Non Smoking. Non-smoke-ing.

[JustAGirl]

I stayed at a hotel in Raleigh that had a sign stating that if ANY smell of smoke was in a nonsmoking room they would automatically be charged $200.

I like that hotel

[Seshat]

Actually, what I had noghtmares about after a while were the old bigots. Trashy old ladies demanding a room RIGHT in front of the pool on the BOTTOM floor, BUT IT BETTER NOT BE A CRIPPLE ROOM!

Then of course they'd be pissed when they discovered that ALL the rooms on the ground floor in front of the pool were 'cripple' rooms. Lady, you're at least 80. You can't move your fat butt and the 50 pound purse attached to your arm without a cane. Guess what? YOU'RE A 'CRIPPLE'!!!!!

What's wrong with getting a cripple room? You get more space in the bathroom, more leg room under the desk, and more space either side of the beds. You don't have to think about the reasons the space is there. If you don't need a wheelchair, be grateful that your body works!

And PhoneGoddess? Tell your employers, please, that I'm grateful that your cripple rooms are desirable ones. It's nice to not be shoved off into a corner somewhere.


(I use a wheelchair. I can walk short distances, but not long ones.)

[Andara Bledin]

I'm all for hotels charging a cleaning fee for anyone who smokes in a non-smoking room. If it's that big a deal that you smoke in your room, then do what you can to book in time to get a smoking room. And if that's not possible, then walk your ass outside and do your smoking there.

And to think that they spent time and money putting no-smoking sticekrs on their ashtrays. I mean, if they alternate the room status, why not just take the trays OUT?

I suspect that the trays are a courtesy so that if they get a smoker in one of the non-smoking rooms, they can take the tray out so that they have something to put their butts out in.

^-.-^

[April]

I recently book a smoking room at a hotel through hotels.com I believe...


Except when we got there we found that there were NO smoking rooms at the hotel at all LOL

I found it kind of funny.

We smoked outside, no big deal.

Speaking of "cripple rooms"

We got one of those in Washington DC. HUGE gigantic shower, giant room. LOVED it.

PLUS there was a chair in the shower. The possibilities............

[MinimaMagistra]

This hotel would not rent out rooms to anyone without a credit card for this reason. If they have cash only, what's to make them cough up the extra $150?

Probably a good quarter to a third of our guests pay cash. We are pretty much the nicest hotel on a very sketchy stretch of road. We get a lot of night-folk, yes, and we get a lot of legitimately sleepy people who only have cash. First couple months I worked here, I pretty much said "Credit only" at night. This was before we started taking mandatory $20 room deposits if you pay cash and I didn't want to try to guess who would trash their room and who wouldn't. So the first cash coustomer I ever took outside of training was this awesome couple on their way to a concert in Tampa the next day. The man was a trucker and the woman worked in a post office. Looked like the kind of woman who would've thrown her panties at late Rolling Stones, early Aerosmith. I LIKED them. We chatted for a while. They are the only people ever to have given me a tip.

Carrying a tin around for your old filters is one of the coolest things I've ever heard of. Not cool as in "awesome, man", but cool as in it makes you a <I>very</I> nifty person. It's one of those courtosies that <I>nobody does</I> and is therefore all the more impressive when someone initiates it on their own.

[slick]

We do the credit card only thing also. Non-smoking is the most sought after room for us, and also first floor. When a smoker oftens hears that they will be on the third, they almost always reply with "I'll take a non on the first and smoke outside". Sometimes they do, most of the time they don't. We got tired of it, so a credit card is mandatory now. You can still pay cash for the room, so as long as you didn't smoke in a non or vandalize/steal anything, your card isn't charged.
We lose some business, but only once have I had some moron actually disregard the "do not smoke in a non smoking room policy" and end up getting charged $150 extra a night (when the room was only $79 to begin with).
We also spent a lot on new bedding, comforters cost us $70 and are quite nice (heck, I ordered one for me), so the credit card for deposit works well for when they take off with $100 in bedding (synthetic down pillows are a big item being stolen now).

Also should note that major hotel chains are now converting to 100% non smoking. I believe most, if not all Marriott hotels (like Fairfield, Courtyard, Residence) are 100% non, and all Comfort Suites are also. I have seen a lot of new properties open up as 100% non smoking facilities recently.

Its a shame, we have good, courteous smokers, but the bad ones always ruin things (burned sheets, carpet, drapes, pillows, furniture, etc.), I can see why some hotels see this as a waste of there time. I applaud those people who are thoughtful when it comes to smoking, for you, we still have smoking rooms that are just like all other rooms (I have seen properties that let smoking rooms "run down" and stay that way).

[ThePhoneGoddess]

And PhoneGoddess? Tell your employers, please, that I'm grateful that your cripple rooms are desirable ones. It's nice to not be shoved off into a corner somewhere.

That job was ten years ago, I dont work there anymore.

[MinimaMagistra]

Maybe if there are Comfort Inns that are corp-run, not franchised. This IS a Comfort Inn, here. I may ask the Bossman if he's ever considered a "Cash w/ valid CC" policy. We'd lose some of our night-time folk, but they usually only have the coupon anyway.

I don't know if our blankets've been getting stolen, but I did hear from Bosslady about this one room they went into, after the guy checked out, where they found that the refrigerator had been stolen. Somebody'd just up and carried it out. Charged him $2,000 on his credit card. Never heard a peep.

[Becks]

This hotel would not rent out rooms to anyone without a credit card for this reason. If they have cash only, what's to make them cough up the extra $150?

What about those of us who don't have credit cards, and by choice? I have cash, a debit card and a checkbook.

[DrugstoreJulie]

What about those of us who don't have credit cards, and by choice? I have cash, a debit card and a checkbook.

Me too...could I leave cash or a check as a deposit possibly?
Though I think for the hotel, taking the guests cc info in advance is pretty brilliant.

[Andara Bledin]

A lot of places will accept a debit card for the deposit, provided the deposit amount is available in the account.

Although I've run into instances where that is no longer the case. Fox car rental stopped accepting debit cards just last year, which has be bummed, as they have great prices and service. However, the Thrifty next door still takes debit cards and are just as cheap and nice.

^-.-^

[AFpheonix]

Too bad there isn't a button you can push to make the smoke detector in those rooms go off when you know someone is smoking in a strictly NON smoking room.

Heh. That reminds me, when we went to OK last summer, we stayed in a non-smoking extended stay place (how neat are those, by the way? Cheap, and cool!) and some twit on the bottom floor decided to smoke in their room. Twice.

Both times they set off the hallway smoke detector, and we all had to file out, in the middle of the night, and hang out in the parkinglot until the FD showed up.

Damn, those fire alarms are loud.....

[the lawsmeister]

My uncle told me this story about a trip he took years ago when Aussie trains still had smoking cars. He always travelled non-smoking because he has problems with his throat, but this woman behind him seemed to think it was ok to light up in the non-smoking car
MU - My Uncle
ASL - annoying smoking lady
LC - Legend Conductor

MU - excuse me but this is a non-smoking car. Can you put that out please.
ASL -that's ok, i won't tell anyone if you don't either.
MU - well I'd really like you to put it out. Its a non-smoking car.
ASL - *Ignores him*

So my uncle goes to see the conductor
MU - Hey there's this lady who insist on smoking in the non-smoking car.
LC - Oh really. Leave it to me.

LC - *to ASL* Are you the lady who wanted to be moved?
ASL - Excuse me no, I'm happy here.
LC - *looks at note pad* No I'm certain. You're the lady who wanted to be moved to the smoking car. This is all non-smoking in here so if you want to have a cigarette you obviously want to be moved to the smoking car. Get your things and follow me please.
MU - *waves and smiles as ASL is lead past by the conductor*

[Andara Bledin]

Huzzah the conductor!

That is precisely the way to deal with that sort of person.

"I won't tell if you don't." What a bitch.

^-.-^

[Getoutofmylobby]

Dave you should have stolen that ashtray... that's awesome.

The majority of our housekeepers don't speak english very well and have a hard time understanding our general manager who talks like a retarted monkey half the time. Usually this has in some interesting results like last week when for some reason all the nonsmoking rooms on the second floor had ashtrays put in them.

After about the 20th "Why is there an ashtray in my nonsmoking room?" i started to tell guests that they aren't in fact ashtrays but "Personal Bedside Valets."

A number of them seemed really pleased that we would offer such a thoughtful inclusion to their room. The others knew i was full of it.