A Boring Dystopia

revenue-generating scheme

Scam. I think the word is scam.

I see people talking about chargebacks in this thread which is the logical course of action for a case like this.

What’s nefarious about this is that Hilton and Merriot each own a ton of hotels. If you chargeback multiple times against one of those groups you could get block listed from their locations which can get very problematic in locales without much competition.

Yet another huge win for those who choose to never leave their basements.

I miss my basement.

I stayed at a "hotel" in Denver a few years ago. It was advertised as a hotel on Hotels.com, and we booked because we thought it was cool that the unit had a full kitchen and was like a condo. We thought it would be the best of both worlds, hotel amenities and Airbnb style room. We get there, and it's basically an apartment building that they've turned into a hotel. They have no staff on site, and I had to download an app to check in and do a face scan. Super not privacy friendly. Then one day we stayed in and we're having a few drinks and conversing. This was 5 guys. We weren't being beligerant or loud, just talking. It was maybe 4 pm, and not quiet hours. I get a text saying there was a noise complaint. Then we bailed and got another text saying there was a 2nd noise complaint. They threatened us with a $500 fee the 2nd time. I told them we were no longer in the room, so it wasn't us. We later found what we assumed was a bug device that notified them if we went over a certain decibel level.

I never got charged, but I was ready to fight tooth and nail with my credit card company if they did. It was very weird, and I would never book with that company again.

This should absolutely be becoming a massive class action suit against both the hotel and the smoke detector maker. All you have to do is prove in court that the detector can be triggered by things other than smoking.

I'm going to start away from Hilton hotels after reading through this.

I have never seen a more clear cut example of a perfect use case for a credit card chargeback.

Fun fact: You can't dispute part of a charge. If you charge this back and win (you probably will) the hotel loses out on everything, for your entire stay. It also stacks up against them and raises their rates the more they get. An even vaguely concerted effort by people who have been ripped off by this would probably get the hotel in question booted from their credit card processor.

I imagine it's damn difficult to run a hotel if you can't accept credit cards. Just saying.

Sounds like an easy lawsuit. Record the entire stay, test different variables like a hair dryer, candle, fan, soldering smoke, medical equipment like nebulizer, steamer, etc. If they fine you, simply find a lawyer and request a $5M settlement fee. Boom, early retirement.

Sounds like a great way to abuse front desk staff by proxy.