Hotel Guest Hit with $500 Smoking Fee, But She Says She Doesn't Smoke and Wasn't in the Room

"On Saturday morning, the friends left their hotel room around 11 a.m. to enjoy an afternoon in the city. Around 5 p.m., the friends made it back to their suite and found an envelope taped to their door. "Upon opening it, I saw that they were going to charge me $500 for smoking in the room," Leicy says. "So I immediately took that down to the front desk and asked to speak to the manager.""

"The sheet showed a graph allegedly detecting smoke within her room between 4 and 4:30 p.m. - a time the women were outside of the hotel. According to the report, the "smoke detection technology used" by the hotel collects measurements that are "passed to a proprietary algorithm that has been verified by rigorous testing." It is designed to test for vaporized tobacco, marijuana, nicotine products, and e-cigarette devices."

"Leicy told the manager there was no way this was possible, as no one in her group of friends smoked, and they were all gone at the time of the report. The guest even showed photos with time stamps proving their location. After asking for security camera footage and key card logs to determine if anyone entered their room, Leicy claims the manager said there was nothing he could do."

Rhaiany Leicy visited New York City Oct. 3–5 and stayed at the M Social Hotel with a friend. On Oct. 4 they left the room around 11 a.m. and returned around 5 p.m. to find an envelope notifying a $500 smoking charge. Hotel staff presented a sheet labeled "Smoke Report" showing a graph allegedly detecting smoke in the room between 4 and 4:30 p.m., when the guests were outside. The report described a smoke detection technology that collects measurements and passes them to a proprietary algorithm. Leicy showed time-stamped photos and requested camera footage and key-card logs; the manager said there was nothing he could do.

Read at People.com