A 22-year-old woman who was sexually trafficked at hotels in Oregon and Washington is suing six major hotel chains in federal court, saying they failed to thwart the crime and were complicit in her abuse.

The suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland is the latest in a string of recent legal actions across the country to hold hotels responsible for sex trafficking. Other suits have been filed in California, Georgia, Ohio and Washington states.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc., Marriott International Inc., Choice Hotels Corp., Extended Stay America Inc. and Red Lion Hotels Corp. are named as defendants in the Oregon suit.

It alleges the hotels have done little to halt sex trafficking occurring inside their rooms.

“Rather than taking timely and effective measures to thwart this epidemic, Defendant Hotels have instead chosen to ignore the open and obvious presence of sex trafficking on their properties, enjoying the profit from rooms rented for this explicit and apparent purpose,” the suit says.

“Traffickers are well aware of the seclusion and anonymity attendant with booking rooms with hotel chains – they know it is unlikely that they will be disturbed.”

The plaintiff, identified as “A.B,” was required by her trafficker to have sex for payment with various customers at the hotels in response to advertisements posted on websites such as backpage.com, according to the suit. She was forced to have sex with at least seven “clients” per night throughout Oregon and Washington from September 2012 through March 2013, the suit says.

Her trafficker would wait in the lobby or in a car while she was inside the hotels as unregistered men went in and out of rooms that her trafficker booked, according to the suit.

It alleges the hotels failed to prevent A.B.’s victimization despite “obvious signs of human trafficking (no eye contact and duration of stay) and indicators of commercial sex activity (bottles of lubricants, boxes of condoms, used condoms in the trash, excessive requests for towels and linens, room rentals by her pimp with cash or credit while A.B. actually entered the room). ’’

The suit identifies the DoubleTree in Northeast Portland as a place where A.B. was trafficked as well as the place where a man in 2011 killed a woman who had met him there for paid sex. It also identifies the Marriott Residence Inn on Northeast Cascades Parkway in Portland, the Rodeway Inn in Vancouver, the Extended Stay America on Northeast Third Street in Vancouver and the Red Lion Inn on Market Street in Salem as other locations where A.B. was trafficked.

“The problem is industry wide,” the 74-page lawsuit says. “In the United States, as much as 63% of all trafficking incidents happen in hotels ranging from luxury to economy.”

Florida-based attorney Kimberly Lambert Adams, one of the lawyers representing the A.B., has brought similar civil suits in other states and according to her law firm’s website has made it “her passion to pursue such litigation for victims of human trafficking.’’

“Despite efforts by organizations like BEST: Business Ending Slavery and Trafficking, which has worked to educate the lodging industry on trafficking awareness, many hotels, both luxury and low end motels, continue to turn a blind eye to clear signs of human trafficking situations and refuse to implement antitrafficking policies,” Adams and others wrote in a paper titled, “Help Stop Human Trafficking Through Civil Litigation.”

The suit seeks unspecified compensatory, noneconomic and punitive damages.

Portland Attorney Joel Shapiro also is representing A.B. She was an adult when she was sex trafficked, he said.

"The hotel industry has known for a long time that sex trafficking is a major problem at their properties,'' Shapiro said. "This lawsuit seeks to hold them accountable for the harm they’ve done to A.B. and thousands of other victims.''

Wyndham said in a statement in response to a similar suit in New York that it condemns human trafficking but couldn’t address the specific allegations. Representatives from other hotel chains named did not immediately return messages for comment.

In 2004, a Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct was launched by the End Child Prostitution and Trafficking organization. It pointed to six steps businesses can take to intervene and prevent sex trafficking: establish a corporate policy and procedures against sexual exploitation of children; train employees in children’s rights, the prevention of sexual exploitation and how to report suspected cases; adopt a zero tolerance policy of sexual exploitation of children; provide information to travelers on children’s rights, the prevention of sexual exploitation of children and how to report suspected cases; support and engage stakeholders in the prevention of sexual exploitation of children; and report annually on how the company has put these steps into action.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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