Billed $130 for replacing bedding for a tiny stain.
 

My friend (platinum) is staying in a Marriott hotel. I am not publishing which property yet.

He has accidentally dropped a small (smaller than a coin) bed, which left a stain on a pillow case, because of a medical condition. The hotel charged $130 to replace it - even when he said he is ok for it be just cleaned.

Is this a common practice? Is it very hard to clean linens industrially?

It sounds like it was associated with body fluids. My guess-and its only a guess-is that they replaced the pillow. Much more difficult to clean if something gets in the filling-and makes more sense with the cost.

For a pillow? How much does the same pillow cost in Marriott shop?

$79.50 - $89.50
https://www.shopmarriott.com/product...arriott-pillow

I pretty much stopped at this point. Unless you were there and saw it yourself, this thread relies on your friend's subjective evaluation of the stain as he related it to you. This problem just reared its head in another thread, too.

Post a photo of the stain, and then we'll talk.

No thanks.

What's with these "my friend says . . ." threads?

We should just boycott these rather than taking the bait.

If this was a bodily fluid and the "friend" identified it as such, I am certain that property disposed of the item. Cleaning it with anything else is out of the question.

Seems to be quite reasonable to impose a charge. Not sure who else would be responsible. C

Whether the specific amount is reasonable is up for debate. If the friend believes it to be excessive, he should raise that with a manager while he is still at the property.

But, as others note, this whole thing seems to be a game of telephone. Missing lots of detail which may be important.

I would advise your friend not to pay it.

Your ‘friend’ dropped a small bed???

He is a fellow FTer but he feels embarrassed to contest it. We did try to rationalise it before posting.

I (a lifetime Titanium) have seen blood stain at Westin Times Square. They were indifferent. “Oh really? We’ll replace it.” That was all they offered to do.

What is the standard and what shall we expect?

No. Sorry.

Well, since Mr. Vker declined my invitation to post a photo, I'm guessing....If your friend declines to post a photo or provide more details, that makes it significantly harder for me to credit what he says.

$130 sounds like a light sentence. Imagine the cost to Marriot if this tiny stain had later been found by an FTer?

I have a friend who doesn't want to see the photo either.

It does not work that way in the US.

His credit card on file will simply be billed. Or, if he is using a debit card (very, very rare), an amount exceeding the room rate by a substantial amount has likely already been "held" (which with a debit card) means taken from his account.

Well, I understand his/her feelings, but 1) s/he doesn't have to look at the post, 2) all the initial secrecy has raised suspicion, and not unreasonably, IMO, as Kacee pointed out upthread. It has become more of a problem recently.Assuming that it happened as you allege, I don't blame the hotel for replacing the item(s) where there are bodily fluids involved, particularly in the context of a "medical condition." Is it possible that there was also some leakage onto one of the sheets which you didn't notice, but housekeeping staff did when they stripped the bed?

If the $130 to replace the pillow and pillowcase is significantly more than the price at which you can purchase them from Marriott, seems to me that you have a legitimate complaint about that, which you should take up with hotel management.

One would think that this type of thing would be considered Part of the cost of doing business by the hotel. To me unless it is the result of gross negligence or an intentional act then the hotel should just throw out the pillow and put another one in the room.

Oh, the things I used to get up to in hotel rooms...

I suspect there are an awful lot of bodily fluids deposited onto hotel bedding on a daily basis. I also strongly suspect that those linens are not replaced every day. A visible stain that cannot be removed is a different story.

Agreed. I have to assume that the life expectancy of a hotel pillow at a full-service/reasonably upscale property is measured in months, not years, so what's really the depreciated value?

The charge seems high for a pillow + pillowsheet.

I don't know what the actual language of a hotel is on these things -- assuming it was in the course of a normal stay and normal activities, it does seem petty for the hotel to charge to replace the pillow + pillowsheet instead of just eating the cost on their own.

After all he could've done the less honorable thing and just hid the pillow and it might not have been noticed until they went to wash the sheets later or a future guest arrived.

That said I don't fault the hotel for immediately throwing away the pillow + pillowcase and in fact I applaud them. I have no interest in a sheet with blood stains on it -- no matter how many times it has received industrial washing. I see a blood stain on my sheets upon arrival and you better believe I'm calling the front desk to immediately replace the sheets and not pleased about it getting through the housekeeping staff (happened to me this year at the Ren Barcelona Fira when they changed the sheets during my stay and put on sheets with blood stains).

Count me as another who thinks this is pretty cheap on the hotel's part. Last year at the IC Grand Stanford in Hong Kong, not long after checking in, an unfortunate combination of jet lag and food poisoning led to a very embarrassing 8pm emergency call to housekeeping resulting in a complete bed change (along with a $50 tip to the unfortunate staff member who got the call). I'm afraid these things just happen and I imagine every hotel housekeeper has some horror stories, but it was very much appreciated that not a single word was mentioned and no extra charges were added when I checked out.

Of course this was Intercontinental in Asia, and not Marriott (OP's location is Asia, but doesn't mention the location of the hotel) which might make a difference.

Family member had a similar incident in India with a similar outcome. Quick and calm response with an offer of medical assistance and no mention of a charge for the damage, and no charge ensued.

On numerous occasions my kid had bloody nose due to dry air leaving stains on sheets and pillowcases and possibly pillows. It s a part of hotel business.

I can see some damage claim considerations if one decides to use hotel room to decapitate a chicken as a part of voodoo ritual or perhaps with gastronomic purposes... :D

Any hotel that would charge $130 for dropping a bed (I still can't picture this or any bed that would be smaller than a coin) is not a hotel I would return to.

Or refusing to share the property.

I can understand not wanting to divulge the property while you are staying there in some cases, but it's all too common that people want to complain without divulging the property.

-David

I believe $130 charge for dropping a bed is pretty generous :D

And about "the size of coin" ... its quite ambiguous as well as the size could range from 50c Australian coin to 5c Singaporean coin :D

Same condition.

That’s what I expect from a hotel. If that is offered I will offer paying for replacing the item.

This property offered nothing. Just a charge

The incident to which I was referring was an accident. Not certain yours was due to limited info and I still can't figure out what was dropped from the original post ("bed"?)

It seems a tiny bed was dropped.

Was the pillow itself stained, or just the pillow case? If it was just the pillow case, then I don't get why pillow was replaced. Regardless a pillow case being stained is IMO normal wear and tear. It's put on the pillow partially to help protect the pillow.

As for it being bodily fluids, those are on every sheet regardless if visible. Semen/urine/💩 are all commonly found and perspiration is going to be on every touched sheet. Bleach does wonders! For the rare non-white, there's other disinfectants.

No, it doesn't seem like that at all. It reads like something from a living person's body was dropped on the bed and resulted in a stain, with that stain probably being the size of some kind of coin no larger than the kind of coin that can fit in a kid's pant's pocket.

I wonder what brand of Marriott hotel hit the OP's referred to person with the $130 charge.

It specifically says a small bed, one smaller than a coin, was dropped due to a medical condition and made a stain on a pillow case.

It specifically reads like it has an included typographical error, one that doesn’t take genius to understand if really interested in making an effort to understand the intent of the words included in the post and adjusting for the obvious typographical error. It requires having goodwill toward people posting here, but that is in short supply on FT way too often.

He was making a joke, jesus.

My name isn’t Jesus, I can read just fine, and I never missed the typographical error in the OP. ;)

As the OP has had lots of opportunities to fix this and has refused to do so, I'm not so sure any more. I take this whole thread with a huge pile of salt until the OP decides to cooperate and clarify.

You are right. And I apologize for misleading choice of words. It was a small blood stain.