Hotel Blames Nightclub’s Noise for Loss of Trade : Lawsuit: A Holiday Inn seeks $1 million, alleging the music at nearby Charlie’s Seaside Cafe has been too loud for four years.

One of Ventura’s most popular nightclubs for live music and dancing was sued Wednesday by a nearby hotel, which claims that noise is driving away its guests.

The Holiday Inn Ventura Beach Resort filed the suit in Ventura County Superior Court against Charlie’s Seaside Cafe and Restaurant, which is across a pedestrian walkway from the beachfront high-rise hotel.

Charlie’s has been a regular venue for some of the area’s most popular bands, such as Raging Arb and the Redheads, Lion I’s, the Mudheads and Durango 95. It recently knocked out a wall to enlarge its dance floor.

But the suit claims that almost every night for nearly four years, music from the cafe has violated the city’s noise ordinance and annoyed hotel guests.

As a result, the suit says, the hotel has received complaints from numerous guests and has had to refund room charges or provide free services to compensate customers for the disturbance. Tour operators have blacklisted the hotel because of the noise, the suit adds.

“Some nights we get as many as eight or 10 calls from guests within a half hour,” said Stan Jacobs, general manager of the Holiday Inn. “Everyone on that side of the building is disturbed.”

The suit seeks a permanent injunction to stop the noise, as well as more than $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Charlie’s owner Steve Siegel said he was surprised and perplexed by the suit.

“We’ve been knocking ourselves out to improve it,” Siegel said, adding that his manager has put up curtains to muffle the sound, hired extra guards to keep doors closed and purchased a sound meter to monitor noise levels.

In addition, he said, the cafe has quieter musicians performing during the week and books bands only on weekends.

The suit says that on many occasions the hotel has called Ventura police about the noise. The cafe would turn down the volume briefly and then resume the louder noise levels, the suit says. “This game of ‘cat and mouse’ has occurred with such frequency that the Ventura City Police no longer promptly respond to plaintiff’s calls,” the suit says.

A Ventura police spokeswoman said she did not know the current situation, but confirmed that police “went out there quite a bit” in years past. “It’s one of those ongoing situations where nobody is ever happy,” she said.

Jacobs, the hotel manager, said he understands that Charlie’s must please its customers, and he acknowledged that the Holiday Inn benefits from having somewhere besides the hotel bar for guests to visit.

“It’s a plus to have an alternative. That’s the convenient part of having Charlie’s right there,” Jacobs said. “But we have to have some kind of compromise on the music situation.”

Siegel said he is disappointed that the hotel felt that it had to file a lawsuit to get his attention.

“We’ll certainly do whatever we have to do,” Siegel said. “I don’t want to pay some huge lawsuit.”