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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to expect to stay in a hotel without being exposed to Cannabis smoke?

82 replies

Hangingbellyofbabylon · 11/12/2011 23:59

Dh, 3 young dds and I stayed at an Express by Holiday Inn last Friday night. Towards the end of the evening I started to smell smoke - we checked all of the appliances in the room as it was strong but couldn't find a source. Gradually I began to think it was the smell of cannabis but Dh kept on insisting it couldn't be as they were non-smoking rooms and it would have set off the smoke alarm. I was feeling quite woozy at this point and in the end we both fell asleep. Had a rough night with the children waking up coughing and I just felt like I had the worst hangover.

In the morning when we went down for breakfast the room next door still smelled really strongly and in fact the whole corridoor did. I felt woozy at breakfast and after rang reception. They said they had had a number of complaints about the 'cannabis situation' and had asked the people in the room to stop . They also promised to contact me later to discuss a refund - we had paid in advance for the room. When we checked out I was asked to leave my mobile number and could only remember half of it, I also couldn't manage my chip and pin at the cash point. Thank goodness I wasn't driving because I was utterly out of it. I know from one regretfull incident at university that cannabis and I do not make a good mix and I would never expose my children to cannabis smoke.

Since then I have rung daily and always been told there is no manager in and that they will ring back. I have mild asthma that rarely causes me problems but I've been really chesty since then. I just can't believe that if it was a problem reported by a number of people they couldn't have done anything about it. I wish I hadn't been so doped up on the Friday night or I would have made more fuss then and there.

OP posts:

RainboweBrite · 12/12/2011 10:52

Only read through half the thread, but I'm with squeakytoy on this one.

lesley33 · 12/12/2011 10:54

No I wouldn't have been happy about the cannabis smoke. But I do think that you have to tell hotels at the time if there is something wrong, so they have a chance to put it right. Otherwise they have no way of investigating it and seeing if you have a valid complaint or not.

And a valid way of dealing with it would be to offer you another room or help you to properly ventilate yours.

But I suspect part of your issue in how the hotel are dealing with you is that your complaints do seem exagerated. It would be unusual for this to make you so woozy or for it still to be affecting your asthma. If the hotel think you are exagerating they will be less sympathetic.

ScatterChristmasCheer · 12/12/2011 10:57

I think since they said they would discuss a refund they should.

No, people shouldn't smoke in hotel rooms, it's just being respectful isn't it? And NOT BREAKING THE LAW.

So, YANBU OP.

Original poster

Hangingbellyofbabylon · 12/12/2011 10:57

I don't want compensation. I am currently involved in a legal battle with the hospital where my daughter was left brain damaged by fuck ups at her birth. I would never ever think of asking for compensation for something like this. What I would like is to think that the hotel might come back to me and explain their actions and perhaps why they didn't do more to improve the ventilation and move the smokers at the time. I can't be arsed with this any more, I know I posted in AIBU so should expect this but I feel a bit battered by some of the meanies here.

OP posts:

squeakytoy · 12/12/2011 11:02

They said they had had a number of complaints about the 'cannabis situation' and had asked the people in the room to stop . They also promised to contact me later to discuss a refund

They asked people in the room to stop.

Many Holiday Inns have Smoking Rooms. I know because I smoke (normal cigs, not joints!!!), and I always book a Smoking Room when I stay at one of their hotels. So smoking in the room itself is not actually illegal if they were in one that permits it.

The smoking rooms are always in one section of the hotel only, and that corridor does have a stale cigarette smell, which even a smoker would notice.

Was the room that you were put in, in that section, and therefore one that would be surrounded by smokers?

HoHoOpotomus · 12/12/2011 11:09

there's no way you would feel the effects merely by smelling some cannabis smoke, let alone be stoned the next day. I think you've let your imagination run away with you (reminds me of teenagers who get drunk on alcohol free fruit punch!)

Original poster

Hangingbellyofbabylon · 12/12/2011 11:12

totally non-smoking room on non-smoking floor, was told in the morning by reception that the duty manager would phone me to arrange a refund. Have phoned every day since and not been able to contact the manager. Have not mentioned my entirely made up symptoms to the hotel. Now going to phone again.

OP posts:

wonkylegs · 12/12/2011 11:17

Unless you complained and specifically asked for something to be done at the time (which you day you didn't until the next) you don't really have a case. Personally I think you are exaggerating for effect and in order to claim compensation ... Which unless in this situation you are bringing a civil complaint against the actual smokers (which would be an expensive overreaction) would be groundless.
My DH & DS have severe asthma and have been exposed in a very similar way with no ill effects bar ' that stinks' .... So unless you are hypersensitive to the degree that you probably shouldn't leave the house I think you are exaggerating.

MollyTheMole · 12/12/2011 11:18

Jesus must have been good shit to have affected you like that. Do you know where these people are now?

knittedbreast · 12/12/2011 11:29

stop telling fibs, if u did feel woozy it was your imagination, not weed through air con/walls.

aldiwhore · 12/12/2011 11:42

I am with most others on here. I highly doubt that your were high, even if you felt it, you sound a bit like a kid at a party who drinks an alcohol free shandy and is convinced theyr'e drunk and acts daft.

Saying that, non-smoking hotels usually charge anyone breaking the rule. Maybe they should have been asked to leave, not stop. And if it was cannabis, then the police should have been involved (whether I agree with its legalities is semantics, as its illegal and you'd be stupid to smoke it in any public place).

I think you need to persue the refund or part refund, you still got a good night's sleep. Cannabis has never affected my memory to the extent I can't remember my pin number, and any damage to memory is usually over a long period of time of regular use. I think you're not an out and out liar, but hysterical and have totally convinced yourself you were stoned. Air con makes me feel bunged up and woozy by the way.

squeakytoy · 12/12/2011 11:43

was told in the morning by reception that the duty manager would phone me to arrange a refund. Have phoned every day since and not been able to contact the manager. Have not mentioned my entirely made up symptoms to the hotel. Now going to phone again.

So why are you ringing them every day if you are not chasing a refund?

MollyTheMole · 12/12/2011 11:55

oh god I missed the bit about forgetting the mobile and pin number. OP maybe you were just hungover after one a few too many glasses of vino?

WorraLiberty · 12/12/2011 12:00

Perhaps the Duty Manager is still laughing at the receptionist for the absurd idea that you should be refunded?

DoesNotGiveAFig · 12/12/2011 12:08

LOLs. Were the dope fiends chasing you around trying to rape you?

paulapantsdown · 12/12/2011 12:08

Oh no! I walked past the local heroin addicts house this morning! I must now be a hopeless drug addict.

ArtVandelay · 12/12/2011 12:19

OP I was p*ssing myself at your story until I read the sad news of what you are going through with your DD's court case.

I might be speaking out of turn here but why not just forget the whole thing. It sounds like you are already having a stressful time and perhaps you are giving this irritating, but overall minor, incident too much thinking time.

Honestly, just relax and be kind to yourself. There is no way you were intoxicated by your neighbours weed and ringing this hotel isn't going to fix it even if you were. Just don't stay there again. If you ever find yourself in that situation again and its so intolerable just call the police - cannabis is illegal. That might be too serious for you but at least you know something will be done.

YANBU but it might be in your best interests to move on from it. Good luck with your court case.

DorisIsTheDarkDestroyer · 12/12/2011 12:24

I don't think it's an absurd idea at all.

If it was bad enough for the receptionist to be aware then a refund is not unreasonable. It affected the op's stay.

I can't stand the smell of smoke and have a dd with lung problems, I would have been irate had this occured in the room next to me. When I had specifically requested a non-smoking room.

Personally I would not be contacting the hotel but now be going up the chain it is incrediably poor customer service regardless of whether they are prepared to give you a refund or not.

DorisIsTheDarkDestroyer · 12/12/2011 12:30

As for all those saying it impossible that the OP has responded to the drug in the way that she feels she has.

Anything is possibly people react strangely to all sorts of substances in surprisingly minute quantities ( The Op already said she had a bad reaction previously). Whilst I agree it is unlikely it is not beyond the bounds of what is possible so pipe down those determined disbelivers.

Op quick question were you near any other potential sources of fumes etc could the confusion have been CO related?

CarefullyAirbrushedPotato · 12/12/2011 12:31

I'm just loving all these people who know exactly how a substance would have made somebody else feel.

I know someone who ends up in hospital from coming into contact with anything washed in biological washing powder, and yet you are so certain that second hand smoke from a class b illegal drug wouldn't/couldn't of (sic) had any noticeable effect that you're quite happy to insult OP about it.

Of course it's the hotel's responsibility-would they have been so laissez faire if it had been cocaine being smoked?

knittedbreast · 12/12/2011 12:37

Doris, if we go with that we may aswell say that anything is physically possible, like me growing planets on my arse, trouble is they dont happen!

entropyglitter · 12/12/2011 12:58

I agree with carefully As I said up thread, if you can smell it then it is in high enough concentration to interact with your body biochemically. The extent of that reaction is very variable from person to person.

I know someone who will have a serious asthma attack if a bottle of wine is opened at the other end of a large room.

I also don't get why a hotel has no duty to enforce it's rules? It seems that people think as long as the rules are there then the hotel's job is done.

chunkythighs · 12/12/2011 14:19

I feel stoned just from reading this thread.

Anyone for chocolate and pizza?

AbbyAbsinthe · 12/12/2011 14:36

chunkythighs

pinkyp · 12/12/2011 15:45

If you were feeling woozy that night and couldn't think straight why the hell did you leave your children to inhale all the smoke & not remove them from the hotel /demanded swapping rooms. Could the reason you couldn't think straight / woozy was because you were tired? You are very aggressive and not correct, you cannot get high from smoke if it's not on the same room and even if it was it would be hard too. But then again I could be full of shit.

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