Why am I responsible for this charge?

[Yura]

Hi,

My name is Yura and I'm from GA.

Hotel charged me $500 for smoking as soon as I checked ou. So I went back to the hotel for pictures or to investigate the room with the manager but they refused to tell me anything. They just said dispute with the card company if you want.
The truth is I threw residue that I collected from trail and I threw it in the trash can.
Per hotel, they are 100% non smoking facility that not only you can't smoke but you can't bring any cigarette residue into the hotel.
When I signed my pape during check in did not mentioned anything like this it as a matter a fact, it only mentioned no smoking inside the hotel. If it did stated correctly I wouldn't have brought my trash. As a customer, I would think you have to smoke inside the room to be charged.
Hotel is not providing any evidence of photos or paperwork I signed.
This is first time I'm hearing cig residue is now allowed in the non smoking facility.
Could you please help what the law regarding on this?

 

[quincy]

Hi,

My name is Yura and I'm from GA.

Hotel charged me $500 for smoking as soon as I checked ou. So I went back to the hotel for pictures or to investigate the room with the manager but they refused to tell me anything. They just said dispute with the card company if you want.
The truth is I threw residue that I collected from trail and I threw it in the trash can.
Per hotel, they are 100% non smoking facility that not only you can't smoke but you can't bring any cigarette residue into the hotel.
When I signed my pape during check in did not mentioned anything like this it as a matter a fact, it only mentioned no smoking inside the hotel. If it did stated correctly I wouldn't have brought my trash. As a customer, I would think you have to smoke inside the room to be charged.
Hotel is not providing any evidence of photos or paperwork I signed.
This is first time I'm hearing cig residue is now allowed in the non smoking facility.
Could you please help what the law regarding on this?

The hotel can make and enforce their own smoking rules. That said, they can't make up rules after-the-fact and charge you for violating this unwritten rule.

What I suggest you do is get a copy of the registration paper that addresses no smoking in the hotel. If the hotel will not provide you with the copy you signed, you might want to have someone pretend to register to get a copy of it that way. The rule might also be posted in the rooms.

If the paper says that there will be a $500 fee added to the bill for smoking in the room (or smoking residue), you will have a difficult time fighting the fee, although it seems excessive.

Smoke and smoking debris (ashes, cigarette butts, empty cigarette packs) can be easily detected by the noses of most non-smokers - and getting the smell out of a room requires extra cleaning.

Good luck.

 

[quincy]

Following is a (2012) link to Georgia's Smokefree Air Act, which indicates that violating the law (smoking in an area posted as non-smoking) can be charged as a misdemeanor with fines from $100-$500.

https://www.georgialibraries.org/lib/library_laws/052013/31-12A-1 - 31-12A-13 Ga. Smokefree Air Act.pdf

Smoke "residue" is not defined under the law. "Infiltrate" (or permeate) is defined.

 

[cbg]

Just as a point that too many people miss, when there is smoke odor in a non-smoking room, it has to be taken out of service for usually about three days while it is deodorized, and yes, it really does take that long. It's not just extra cleaning, though that is part of if. It requires special cleaning to get the odor out of rugs and curtains which can't be cleaned quickly and bedding. That's three days that the hotel is not getting any income from that room. When put into the terms of the amount of money the hotel is losing, $500 doesn't sound quite so excessive.

 

[quincy]

... When put into the terms of the amount of money the hotel is losing, $500 doesn't sound quite so excessive.

Good point.

 

[HighwayMan]

The truth is I threw residue that I collected from trail and I threw it in the trash can.

I'm trying to understand what you did - sounds like you went hiking and started picking up garbage along the way and took it all the way back to your hotel room? How did you carry this debris? Do you bring bags with you just for this purpose? Or did you stuff things in your pockets? You couldn't find a place at the trail head to deposit trash?

 

[quincy]

The hotel might have had a problem with that explanation, as well, true as it might be.

 

[cbg]

It doesn't matter how the smoke odor got into his room; whether he smoked in the room or carried in other people's cigarette butts (which seems a bit absurd to me as well). The point is that the smoke odor DID get into his room and the hotel is going to be losing money because of it.