Hotels have developed a new revenue stream: "algorithmic" smoke detectors
Thread by @_ZachGriff on Thread Reader App
Guests report getting billed hundreds of dollars for smoking, based on the readings of an "algorithmic" smoke detector. The sensor manufacturer markets its product as a way for hotels to unlock new revenue streams.
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.
They disputed it with their bank, the bank sided with the hotel because of the sensor report. Just saying.
Surprise, banks also pull disgusting shit. Who would have thought about that.
But when she disputed the charge with her credit card company, they sided with the hotel after it provided the credit card company the same smoke report it sent her.
They tried that. If the credit card denies it you could have a lawyer send a letter threatening legal action but that's all going to be at an extra cost unless you know an attorney or they think they could make enough to o do it on spec.
Or you pay monthly for a law service. Those types of letters are exactly what those programs are intended to cover.
In two different cases where I've disputed part of a charge/order, the credit card company returned the money for the entire order like you said. I was surprised they did that, and didn't realize that was the norm.
On the one hand, I never wanted anything I extra that I didn't deserve. On the other hand, both times this has happened to me, the companies at fault really, really went out of their way to deserve it. Not necessarily scam level deserved it like this hotel's smoke detector scam, but still.
Many credit card software providers also charge for the investigation of chargebacks, to the tune of hundreds of dollars, even if the chargeback is reversed.
Accumulating a history of chargebacks against you as a merchant, even if the consumer ultimately loses them, also counts against you and will raise your rates. The processors don't like dealing with merchants that they perceive as excessively risky.
I have to deal with this in my business and the whole thing is really a pain in the ass.
That’s not where it ends though. They can send you to collections.
Happened to me from Verizon after I returned their modem and they said I didn’t.
Many different collectors called and wouldn’t the same track# and photos to show it was returned. It eventually went on my credit, which took a slight hit for all of 2 months.
This is why it's great to belong to the 90% of the world without credit scores. Something similar happened to me, I just sent the company an email that told them that they bought bad credit after a washing machine manufacturer charged me for an in-warranty repair that they didn't even perform.
Haven't heard from them since.
lol fuck these people and these hotels. It’s not about not smoking, it’s about charging more money.
Another one to add to the list whenever I hear tech lobbyists shout about how unregulated capitalism breeds innovation.
I tend to huff arsenic trioxide when I stay at a hotel. Will the hotel smoke detectors fine me for that?
Wow. That is.... that is some horseshit.
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.
You can win actual damages and your lawyers fees in most instances. Because there is no meaningful payday in the offing you will have to spend ~100 in small claims or $5000-$50,000 in real big boy court and you will win for yourself.... $500. Where on earth are you getting $5M. Large settlements are normally because lots and lots of people are damaged in small amounts, someone's life was destroyed, or the case was uber complicated and ended up taking years of expensive lawyers.
In case 1 and 3 only the lawyers make out like bandits. In the second case you earn a bunch of money because your life is ruined.
also, who has the time and money to bail on work, pay upfront for hotel rooms and lawyers, and do this? I mean, someone - but probablynot enough people to make large corporations that worried about it, though I could be wrong about that.
revenue-generating scheme
Scam. I think the word is scam.
No no, it is the algorithm. There was nothing they could do. Hands were tied and you can't blame them because the algorithm did it.
It’s the Hertz AI scam in a different sector. I suspect every major rental company will have a version of this soon, and that none of them will be auditable or appealable.
Yet another huge win for those who choose to never leave their basements.
I miss my basement.
Caves have only one entrance. So you know when someone is coming uninvited. And you can just spear the fuckers.
Us?
We are treading water in the middle of the ocean.
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.
Do you happen to have a description of photo of the bug device? Interested to find out whether I am running into a similar situation myself.
https://tritonsensors.com/uses/hotels/
I didn't take a photo, but it was like this.
This sounds like a total bullshit whine from assholes who made a lot of noise in the middle of the night and disturbed their neighbors because they were on vacation and felt entitled.
Fuck you. Provide anything to back your shit up or shut up. And you won't. Respect others, or pay the fine.
Edit: EVERYBODY needs to stop taking complaints made by random dumbasses on the internet at face value. What the actual fuck, this is how you get fascist ants in your government.
This cunt literally ADMITS to being in the wrong in the text! 🙄
Bruh go touch some grass
You should go on a walk outside. Go find your nearest tree, see the way the bark grows, see the little bugs that call it home and the tiny ecosystem that tree supports. Go to the nearest rock. Spend some time admiring its strata, think about how it got there over millions and millions of years. Feel the sunshine on your face. Feel the wind ripple through your hair.
Do all this, then come back and re-read what you wrote.
Ok troll. Fuck off
if something is advertised as a hotel it damn well better have sound dampening between the rooms
Couldn't that be interpreted as a confession that their air is at least as unsafe as staying with a heavy smoker the whole night, in terms of PM 2.5 and other hazards?
Yay! Fraud!
Sounds like a great way to abuse front desk staff by proxy.
That was a very annoying read. I could feel the tiktok plug even before it was posted. This sucks, but oh my god I hate the internet now.
My thoughts exactly and while I hate making cliché comments, I'm surprised this isn't being talked about more in this thread. Felt like I was missing an adblocker, and I was glad it was only 13 tweets.
This is the one time I'm gonna be that jagweed and say I liked it. I've never once been on TikTok and I never will. But I was happy to see it in logical and streamlined format. I didn't feel the need to click on anything. Nothing got in the way... no oppressive popups, members-only, ads, etc. How sad is it that as much as you guys are complaining, and you have the right to your opinions, I found it to be one of the cleanest web pages I've seen in months.
I don't visit any of those sites either, in part because the formatting makes telling a story so challenging.
Looking onto a page like this, it's like one story was needlessly chopped up into little bits. Instead of several paragraphs formatted with the purpose of telling a smooth, coherent story, it's cut into chunks whose only parameter is character length. Outside of modern microblog-style social media, that format doesn't happen much. The result is scrolling and scrolling to read something that (I feel) could've been put into a few paragraphs in a single blog post.
Put altogether, it comes off as chunky and without any clear flow. Microblog formatting is not conductive to story-telling. It's not a criticism of the writer (I assume they were doing their best within the limits imposed), but of the formatting that breaks the flow that story-telling relies on.
always put a bag over the smoke alarm!
now THAT'S illegal
Yet another way your country fucks over it's citizens
Anyone got a mirror of the article that is not geoblocked?
Do archive pages work for you? If so, give this a try: https://archive.ph/2uKUX
I beg the Death Asteroid to rain down on us.
Better refuse to pay the bill unless the item is removed. If they don’t remove it, contact your bank and block the payment.
A lot of hotels will require a card to put on file at check-in. The paper you get after your stay is typically an invoice, not a bill to be paid. They tell you how much they charged you, it's up to you to dispute if you disagree with something.
This is why I preemptively destroy the hotel room.
I looked up the sensor and it's max operating temp is only 112F, which is colder than McDonalds coffee. Hell, the hotel hot water tap is probably hotter than that. The hotel blow dryer gets hotter than that...
Ah one step closer to "Fuck you, pay me" business style.
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.
I'd hire a lawyer and hit them for reimbursement of the $500 fee, my legal fees, slander for claiming I'm a smoker, punitive damages, and any another other monetary penalty I could think of. I'm sure I could find a lawyer that would be salivating over this.
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.
You know those plastic hair covers fit really nicely over the smoke detectors.
I am so curious how you made this Olympic level leap of an assumption.
