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Original poster

B&B want me to pay £150 fine!

453 replies

froggy1811 · 30/11/2021 20:32

So, this might be a longish read, but please bear with me! Recently my husband and I went to stay at a pub B&B. It is not often that we would ever be in a financial position to do this; however, we love the area and decided to treat ourselves. Anyway, when we arrived we didn't exactly receive the warm welcome that we were hoping for! I thought that perhaps I was imagining things; however, I received a message this morning from Booking.Com demanding that I pay £150 to the B&B for not following their policies. They have stated that this is because my husband smoked a cigarette in the room (please don't all shout at me at once! 😱) BUT, in his defence, he did this hanging out of the window at 2am and disposed of the dimp discreetly - so the only way I can imagine that they knew, is if someone from across the road of where we were staying, saw him and told the landlord!

To be honest, the attitude of the owners was absolutely dreadful from the moment we arrived! And I got the distinct impression that they didn't like us straight away! I shall list some of my points below:

1: Upon arrival we were told that if we wanted a table for dinner, we should have pre-booked. Our fault entirely, but it was the irritable way it was said to us.

2: My husband ordered several half pint ales at the same time, so that he could try them and decide which one he wished to drink for the night. Unfortunately, the idiot forgot which one was which, but as his drinks was still relatively full he asked the landlord which he thought was which based on the liquids colour. The landlords response was extremely cold and scratchy! He made it plain my husband was a fool in his eyes, and then he just stomped off without trying to assist him.

3: Over the course of the night, I had ordered 2 bottles of Prosecco (although, the second bottle didn't actually get drunk, as I couldn't manage any more!) So, it was taken up to our room.

4: We had booked a King room, but this was actually a really cramped, small double , and my husband's legs hung over the end of the bed. Shower and sink only a few inches apart so if you opened the door it hit the sink, and there was zero room to dress in there! The toilet seat was also wonky.

5: Room wasn't the cleanest, and no option to pay extra for a later check out.

6: When my husband went down for the breakfast, the landlord made reference to the amount of Prosecco I had drank the night before! This is despite the fact that we sat quietly at a table all night and was not in any way 'loud' or rowdy! So why mention this?!

7: WiFi didn't work all night long.

I know my husband shouldn't have smoked out of the window, but I have a suspicion that they just didn't like us from the moment we arrived. I had expressed this concern to my husband, who just brushed it off. We were quiet guests who made sure the room was spotlessly immaculate before we left, so I just genuinely feel like they were looking for issues!

Would you pay this? Do you think AIBU?

OP posts:
Original poster
froggy1811 · 01/12/2021 16:03

@Hoppinggreen

Unless your husband smoked the cigarette solely in retaliation for shoddy service and a crappy (or not so crappy for £85 really) then you are being pretty unreasonable. However, if they dont have your credit card details and/or you dont have the money anyway I don’t see how they can get the money from you
He definitely didn't do this out of retaliation. He did this because he's a plonker!
OP posts:
Larryyourwaiter · 01/12/2021 16:21

My FIL tried smoking out of our spare room bedroom window. You could tell the moment you opened the front door.
The problem is you become immune to the smell and you don’t realise how obvious it is.

diddl · 01/12/2021 16:24

If your husband knew it was a no smoking room then that really is shitty behaviour by him & there is no "in his defence" imo.

He's just bloody inconsiderate.

Whether or not they will bother to pursue is another matter.

If they do though, you not having the money is hardly their concern!

C152 · 01/12/2021 16:28

I didn't read the whole post as it seemed a bit "I'm in the wrong, but..." If the B&B had a clear policy that said anyone smoking in the rooms would be fined £150 and your DH smoked in the room then you need to pay the fine. It's really irrelevant if the B&B staff were rude, incompetent or whatever, you were in the wrong.

OnceUponAMidnightBeery · 01/12/2021 16:58

@Bluntness100

Op…aibu Mn..yes, totally Op. Bullying bastards.
I rarely agree 100% with Bluntness, but they’re spot on throughout this thread, and the reason I’m still reading tbh Grin

Yes OP the extra charge is reasonable. He thought he was above/could ignore the rules sympathies as I have one similar on occasion Pay up, then make your points in a review if you feel it necessary. Frankly some of them could’ve been addressed at the time IF you’d actually mentioned them

2bazookas · 01/12/2021 17:01

They have a no smoking policy, you knew that and chose to break it. Therefore you have to pay for the extra cleaning required .

As you live with a smoker, you probably don't notice it stinks, but it's horribly noticable to any non-smoker. Smoking out of the window doesn't stop it stinking up the room; that's how the LL knew.

2bazookas · 01/12/2021 17:03

@00100001

He is at fault.

However, what proof do they have of you breaking policy?

The stench in the room.
OnceUponAMidnightBeery · 01/12/2021 17:20

‘He did this because he’s a plonker’

😂 I’m sorry OP but this gave me the giggles, it’s exactly how I’d describe DH at times usually when beer has been imbibed

I also appreciate your financial position... £150 would be bloody hard for us to find atm. But you should pay it, or more correctly DH should as the plonker in question

00100001 · 01/12/2021 17:25

@2bazookas but how could they actually prove that?

WheekestLink · 01/12/2021 17:53

Regardless of the treatment you received at the time of the stay (you should have complained at the time), your husband SMOKED in a hotel room. Yes he was hanging out of the window, but it won't be seen that way.

The hotel can get in trouble for this. It's a fire safety risk, not to mention the stench of a smoker smoking...

As to your claim you can't pay the fine, the average smoker spends £150 a month on cigarettes, can he stop and use the money saved?

Also, you don't owe the fine, he does. But you'll have to cover it if he doesn't pay.

rookiemere · 01/12/2021 18:19

I do wonder if there's a way out of it because of the lack of booking.com booking. You could ask them which stay the charge was relevant to and if they can't show one, then not sure if it could proceed. Morally of course this is wrong, but worth a punt.

WildfirePonie · 01/12/2021 19:03

You have to hang half way out the window with your arm stretched right out, if you want to smoke without the smell coming back in.

Pro tip from an ex smoker.

Oh and YABU.

JSL52 · 01/12/2021 20:14

@WildfirePonie

You have to hang half way out the window with your arm stretched right out, if you want to smoke without the smell coming back in.

Pro tip from an ex smoker.

Oh and YABU.

I stayed in a hotel room and the smoking area was under the window. I asked to move - no spare rooms. I had to tell reception in the morning I hadn't smoked in the room as it (and I) stank of second hand smoke.

It wafts in even if you think it's not.

Crunchymum · 01/12/2021 20:18

What happened to the second bottle of prosecco?

JSL52 · 01/12/2021 20:40

@Crunchymum

What happened to the second bottle of prosecco?
😂
TheClockTicker · 01/12/2021 21:47

I suspect OP just took it home with her?

User5252727 · 01/12/2021 22:21

It does sound like an unfriendly B&B, but you can't escape the fact that your husband was a bloody idiot who did something obviously not allowed and is entirely to blame for getting caught.

If you smoke or are around someone who smokes a lot (and if your husband needs a cigarette at 2am I assume he is a heavy smoker) you are almost certainly desensitised to the smell of cigarette smoke and don't notice it but I guarantee the room will have smelled of smoke when you left. It's not just the smoke that will have drifted back in, it's the smoke your husband will have breathed out in the room after smoking. They'll have had to deep clean the bedding etc as well.

I'd be sympathetic to the poor hospitality in the rest of your post but on this issue the b&b owners are totally justified to ask you to pay the fine and you should accept it as a lesson learned.

Kite22 · 01/12/2021 22:59

This is reminding me of a speed awareness course I had to go on many years ago.
They started off asking people how / where they were caught and if they felt it was "fair".
Of course, nobody on the course thought it was "fair", because they had been caught. Everyone had a 'justification' for why they shouldn't have been fined and asked to attend the course, because no-one wanted it to happen to them.

At the end of the day though, 'thems the rules'. We had all broken the rules (however 'slightly' over the limit we were, and however 'justifiable' our reasons were - and yes, virtually everybody could justify to themselves why they shouldn't be there - so we all had to pay and attend or take the points and hit on insurance.

If you do the crime then you pay the fine. You aren't disputing that he smoked in the room, so you have no legs to stand on regardless of whether you stayed in The Ritz, a self catering bothy, or any standard of B&B.

ElftonWednesday · 02/12/2021 06:01

Which is a great example of a straw man argument.

lousanne · 02/12/2021 06:34

You are in someone else's properly, you have been advised not to smoke in the room. Who do you think you are to still smoke and think you can not pay up for your shitty behaviour?

I'd hate to have you as a guest. Shudder.

Smoking smells and I'd have charged you a lot more than £150 to get rid of the smell.

NovemberNovemberDarkNights · 02/12/2021 07:20

@Verbena17

If it was only one cigarette smoked well out of the window, I reckon with proper room airing, bedding change and proper ‘covid cleaning’ which they should be doing anyway, you’d be hard pushed to notice it had been smoked in/out the window (I’m saying this as a passionate ANTI-smoker).

I also don’t think it would cost £150 to deep clean it. They should be doing bedding change, vacuuming, bathroom clean etc anyway so even if they washed the walls, wet washed carpet and polished all the furniture, it wouldn’t take that long.

And how can they prove that he didn’t pop outside for a cigarette and just came into the room with smoke-smelling clothes.

I’m not saying your husband should have smoked in the room as he could have nipped outside, however it does sound like they’re just trying to make a bit of extra money.
Say if a cleaner is paid £10/hr, that means they would be taking 15hours to clean your room, in which he didn’t smoke other than out of the window.

Have you even considered the loss of revenue? They wouldn't have been able to use the room for at least one night.
Trixiefirecracker · 02/12/2021 16:58

I think you if you can afford to smoke you can afford to pay the fine, it’s not cheap to buy a packet of fags these days.

ArblemarchTFruitbat · 02/12/2021 17:07

@Trixiefirecracker

I think you if you can afford to smoke you can afford to pay the fine, it’s not cheap to buy a packet of fags these days.
There's no logic to that statement. If the OP has an expensive habit, surely she will have less spare cash to pay fines.
Original poster
froggy1811 · 02/12/2021 17:45

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your replies/opinions. I am just waiting to see what action the B&B are going to take.

I think this will definitely teach DH not smoke in a hotel room in the future!

P.S To the person who asked, the Prosecco was poured down the toilet in the room! As the lid had been removed, I couldn't have taken it home anyway!

OP posts:
WheelieBinPrincess · 02/12/2021 17:45

@froggy1811

Ah that’s a shame, you could have used it for morning Buck’s Fizz!