Stayed at a five-star hotel with my family and after we checked out, we were told that because of the room condition we would be charged the $200 deposit. They sent video evidence of our room with coffee spilled everywhere, peanut butter on the windows, and stuff all over the floor. We can definitely say for certain we did not leave the room in that condition. The hotel is sticking to its guns and saying that this is the evidence they have and that no one else entered the room based on the lock log. I’ve asked about cameras in the hallway, but have not received a response. What can I do?
I’m confused - In order for there to have been peanut butter on the windows, someone one would’ve had to have brought it into the room in the first place.
Did you order peanut butter sandwiches for room service/ or bring - or dispose of - a peanut butter jar in your room?
If not - Where did it come from?
Ok, sure. Let’s go with the story that an employee, just to frame you all, went to the store to buy peanut butter to come back and then rub all over the windows. That makes total sense.
And that they also went in and brewed coffee, and then spilled it on the sheets to again, frame you all.
Okey dokey🤦🏼♀️
we had a jar in the room, so it was our PB
Let’s use Occam’s Razor. The simplest answer is usually the correct one.
It’s most likely the 6 year old did this and you just didn’t see the window behind the curtains. Because when checking out, who’s going to go and look at any windows, let alone pull back curtains.
As well as it’s extremely unlikely that a hotel employee went into your room, and decided to take peanut butter ( you are saying it was likely empty) so they bought new PB and decided to wipe it all over the windows for fun.
Hmmm. I go with option A
Assumptions you make are honestly so wrong they’re hilarious. The room actually did not have curtains that had an automated horizontal blind, which was up. So we would’ve seen that. Also, there was enough peanut butter to make a mess if somebody wanted to. Also, there was hot coffee spilled all over the white sheets, which we would definitely have seen and noticed when we left if that happened. So all of your assumptions and conclusions are wrong.
How do you know that it was “hot coffee”???
That wouldn’t show up in pictures.
Your family destroyed the room and you are responsible for it.
Just pay it.
So. Did you leave the jar behind?
Yes
Is it possible that your kids did this without you knowing?
I ask because now that I know you had PB and I’m thinking “family“ includes young kids, it sounds like something kids would do. I don’t think the hotel maid would smear PB on the windows. It sounds like something a kid would do, even if you didn’t notice them doing it.
I say this because I had an uncle notice a huge scrape on the passenger side of his car. He then went to every business/parking lot he drove to in the past day and demanded security footage to see who damaged his car. When I first heard about this, I immediately thought it was his son. anyway, according to the footage, his car was damaged before arriving and it was in fact his son.
I would say at this point, just pay the $200. unless you can say with 100% certainty that you were the last person in the room and checked the windows and the coffee stained areas, then it was likely your kids.
And yes 100% certainty we checked the room before leaving
one 6 year old who was with us the whole time- and if she did it, 100% of the fun for her would be to tell us what she did! lol. we were with her, it looks quite violent and includes coffee everywhere.
Liar
What??
Was it empty?
Almost fully empty, but you could always scrape some stuff out, which would’ve taken some effort, but it would’ve been possible
did you have kids in the room?
I’m really lost on what you want to happen here. I get you like the hotel but as somebody who works at one- I would NEVER return to a place that did what you are insinuating happened. If you believe the damage was not caused by you or your family, then you’re implying the hotel staff did this. What’s the third option? That another guest broke into the room and trashed it with the items you left in the room for fun…?
I hate to make a judgment but to me this read as, you know somebody in your group may have likely caused the damage and want to assess if you’ll still be allowed back. If that’s not the case then I have no clue why you would not only be willing to pay a false charge, but return to the same property.
No one did it in our group Clearly some stranger or a kid entered and tried to rob us and instead ransacked it I want an apology and a fee reversal That’s it
Right up until this post I was more on your side... Nobody breaks into a hotel to rob someone and instead leaves it a mess. If you wanted to go up with a made-up reason for why it happened, assume that the hotel supervisor that took the video wrote the wrong room number down or went into the wrong room and marked it as yours. Far more likely than somebody breaking in to damage someone else's hotel room.
So then you genuinely think it was the housekeeping? Because unless it was a kid or a burglar, who else could it be?
Occam’s razor. The most likely answer is your kid did it or someone from your group. The logic behind why a stranger or hotel staff would try to set you up and sabotage you with your own peanut butter makes no sense come on.
I literally just answered with this before you and the OP is clearly saying no “ it’s a set up” somebody did all of this to them 🤦🏼♀️
Damn all those hotel employees and strangers just waiting to sneak in, set up and sabotage a total strangers room (for no reason) with their own peanut butter and coffee 😆
😂😂
Physically impossible. I saw the room as we left.
Housekeepers are barely given much time to clean a room and they have so many to do in such little time as it is.
And here you think they got so much times on their hands, that for fun, they got your peanut butter jar out and decided for no reason to paint the window with it. And then had more spare time they decided to mess on the floor and coffee on the beds. That is truly disrespectful for you to blame low pay, hard working housekeepers for that scenerio.
Burglar is there only to steal, which obviously didn't happen, especially in an unoccupied empty room.
If some random kid came in your room and did that, that means you left the door open, so it was not securely locked, after you left for them to get into room for that to happen.
None of those scenarios happened. You are 100% responsible.
In the words of Wanda Sykes… “ YOU, Motha fucka”. You did this
Go look in the mirror
That’s hilarious!
You had the peanut butter, you had the kid, the hotel says you were the only people in the room…….it sounds like they’re well within their rights to charge you for the damages.
It’s fine- they can- but we didn’t do it. We were with her the whole time. She is not capable of the damage done to the room- it looked like a murder scene almost. Thanks for being so unhelpful.
You need a time out
I always take pictures of car rentals when I pick up and return them. Do I have to start doing this with hotels?
It doesn't really work anyway because they don't know if you took the photos before you did the damage. People do this when they know they're going to wreck the place. You move a couple of things around right after you check in and take pictures before you start doing whatever you're going to do to the room.
The pictures will be time stamped. If the time is very proximal to when you check out, that will be proof.
honestly this is stupid, pay the fee and move on, you wanna stay there again, expect the same fees.
NAME THE HOTEL
In the future, always document your check out by video. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you certainly don’t want to be held liable for erroneous charges. I’d speak with hotel management and see if you can ascertain what really happened. They should be amenable to this course of action. If they further refute your claims, inform them you will be contacting corporate, and possibly your legal counsel if they persist. Personally, I would do this as a matter of principle, regardless of the attendant costs.
It’s tempting but I also don’t want to be on the DNR list bc as I said we want to go back as odd as it sounds.
I know this is totally unfair but if they're that unreasonable, if you leave a bad review that they can tell is you, they'll probably blacklist you. If they really believe that you did that (like maybe an employee did it and told management you left it that way? I don't know why that would happen) you might already be blacklisted.
If you want to leave a bad review, I would do it on trip advisor or something like that where it's harder to trace it back to a certain person, and be very nonspecific.
I get it… However, they are falsely accusing you of causing damage. I’m not saying that you have to follow through; Rather, the mere mention of legal action / negative reviews may be enough to dissuade them. You mentioned that you were on good terms with the manager. Try engaging with them in a friendly fashion and focus on how this incident is making your family feel. Let them know that your family really enjoyed their stay and would like to return. However, being falsely accused has left a sour taste in your mouth. The prospect of future lost revenue should be enough to make the hotel rethink its decision.
Have you managed a hotel? Mentioning legal trouble is ineffective and just gets you completely written off. We know that you're not going to sue us for $200-too many people try that. Also, saying you'd love to come back but only if you get a refund basically is a nonstarter because everyone tries that, whether they're coming back or not. We have the same conversations over and over again.
The most effective approach would be a genuine conversation saying how much you liked your stay, and want to come back, but it's important to you that they know that you did not and would not do that. Try to have a human connection.
Yup! Exactly… that’s what I said in my previous post.
That’s what I was thinking too
If you want to go back that badly, just pay the $200 and move on with life. Also recognize you may get this same $200 damage charge the next time you stay, maybe even with the same pictures
For sure
I don’t know the correct course of action, but in the past, I have written some scathing reviews that say “SCAM ALERT” and describe what happened. I had a car rental place try to bill be $3000 for minor scratches and stuff on the roof of the car. I am quite sure I didn’t cause any damage, and they added extra fees that my company accountant said was gouging compared to other similar bills he gets. The reviews got their attention and they lowered the bill significantly.
Anyway, I digress. See if you can write them reviews on various websites, and they might feel like the bad reviews are not worth the $200. See if this is something they do to other people and maybe share the photos so they can’t reuse the same photos.
I think I will start documenting damage when i arrive in a room now and taking photos before leaving.
Edit: my new assumption is that it was OPs kids. My original assumption was adults staying in a room and the coffee and PB appeared out of no where. If OP brought kids and a jar of PB and coffee into the room, I don’t think the hotel staff trashed it for $200.
One thing I learned about car rentals is to take a video of the exterior and interior before you even move it off the lot. THen do the same thing when you return it. Some of the are getting really bad about trying to charge for damage that was already there.
How did you check out?
Said bye to the pleasant housekeeper nearby and checked out via email an hour or so later
Did you tip the housekeeper?
No ran out of USD..
Wrong group but YTA. Clearly you’re responsible for this damage but for whatever reason you don’t want to own up to it. You want us to believe that the mess made itself. Your peanut butter, your kid, your mess. And you didn’t even give the housekeeper a tip! So you’re a liar and a cheapskate. Awful. People like you make the rest of us look bad.
You’re really an awful person. I’m sorry for you.
Wow, real nice. Why the hell would you go to a 5 star hotel and then not tip? It’s very simple if you care enough to get more USD as you knew you were going to stay there.
I tip no matter what star hotel I stay in.
Says a lot about you.
This.
Did you ask to see the damage to the room or just went with the “video evidence” given to you at checkout?
I had a similar issue many years ago. When they presented the pictures upon check out I was suspicious especially bc it was on the persons phone.
I demanded to see the damage to the room. At first they would not show us the room and kept declining. I went back to the floor of our room and started making a scene in the hallway as my spouse called the police. We waited right there by the door until police arrived. When the police came they opened the door and what do you know - the room was exactly as we left it. No damages anywhere.
Police took a report. I never followed up but I sure as hell didn’t pay any “damage” fees either.
I don’t wanna name the hotel because honestly, it’s the kind of place that I probably would want to stay again at. This I’m hoping is just a fluke. That is also what is preventing me from wanting to write bad reviews all over different websites. I’m thinking I will elevate this to the manager level above and see what I can do. The irony is that I really hit it off with the assistant manager of the day before who comped a bunch of things and was very nice to us. So this is all very awkward
You won’t name the hotel bc want to stay again….somewhere that lied and charged you an extra couple hundred for ruining the room. I’m clearly missing something here.
Seems odd I know. I’m hoping it was a fluke. The hotel is desirable for many reasons that are hard to replicate. I’m still scratching my head here about what happened. Still kind of in shock. Maybe I’ll feel differently later and never want to go back. That would certainly be the logical thing to do.
If they claimed you did this, you’re probably on their DNR list now.
Nah they wrote this to my latest reply:
“As part of our security procedures, a door lock interrogation was performed for room XXXX. The results confirmed that only the registered occupants’ key access was recorded during the time prior to departure. No other entries were logged. Additionally, our hallway camera system is limited to monitoring entrances, exits, and general safety areas. It does not capture footage that would provide detail regarding activity inside guest rooms.
Our housekeeping team is trained to carefully assess each room upon departure, and their report—combined with the photographic evidence—supports the condition they documented. After completing our review, we are confident in the accuracy of these findings. As such, the cleaning fee assessed is appropriate and will remain in place. We understand this may be disappointing, but we must remain consistent in applying our policies when additional cleaning is required beyond standard turnover.
I want to emphasize that this is not about placing blame on you or our staff; rather, it is about following established procedures to ensure fairness and consistency for all guests.
We truly value your patronage, and it means a great deal that you would consider returning to XXXX in the future. While this situation is unfortunate, it does not diminish how much we appreciated hosting you and your family.
If you have any additional questions or if there is anything further we can clarify, please feel free to reach out.”
That doesn't tell me they'll allow you back.
That tells me that they're not going to tell you you can't come back until after your cleaning fee charge goes through and passes the requisite number of days so you can't do a chargeback.
AI nonsense. The only reason they could possibly want you back is if you’re a doormat who will pay extra fees for their false accusations.
Are you a doormat who will pay to have people mistreat you?
Agreed a million percent...also there is more to this story!
Q1: What is the time stamp of the video?
Q2: What time did you check out?