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My recent stay at Best Western Inn at the Meadows has been one of the worst travel experiences of my life. I was falsely, and unlawfully charged a $500 smoking despite the fact that smoking did not occur in the room.

The management is sticking to this claim, bolstering it on each occasion, that his opinion is firm, the smell was verified by several staff. However, this cannot be the case as I DID NOT SMOKE IN THE ROOM. He is basing this solely on discriminatory opinion and bias. My credit card was initially charged $500, that charged was reversed soon after, a subsequent charge of $352.68 was made, the charge was then voided and my card was again unlawfully charged $500.

This is a blatant attempt to steal my money. I fully comprehended the non-smoking policy, and I was well aware of the fees associated with violation of this policy. Also, having worked in Property Management for several years, and being a non-smoker myself, I completely understand and agree with this policy. upon check in on 3/22/13 I checked-in to the hotel directly off of a flight from Hawaii.

I was only physically in the room for approximately eleven hours total before exiting the property for over 24 hours at around 11:00am on the 3/23/13. I left Portland for the night to continue my vacation and upon return around 10:30pm the following night I noticed neither of my door keys worked. I proceeded to the front desk, showed my identification and returned to my room to rest after a very long day. The front desk then proceeded to call my room near midnight, demanding I come down to discuss something.

In all of my years of staying at hotels dispute, issue, or whatever the situation I have never been instructed to get out of bed at midnight, put on my clothing, and engage in dialogue with the front desk clerks, not even management, to settle a matter.When I arrived at the front desk I was greeted by a very rude and unprofessional employee that was not previously at the desk when I was there earlier, (fixing my keys that coincidentally had been deactivated). This employee proceeded to shove a paper across the desk at me instructing me to sign a $500 โ€œsmoking fee.โ€ I immediately disputed this! It was past midnight, I had no idea what was going on, this is the first I've ever heard of such a thing, I had not smoked in the room or even been there for 24 hours for that matter. They have no evidence irrefutable, conclusive, or otherwise that smoking occurred in the room.

Furthermore, I was not provided with proof that services for a room recovery were actually completed by your hotel. In addition to this, and with regards to business practices and financial institutions, although you made a pre-compliant charge, it was not authorized or validated by me. They need my signature to validate a charge and I need proof that a violation has or had occurred and proof that services were rendered (which was not provided.) When I got pissed and refused to pay and called the manager out of trying to steal my money he increased the fee from $362.68 to $500! This was was unauthorized and charged solely because he didnโ€™t like what I had to say to him.

Iโ€™m sorry I do not take kindly to people trying to steal from me. The manager would not provide me with any contact information for anyone besides himself and said I had no recourse, it was his opinion I had smoked therefore I was paying the fee. After doing some research, I found this is common practice by lesser quality hotels who are in the business of scamming their guests. Perhaps the housekeepers were expecting a tip?

Or they have gotten away with this type of scam in the past and unfortunately no one disputed their shady business practices? Whatever the case, I am in no way paying any $500 smoking fee charged to my account by the Best Western Inn at the Meadows, for the simple fact that no one smoked in the room. Each establishment is independently owned, however, Best Western Inn at the Meadows is a horrible example of what a customer service oriented business should be. I sincerely hope my experience wasnโ€™t indicative of how you treat all of your guests.

If so, I suggest Best Western Inn at the Meadows rethink their business strategy, as they are in the market of treating your guests fairly, courteously, and with respect. Having worked both in the customer service industry and management, along with traveling frequently, I am still having trouble conveying to you how astounded I am by the unprofessional treatment by those working at Best Western Inn at the Meadows.

Monetary Loss: $500.

Location: Portland, Oregon

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Guest

I work for choice hotels and at the particular franchise I work for (not best western) we give guests a paper to sign when they check in that gives permission to charge up to $500 for "smoking, damages or pet fees", pet fees only if you lie about having the pet. Most people sign it and go about their business, because the writing is very small and there are like 6 paragraphs.

Now, in cases where smoking or damages actually did occur, it covers the hotel. I've never seen a charge more than $200 where I work and the norm for smoking is $50 but since every franchise is individually owned, they can basically run it however they like and there are bound to be unscrupulous and greedy owners who scam people this way.

The BEST way to stop yourself from being scammed like this is to get a prepaid card and either pay with it, only loading enough to cover the room cost, or to pay cash and present the card to put on file for incidentals.

If you're at a choice hotel brand and they tell you they cant accept that, then leave.

They're lying to you. All choice hotels run on the same computer system and I know that they can put ANY card on file for incidentals, regardless of whether it doesn't have a single cent on it.

Make sure you don't have a lot of money on the prepaid card either way. They have no way of finding out the balance of your card, and won't know there's insufficient funds to charge you a ridiculous amount for nothing until they attempt to charge it.

Sorry this happened to you, but since the best western you stayed in is likely owned by a franchisee, the corporate office probably won't help you or even investigate. At the hotel I work at we are required to take photographic evidence if any has been left in the room, ashes or cigarette butts etc.

But unfortunately as far as the smoke smell goes, it's their word against yours. There is no proving it either way, you signed a contract when you checked in.

Guest

We had the exact same thing happen at the Best Western Inn at the Vines in Napa, CA. They charged $250 when no one smoked in the room-period.

I emailed the hotel and got no response; emailed the main office and got no response. After I contacted the Better Business Bureau the hotel still contended that there were ashes and smoke in the room.

Obviously this is a scam throughout the chain. I will never stay at another Best Western hotel again.

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