A hotel in Las Vegas is accused of adding extra charges to guests’ bills by saying customers have been smoking in their room.
Former guests who claim to have stayed in one of the 2,800 rooms inside Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip say they have been hit with a $500 smoking fee after smoke was “detected” in their rooms.
When guests object to the charges, the hotel allegedly explains that smoke was detected in their room and that occupants are required to charge a cleaning fee.
Those who tried to get the hotel to remove the fee after disagreeing with front desk staff say they were then told to dispute the charges through their bank or credit cards.
A hotel in Las Vegas is accused of adding extra charges to guests’ bills by saying customers have been smoking in their room.
Several people who say they stayed at the 2,800-room Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip say they have been hit with a $500 smoking fee after smoke was “detected” in their rooms.
Those who have been charged include even non-smoking customers.
Disgruntled travelers took to TripAdvisor to post their displeasure at the treatment they received from the hotel.
‘I have never been as furious with ridiculous accusations and shady business practices as Westgate. This hotel is trying to charge me a $500 smoking fee on top of my stay because ‘smoke’ was detected in my room,’ a customer, Christina K, wrote last month.
‘They claim that since I was in the room and the smoke detection went off, they have to charge me a fee for smoking and I have no other way to dispute it than to go to my bank. And I don’t smoke nor am I a smoker! I just didn’t smoke!’
Christina said one hotel manager hung up on her while a second said there was no way to remove the charge.
However, Christina admitted, “I basically have no way to prove that I just DID NOT smoke.”
When guests object to the charges, the hotel explains how smoke was detected in their room and how the occupants are required to charge a cleaning fee.
Another customer suggested that the $500 smoking fee was well known as a common scam run by the hotel.
‘Your ventilation system is tampered with. Every time I turned on the air conditioning it reeked of cigarette smoke. They all charge a $500 fee for smoking and claim their detectors are scientifically tested and 100% accurate. Nobody claims otherwise. It’s poor ventilation. They have that place rigged,” wrote Jay M.
The smoking fee appeared on the bill of another former hotel guest, Shawn H, who also stayed at the property last month.
‘The management of this hotel should be investigated for fraud with their smoke detectors. I went out to dinner and they tried to charge me over $500 for a “smoking fee.” I don’t even smoke!’ Shawn wrote.
‘It is extortion and a scam. Apparently, they will try to hide behind “we use this technology and it is accurate” despite not offering any evidence.
It was a familiar story for another customer who stayed earlier this summer.
“We have been fighting a ‘smoking charge’ ever since. We don’t smoke or vape ANYTHING. This was a family trip that ended badly due to a $600 smoking charge. The managers don’t help,” added Angélica A in a review from July of this year.
“Be very careful when booking here,” urged one former customer. ‘While at the pool, I somehow incurred a smoking fee even though no one was in my room when it supposedly occurred. So on top of a $51 resort fee, they charged me $515 and I have never smoked in my life. Absolutely put a damper on my holiday weekend.’
Another guest also explained how surprised he had been charged a fee for smoking, despite not being in the room.
‘I booked a weekend to go to a football game at Allegiant Stadium, so I was really just in the room to sleep and get ready. On the last day of our stay, a charge of almost $500 was mysteriously charged to our debit card. During check out we were told that a smoke detector went off in our room, so we were charged a smoking fee.
One of several complaints on Trip Advisor about an unwanted and unjustified smoking fee
In most cases seen by DailyMail.com, the hotel does not respond directly to guests who leave the review; However, in one case, Valerie Kelterborn, the hotel’s guest experience manager, explained how the technology works and pointed out how it had been tested. ‘1 million times’.
‘Our hotel area is a non-smoking facility that is equipped with patented FreshAir technology in each room.
“Widely used in hotels, apartments and other professionally managed properties, FreshAir devices with patented PolySens® technology detect and verify smoking in unauthorized areas,” Kelterborn explained.
‘Unlike typical smoke detectors that use light or radiation to detect general particles (dust, smoke, vapor, etc.), FreshAir sensors are the only technology that detects specific molecules in tobacco and marijuana smoke.
“The accuracy of the device has been tested more than 1 million times and is widely used as a gold standard in the hospitality industry due to the accuracy of detection.”
DailyMail.com has contacted the hotel for further clarification on the multiple complaints it has received.
