A Pilot Says Bats Invaded His Denver Hotel Room and One Bit Him. Now He's Suing Marriott.

It is the kind of story that sounds like a tall tale until the medical bills arrive. According to a lawsuit, an airline pilot's overnight stay in downtown Denver turned into a months-long rabies scare.

A 2:30 a.m. commotion

The pilot was staying at the Sheraton Denver Downtown in late August 2025 while in town for work, CBS Colorado reported. He says he woke around 2:30 a.m. to a commotion and found bats moving through his room. During the disturbance, one bit him on the foot. His suit says he later spotted another bat still in the room, and that the animals are believed to have gotten in through a gap near the room's air-conditioning unit, according to Yahoo News.

The rabies ordeal

Because a bat bite can carry rabies, the pilot underwent post-exposure treatment — a series of shots — at a cost the lawsuit puts at more than $100,000. A bat that was captured and tested later came back negative for rabies. But the treatment cannot safely wait for test results: rabies is nearly always fatal once symptoms begin, so exposure is treated first and confirmed after.

The lawsuit

The pilot, who has asked that his name be withheld out of concern for his job, filed suit against Marriott International, the parent of the Sheraton brand, alleging negligence. The complaint says hotel staff never plugged the opening the bats used and did not move him to a different room after the encounter. He is seeking damages for his medical costs and for the distress of an ordeal that, his attorney says, has left him uneasy sleeping in hotels — a problem for someone whose job requires it. The claims are allegations that have not been tested in court; Marriott and the hotel did not respond to reporters' inquiries about the case.

Bats and rabies, briefly

Public-health guidance here is unambiguous. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bats are the leading source of human rabies deaths in the United States, and that their bites can be so small they are easy to miss. The CDC advises that anyone who wakes to find a bat in the room — or who is bitten or scratched — wash the area and seek medical evaluation promptly, because treatment given before symptoms appear is highly effective. Strange as the lawsuit sounds, the pilot's decision to get treated was, by that standard, exactly right.