I think you are totally selfish!!!
You smoke in your room in any good hotel and you may be charged for the "de-soking"
Please get a smoking room. A PIPE?

I have to go along with the posts above re: smoking in no-smoking rooms.

"A few puffs' on a pipe might not seem like much to you, but for the next guest, it might just be enough to be bothersome. No smoking means NO smoking -- a few puffs, pipes included.

I suggest you re-consider this practice.

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Da DOK

I think that those smokers who think they can "hide" the fact they are smoking from other people who are in close contact with them is ridiculous. I think it would be very rare for anyone to be fooled.

If I am in a hotel room on the third floor, I can smell someone lighting up in the parking lot (and it does annoy me, but obviously there is no one to complain to in this instance http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif ). Perhaps smokers have lost their senses of smell - I certainly haven't!

If I'm with the wife, even in a smoking room, I usually end up smoking in the bathroom. The problem is that if you are placed in a NS room when you have requested a smoking room, whose fault is it then. There have been times where I have travelled alone and at check-in, they assign me a non-smoking room and have told me that an ashtray will be sent up immediately without me having said a word. Some hotels have those industrial sized ionic machines but many don't.

¾Æ

It is possible that a hotel may oversell their smoking rooms, or simply not pay attention to the request. In this case, the guest is often offered to smoke in the non-smoking room, as korea has indicated.
The ionizers are quite effective, but you can't use it while the room is occupied. I don't want to enter into a debate of smokers vs. non-smokers, but I can tell you that Rover is by no means alone in this practice. Right or wrong, there isn't really anything the hotel can do about it while the guest is there. I've never heard of a guest ever being charged a cleaning fee for smoking in a non-smoking room.
However, if a guest checks in and finds their non-smoking room to be stale, then changing rooms can be a problem if the hotel is full. This is the source of customer complaints quite often, as many people are very sensitive or allergic to cigarette smoke.

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"I just wanna wish you good luck, we're all counting on you"
-Dr. Rumack

Well in 2005 in CA - the Marriot Montery now has a sign in their rooms - smoke and we will charge you an extra nite

Sounds fair to me ;)

Only in California!
 

Wow! Has it really been almost a year and a half since this thread was active?
I guess we're back open for business :)

Well, frankly, trying to enforce this rule is a nightmare for any front desk agent. Good luck getting people to pay this.
My guess is this sign is put up simply to discourage people from smoking. Have people seen this in other Marriotts?

Any stories for us? Thanks for all of your help in this thread.

I just read through this whole thread for the first time yesterday (how's that for travel geek credentials?!). This is among the best threads ever on FT, thanks to g_leyser.

OK I have a new one for you...
 

..how would you have handled this?? Staying at an airport hotel of a large chain. Come out of the shower soaking wet, and walk over to the floor lamp to turn it on as it is now dusk and the room is getting dark. I go to turn on the lamp but either housekeeping or the previous guest has pulled the lightbulb socket out and exposed the wires. Needless to say I was electrocuted. Luckily I fell backwards and broke the current. However my arm was pretty badly burned and I was in shock (sorry about the pun). Hair standing on end I made my way down to the front desk where I collapsed and convulsed for about 15 seconds. Anyways they sent me off to the hospital, they did an ekg, looked for exit burns and treated my burns. I missed that day of work and had difficulty driving for the rest of my trip due to pain in my arm. So how would your hotel have handled this? I was told the property had an umbrella coverage for upto $15,000.00 and anything over that would require a lawsuit. Thus the hotel covered the costs of my honeymoon ( a little more than $10,000.00) at one of their properties. Did I handle this correctly by not suing or did the hotel got off cheaply? Just curious?

Unless g_leyser was as personal injury lawyer in a previous career, this one should be beyond his expertise. The answer depends mostly on the extent of your injuries. You present facts that would suggest negligence on the part of the hotel, but that is not a certainty.

If medical costs were in the range of $1-3 grand and you suffered no permanent injury or disfiguration, $10k sounds like it's in the ballpark. It could be that an aggressive lawyer would have gotten more money for you, but then again, he/she would have taken 1/3 or more of the settlement.

From what you've posted so far, it looks like you resolved this reasonably. My only suggestion to anyone in this situation is be extremely skeptical of statements such as "the property had an umbrella coverage for up to $15,000.00 and anything over that would require a lawsuit". That makes no sense at all, and is probably designed to diminish your expectations.

In fact "umbrella coverage" is for very large cases where liability goes beyond the business' general commercial liability policy (e.g., amounts above $1 million and up to $10 million). When you have a claim, treat any such "information" the other side gives you as though it were coming from a used car salesman, politician or even (gasp) a lawyer who is working against you.

Umm....what dhuey said. :)

I am not a lawyer, so I can't give you legal advice. It sounds to me like the hotel did respond well given the circumstances. They rushed you to the hospital first and foremost, and I think a free $10K honeymoon is a very nice way to compensate you.
As long as you have no long - term injuries, i think the situation was handled quite well by both sides.

(Thanks for the kind words dhuey) :)

If I check into a hotel that I know I'm going to return to several times in the next 12 months, who should I ask for so I'm more likely to be remembered and taken care of when I return in a few weeks?

It depends on what you mean by several times. If its just once every other month I would try to make friends with one of the front desk agents - especially if you check in at the same time every stay - chances are the same agents will be working that shift each time.
If your business will represent a more significant amount of revenue for the hotel you should definitely introduce yourself to a front desk manager on your first stay.
Explain to him/her that you will be staying X amount of days in '05, and that you would like to have one point of contact for reservations, etc. Basically you want a "buddy" on the inside. Treat the meeting like you would treat any meeting with a supplier or client for the best results.

Totally depends on how many room nights, and how much revenue of course. PM me if you want to talk specific details.

I don't smoke, but don't mind a smoking room. Often, however, you must request one or the other when you make the initial reservation. Which request would give me the best chance for an upgrade, smoking or non smoking?


Also, I travel overseas frequently and they add 10% to 20% for service right onto the bill. This percentage is added onto the nightly room rate. Does this mean I don't have to tip maids and bellhops? I usually do not because I am charge a service fee nightly.