Couple sue 'five-star cat hotel' in Marbella after pet dies while they were on holiday: 'She was like our child'

Marina and Lorenzo found their cat Iodi on the street 11 years ago. Since then, they had only been separated from her for the odd holiday trip. The couple have no children, so Iodi was the closest thing to a child they had. "We were with her from the moment we got up to the moment we went to bed. She has left us with a very big void, we miss her very much."

Iodi died in July this year, while Marina and Lorenzo were on a trip to Scotland. They had left their cat at Cat Suite Home - which claims to be the first five-star pet hotel, located in Marbella where the Italian couple have been based for the past 14 years. Hotel owner Vincenzo Giorgioni, who is also of Italian origin, called them during their holiday to deliver the tragic news. Iodi had escaped and, hours later, had been found dead.

The hotel was founded by Vincenzo in 2016, when he decided to convert his 300-square-metre house into a cat accommodation. He had imported the concept from Milan and the opening gained controversial media attention in Spain.

Marina said that they had been using Cat Suite Home's services for seven or eight years, every time they travelled. Until this tragic July, they had had no problems.

For 20 euros a day, cat owners are provided with full services. According to Vincenzo, the low cost proves that the hotel's purpose is not to bring him high profits. He doesn't consider it a business to live out of and he has another job. "I just thought it was a good idea to help people not leave their pets alone when they went on holiday," the owner said.

Marina and Lorenzo booked a place for Iodi for ten days. They left Marbella on 28 June and received the call on 3 July. "He told us that Iodi had run away. We thought about ending the trip and going back, but we decided to wait a bit to see if he could find her. The next morning we asked him to tell us the truth. After a couple of hours, he sent us a photo of our dead cat," Marina explained.

Vincenzo told them that someone had found her dead at the town market, taken a photo and then thrown Iodi in the bin. "He also told us that he had gone to pick her up, put her in a bag and kept her in the freezer. He asked us if we wanted him to do anything else," Marina said. The couple called the company that carries out cremations, which kept Iodi until they returned from Scotland. The matter is now in the hands of their lawyer - Francisco Damián Vázquez.

According to Vincenzo's account, another cat had jumped on a handle and opened a bathroom door. "It's inexplicable, I've never seen anything like that," he said. Iodi had entered the toilet, taken advantage of an open window, which the cleaning lady had left ajar the day before to ventilate the room, and escaped. From there, she climbed down a gutter and landed on his car. "I even took photos of the paw prints left by the cat on my car," Viincenzo explained.

According to the cat hotel owner, what happened was "impossible to foresee, but that's not an excuse". "I have apologised a thousand times. I feel terrible about how it happened and I haven't slept for many days, but the contract they signed and the website state that we are not responsible for deaths, illnesses or other events. Without them asking me, I paid the expenses for the cremation and I am going to reimburse them for the stay."

However, this is not enough to compensate for Marina and Lorenzo's loss. "It's not like losing a sock," Marina said. "It happened in July and to this day we are still devastated. It was a huge loss. Iodi had been with us for 11 years. I can't even pick up my phone because it's full of photos and emojis of her and when we see her we both start crying. Maybe some people are less sensitive, but for us she was part of the family."

Lawyer Francisco Damián Vázquez has presented a claim against Cat Suite Home, reporting "negligent custody", which has generated "irreparable damage, with serious emotional consequences due to the loss of the animal". The letter suggests that Vincenzo consider a proposal "in the interest of a quick, efficient and extrajudicial solution of the conflict". Although he has promised to respond, the Cat Suite Home owner wanted to make it clear that the establishment "is not a business", at least not in terms of profitability, but an initiative born from his "passion for cats" and his desire to help pet owners during their holidays.