated sleep apnea have up to a six-fold increase in motor vehicle accidents.  Patients with mild apnea and no signs of daytime sleepiness have up to a 300% increase in motor vehicle accidents involving serious injury to one or more people.  Patients with untreated apnea have slower reaction times than people who are legally drunk.  There is no method to knowt whether Marriott's actions resulted in injuries or fatalities on the roads.  Marriott's actions have in Dr Shapira's opinion delayed the spread of information to the public.

Dr Shapira makes it very clear that he does not "Hate CPAP" and his website explains that CPAP is the recognized "Gold Standard" of treatment for sleep apnea.  The American Academy of Sleep Medicine does accept oral appliances as a first line treatment of mild to moderate sleep apnea along with CPAP and an alternative treatment for severe sleep apnea when patients do not tolerate CPAP.  The name I HATE CPAP! was actually chosen because that was the number one comment Dr Shapira heard from his patients.  The National Sleep Foundation declared in its Sleepmatters magazine that "oral appliances are a therapy whose time has come".

If you feel that you or your company have been abused by Marriott, treated unfairly by Marriott or have similar stories you would like to share send them to abusedbymarriott@gmail.com

Dr Shapira has been treating sleep apnea since the early 1980's because his 3 year old son had sleep apnea.  His interest led to his becoming a Visiting Assistant Professor at Rush Medical School where he did research on the jaw relations of sleep apnea patients.  His unpublished research revealed that sleep apnea patients and patients with TMD (TMJ disorders of Temporomandibular disorders) had similar jaw relations.  At Rush he had the priviledge of working with Dr Rosalind Cartwright who is unquestionably one of the most important researches in the world on sleep in general and especially in research oral appliances for treating sleep apnea.

Dr Shapira is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine and a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.  He was one of 20 dentists who were charter members of the Sleep Disorder Dental Society which later became the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.  He is also a founding member of DOSA, the Dental Organization for Sleep Apnea.  He teaches courses in Dental Sleep Medicine to dentists from around the U.S. at his Gurnee Dental office.

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I HATE CPAP! LLC provides vital information on Sleep Apnea, Dental Sleep Medicine and alternatives to CPAP for patients who are CPAP intolerant. The website http://www.ihatecpap.com has valuable information on treating sleep apnea utilizing oral appliances as well as surgical treatment and CPAP treatment. The name I HATE CPAP! came from patients who frequently presented that sentiment to explain why they did not use their CPAP machines or used them much less than the 7 1/2 hours recommended. Approximately 25% of patients love their CPAP and use it all night and every night but research has shown that CPAP users average only 4-5 hours of nightly use and that the majority of patients actually are CPAP intolerant and abandon CPAP use.