This past summer, we told you about a travel writer who was falsely accused of smoking in his hotel room and was charged $500 for doing so. The hotel used a supposedly sophisticated smoke detection system in guest rooms.
One of our readers posted a comment that the same thing had just happened to him and his wife at a big Las Vegas hotel:
Las Vegas Venetian Scam! Yeah don’t stay at the Venetian. Was there 4 days for our anniversary trip.
Everything was going perfect until checkout July, 17th. They charged us $566.90 for smoking in a room because they received an alert on their so called “100% accurate sensor Freshair. Funny thing is wife and I have never smoked a day in our life or smoked that one night they said it went off. Tried to be diplomatic upon check out only to be kicked down the road. What an insult. How stupid do they think people are? Being non smokers we support non smoking hotels and don’t even think about the sensors. But to accuse someone without any kind of investigation or show a print out of the alarm is unbelievable. Only a verbal time of approximately 11:52pm given. Tried to ask valid questions but they could not be answered.
We followed up with our reader to get more details. When he got home he did two things — he filed a dispute with his bank and he and his wife went to get a nicotine and drug test. They passed the tests which was no surprise because they are very careful in their home because their son was born with a lung disease.
I also directed him to Seth Kugel at the New York Times who writes the “Tripped Up” travel help column. Seth followed up with the hotel, but they refused to provide the proof that their monitoring system caught the Turners smoking.
All was not lost, however, because after a three-month investigation, the Turners’ bank, Hancock Whitney, sided with them, and reversed the hotel’s charge:
Congratulations to our consumer who fought hard and won. And hat’s off to his bank for taking an interest in his case. Unlike credit cards, debit cards like the one used by this consumer don’t have traditional chargeback rights by law, but the bank put through a claim anyway to Visa, perhaps as a fraudulent or unauthorized charge.
I’ve followed FreshAir since their startup in a startup incubator in Lebanon, NH. It’s interesting to see their tech deployed in LV. Their website and how their tech works is here: freshairsensor.com
I’ve often wondered if someone smoking outside could trigger an alarm inside. The room AC/Heat unit draws in air from the outside. At 11:52 pm, they were most likely sound asleep and would not have noticed it.
looking at the freshair website, revenue generation is a big part of their spiel. I bet that could cause it, or even smoke from outside (I don’t remember if Vegas air conditioners are wall units)
Since these sensors appear to be somewhat unreliable, why not have them act like a real smoke detector and cause an audible alarm when ‘smoke’ is detected. To shut of the alarm requires a member of the hotel staff to enter a secret code or actually visit the room to verify the presence (or absence) of real smoke.
The hotels will state that that adds an extra burden on the staff (or security)
to deal with their alarm system. It will increase the cost of hotel visits, maybe even cause potential visitors to avoid certain properties.
Maybe, put your experience on a Yelp review, Trip Advisor, or other travel related sites. Maybe if enough potential guests mention the ‘smoke’ detector issues, the hoel will review their polcies oncerning their use.
Once they have your credit card, it is a dilemma to get any charge removed. That is assuming that you notice the charge.
It is asinine to me that they can charge you based on the output of a single sensor. Who knows what other fragrances and scents will set that sensor off.
From now on, when making a reservation I will make sure to ask if they use smoking sensors in their rooms. If so, I will immediately inform them I am not interested in booking a room due to their unreliability and the possibility of unwarrented charges. Perhaps if people did that they will understand their technology is causing problems for their customers.
They’re still out the cost of the nicotine screen. How aggravating.
This page has a lot of consumer tips and corporate contacts. They even take special cases on behalf of some who need help.
https://elliottadvocacy.org/