<br>Any hints on how to get a hotel with incompetent vallets to pay for a new stock sport wheel?<p>98.5 1.8 QMS

First! You can write a polite letter to the hotel regarding the negligence of the valet employee. <br>If no compensation was made, you can sue the hotel and the employee for negligence!

First - write the polite letter telling them that the car of course had just been washed and that any damage to the wheel would have been discovered at that time. Then threaten with small claims court - and follow through. And of course they are responsible for the negligence of their employees. My .02.

I'd start with the firm, polite approach, but I would not threaten lawsuits in your first letter. This pegs you as a litigious B*(*tard and, since you have the burden of proof and it may not be as easy to prove as you think, it only ticks off the recipient of the letter and encourages them to make you prove it. IF they don't respond, or if you don't like the response, then you can escalate. You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar. And, btw, I would carefull spell check any letter you write; no flame here, but a demand letter with misspellings (eg "vallet") will not be taken as seriously. <p>The people encouraging you to jump right into court are a little misguided IMO (and I was a litigator for years and also was a small claims court judge): it ain't fun, it isn't easy, and you may not win.