What are my legal rights?

Damage to hotel room in London--what were my legal rights and the hotel's legal rights?

• when i was in London with friends about 5 years ago, we had a really bad time. lots of bad things happened but what i'm asking about is this: my curling iron burst into flames (even with a converter thing) on the desk which had glass covering the wood...i was about to douse it with a glass of water when this guy who tagged along on the trip leaps through the door and throws the thing on the floor, causing the carpet to burn. before we could leave, the front desk people said i had to pay $600 for the damage (it was small spot like maybe 5 inches in diameter). i didn't think i should have to but of course i was young and afraid they would arrest me or something. we couldn't get in touch with anyone on the phone in the states. so, what should i have done?

• Answer:

  The individual who is the listed primary occupant of the room at the time of the damage can be held to account for any damage beyond "Normal Wear". This is to say anything beyond minor soiling of surfaces or typical small scratches on surfaces. Even though the burned spot on the carpet was quite small, the hotel: A) had to take the room out of service and lost the value of renting it to future guests until; B) they could replace the entire room's carpet - this is because they normally can not patch carpeting due to the fact that a patch will be visible and obvious because even if they have carpet available of the same production lot (unlikely) the replacement carpet will not match the balance of the carpet due to differences in the amount of wear. This principle has been upheld repeatedly and continuously in the courts of both the UK and US.