Travelodge Smoking fine

joseph1972

I work away a lot and use travelodge quite a lot..anyway 1 night a few months ago I was awoken by a security goon and a travelodge employee as my workmate had just come back to the room after being stood outside for an hour talking and smoking...they accused him of smoking in the room.after a short discussion of me refusing to give over £150 I told them to ring the police..police came and asked me to leave after only been in room a few hours ..then I got this letter through the door...apparently the goons mate found Ash on the window sill and told us it was ours...I don't need stress but I'm thinking of saying ok take me to court but make sure the cctv is available of my mate being outside smoking..
BTW I'm a non smoker
Sorryfor grammar but I'm not so clever
(Image removed by Forum Team)

neilmcl

Let them bring a claim and prove it, if you're confident they can't.

bris

They will take it further, they have to be seen enforcing their no smoking policy or everyone would just do it and think they can get away with it. So you will have your day in court.

The problem you have is the smoke detectors don't just go off for nothing, the smell of a smoker alone can't set them off they need the actual smoke to enter the sensor.
Smoking with the window open hoping to blow the smoke out the window doesn't work as there is blowback into the room. {laying devils advoate here as thats the way it looks to them, and they say they have that proof.

CCTV of someone smoking outside is no defence, do you have CCTV in the room of no one smoking all night? No. so really the higher chances are if the court papers arrive you sill lose.

user1977

bris said:

The problem you have is the smoke detectors don't just go off for nothing, the smell of a smoker alone can't set them off they need the actual smoke to enter the sensor.

I don't see anything saying that a smoke detector was activated?

visidigi

joseph1972 said:

I work away a lot and use travelodge quite a lot..anyway 1 night a few months ago I was awoken by a security goon and a travelodge employee as my workmate had just come back to the room after being stood outside for an hour talking and smoking...they accused him of smoking in the room.after a short discussion of me refusing to give over £150 I told them to ring the police..police came and asked me to leave after only been in room a few hours ..then I got this letter through the door...apparently the goons mate found Ash on the window sill and told us it was ours...I don't need stress but I'm thinking of saying ok take me to court but make sure the cctv is available of my mate being outside smoking..
BTW I'm a non smoker
Sorryfor grammar but I'm not so clever
(Image removed by Forum Team)

You're liable, smoker or not, as the claim is against you as the payor/booker of the room.

Calling people 'goon's' in the way you have doesn't exactly present a good image of someone claiming to be completely innocent of the situation.

Remember, don't put anything on the internet if you don't want people to find it (e.g. the name (Removed by Forum Team) at the top of the letter).

powerful_Rogue

Totally agree with  @visidigi

I also bet there's a lot more to this then what has been posted. Why did the staff come to the room? Was some kind of sensor triggered etc? They don't just knock on random room doors and accuse people of smoking.

What was the actual conversation? Did they ask you to leave and you refused, thus the police getting involved?

I'm presuming this must have been a work related stay, as hotels were only open for workers back then. I know the few hotels I stayed at for training courses, I had to give details of my work to justify the stay. If you have also done the same, then just be cautious of that avenue.

tacpot12

It will be up to them to produce evidence that you or colleague had smoked in the room. You have a right to see the evidence before any hearing, so it would be sensible to ask to see it now to see what they have. If they have a photo of ash on the windowsill, then I think you might struggle to win in court. It might be better to pay up now before the costs get higher. 

If they have one witness who says they saw you or your colleague smoking in the room, you need to see if they could be mistaken. What did they actually see? If they have two witnesses who say they saw you or your colleague smoking in the room, you need to think about whether this is possible. Could two people have actually seen what they claim to have seen? (Travelodge Rooms are not the largest of spaces).  

You also need to look at their costs carefully - they have a duty to minimise their losses.
It might be a good idea to see if you can negotiate the costs down, if any are unfair, and pay the rest, making an apology on behalf of your work colleague in the hope that you will not be banned from using Travelodge in future. 

joseph1972

powerful_Rogue said:

Totally agree with  @visidigi

I also bet there's a lot more to this then what has been posted. Why did the staff come to the room? Was some kind of sensor triggered etc? They don't just knock on random room doors and accuse people of smoking.

What was the actual conversation? Did they ask you to leave and you refused, thus the police getting involved?

I'm presuming this must have been a work related stay, as hotels were only open for workers back then. I know the few hotels I stayed at for training courses, I had to give details of my work to justify the stay. If you have also done the same, then just be cautious of that avenue.

Ok so when my colleagues  came back to the room the very overzealous  guards knocked on the door spoke to my pal and they said sorry wrong room  then they barged there way in about 2 mins later and started to demand money but as I don't allow my colleague to smoke in any room I'm in ..so God knows how the alleged Ash was on the side..
I asked for the police to show up as I was concerned about demanding money in the way that he did...
So no there is nothing more to say on the matter
There right I'm wrong 
Cheers for the advice and presumptions 

green6house

bris said:

CCTV of someone smoking outside is no defence, do you have CCTV in the room of no one smoking all night? No. so really the higher chances are if the court papers arrive you sill lose.

You don't seem to get the whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing.
They wouldn't need CCTV in their room to prove they hadn't been smoking. Travelodge would need CCTV in the room to prove they HAD. 

Pollycat

joseph1972 said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Totally agree with  @visidigi

I also bet there's a lot more to this then what has been posted. Why did the staff come to the room? Was some kind of sensor triggered etc? They don't just knock on random room doors and accuse people of smoking.

What was the actual conversation? Did they ask you to leave and you refused, thus the police getting involved?

I'm presuming this must have been a work related stay, as hotels were only open for workers back then. I know the few hotels I stayed at for training courses, I had to give details of my work to justify the stay. If you have also done the same, then just be cautious of that avenue.

Ok so when my colleagues  came back to the room the very overzealous  guards knocked on the door spoke to my pal and they said sorry wrong room  then they barged there way in about 2 mins later and started to demand money but as I don't allow my colleague to smoke in any room I'm in ..so God knows how the alleged Ash was on the side..
I asked for the police to show up as I was concerned about demanding money in the way that he did...
So no there is nothing more to say on the matter
There right I'm wrong 
Cheers for the advice and presumptions 

So are you just going to pay up?

I think you've had some good responses asking reasonable questions and making sensible points - including the post you seem to unhappy with. I would take note of the final sentence in that post.

Why did they say 'sorry, wrong room' and then come back 2 minutes later?

Did they really 'barge their way in'?

What did they say when they came back 2 minutes later and allegedly 'barged their way in'?

IvanOpinion

I would wait for a couple more evolutions of the story before passing comment.