Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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:
FranceTeam · 30/11/2021 22:01

I doubt they can force you to pay a fine, so just refuse to pay it.

Hotels cannot fine people, only the courts can issue fines.

To me, hotel should be glad they had a booking and sounds like you more than spend enough money on drinks.

Leave them a stinker review on tripadvisor.

PyongyangKipperbang · 30/11/2021 22:01

The fine is not enforcable unless it is stated in the T&Cs when you booked.

Even then they would have to prove that the damage caused by him smoking a cigaretter out of the window would cost them £150, which I very much doubt that they could.

As it is I think that they probably sent it as the room stank (even as a smoker I know this) and have no legal back up to it. They would have to take you to small claims to get the money and in all honesty they wont, if they did then they wouldnt get £150 as they would have to quantify their losses.

Was their surname Fawlty by any chance?

And tell your husband to not be a dick again.

Purplecatshopaholic · 30/11/2021 22:02

Ok, I call reverse. Or you’re on a wind up op, you really can’t be serious. If you are - pay up

Original poster
froggy1811 · 30/11/2021 22:03

Hi,

I did not order 2 bottles of Prosecco at the same time! I ordered one bottle, which I drank during a large meal, then for the hour that followed. Once I had finished this bottle, my husband ordered a second bottle for me. I did not, however drink it! And no - I am not trying to justify myself by pointing the fact that I didn't drink it all - I am just telling you what actually happened.

My husband DID ask if he could try tasters - but this was not an option! I did not agree with him ordering 3 (I was mistaken in my OP about the amount he ordered - which he has just pointed out to me) however, the landlord didn't need to be so off hand about it!

As for us being roudy, we most definitely were not! The locals on the other hand, were extremely "merry" shall we say, and continued to be outside of the pub after last orders. There is no way we did anything while sat in that awful pub, that caused any reason for complaint. Of course, the smoking in the room is a cause for complaint - but to the sum of £150 for a crappy B&B that cost £85 to stay the night! Why is the charge so high?

I actually just think that this pub was very cliquey and reading through some of their reviews, I am not alone in feeling this way.

OP posts:
YouokHun · 30/11/2021 22:04

Hotels and guest houses are required by law to be smoke free (since about 2007 so it shouldn’t be news), so I doubt they wanted the smell of smoke permeating through their premises. It’s quite rare that people smoke these days and so it’s become even more obvious to all non smokers when there has been someone smoking (even out of the window). They now have to deep clean the room and any fabrics (curtains, bed covers) or the next guest will have something to say. But it’s not so much that you broke their policy but that they are put in a compromised position if people are smoking. Why shouldn’t they charge you the cleaning costs?

They don’t sound particularly welcoming but I would be a bit Hmm about someone lining up beers and someone lining up two bottles of Prosecco. I’m sure they foresaw trouble ahead - they were right about that given the smoking weren’t they?

Sparkai · 30/11/2021 22:07

The charge is so high to be a deterrent. I'm sure you will think twice before doing it again so it works.

Just pay the fine. You earned it. The fact that the b&b was a bit shit is irrelevant to that point

Bellie710 · 30/11/2021 22:09

@froggy1811

Hi,

I did not order 2 bottles of Prosecco at the same time! I ordered one bottle, which I drank during a large meal, then for the hour that followed. Once I had finished this bottle, my husband ordered a second bottle for me. I did not, however drink it! And no - I am not trying to justify myself by pointing the fact that I didn't drink it all - I am just telling you what actually happened.

My husband DID ask if he could try tasters - but this was not an option! I did not agree with him ordering 3 (I was mistaken in my OP about the amount he ordered - which he has just pointed out to me) however, the landlord didn't need to be so off hand about it!

As for us being roudy, we most definitely were not! The locals on the other hand, were extremely "merry" shall we say, and continued to be outside of the pub after last orders. There is no way we did anything while sat in that awful pub, that caused any reason for complaint. Of course, the smoking in the room is a cause for complaint - but to the sum of £150 for a crappy B&B that cost £85 to stay the night! Why is the charge so high?

I actually just think that this pub was very cliquey and reading through some of their reviews, I am not alone in feeling this way.

Our local hotel remove and dry clean all the curtains and soft furnishings if anyone smokes in the room, the hotel where my friends stayed did exactly the same thing. Maybe in the future it will teach you to go outside and smoke...

All the other stuff is totally irrelevant, you were fined because you smoked in the room not because you ordered Prosecco or 3 half pints etc. Unfortunately it is probably something you have to suck up and pay unless you argue your point that you didn't smoke in the room?

Original poster
froggy1811 · 30/11/2021 22:09

@YouokHun

Hotels and guest houses are required by law to be smoke free (since about 2007 so it shouldn’t be news), so I doubt they wanted the smell of smoke permeating through their premises. It’s quite rare that people smoke these days and so it’s become even more obvious to all non smokers when there has been someone smoking (even out of the window). They now have to deep clean the room and any fabrics (curtains, bed covers) or the next guest will have something to say. But it’s not so much that you broke their policy but that they are put in a compromised position if people are smoking. Why shouldn’t they charge you the cleaning costs?

They don’t sound particularly welcoming but I would be a bit Hmm about someone lining up beers and someone lining up two bottles of Prosecco. I’m sure they foresaw trouble ahead - they were right about that given the smoking weren’t they?

I did NOT line up 2 bottles of Prosecco! I ordered one, then later than night I ordered another!
OP posts:
User2638483 · 30/11/2021 22:09

Sorry I didn’t read your gripes because they’re irrelevant. He smoked in the room, yuck.

chaosrabbitland · 30/11/2021 22:09

personally if you feel they are being out of order and you dont want to pay the fine , then just dont pay it , and then worry about if or when they decide if they can be arsed to take it further , thats what i would do and i have done it in the past once before myself

Bluntness100 · 30/11/2021 22:10

So you did actually get a table for dinner? But you forgot how many beers your husband ordered at once?

How drunk were the pair of you? 🤣🤣🤣

Wizzbangfizz · 30/11/2021 22:11

The two bottles of Prosecco thing is irrelevant here IMO, that is not against the rules and as long as OP wasnt vomiting or misbehaving due to excessive consumption it's irrelevant whether she drank 1 bottle or 10!

Bluntness100 · 30/11/2021 22:12

@Wizzbangfizz

The two bottles of Prosecco thing is irrelevant here IMO, that is not against the rules and as long as OP wasnt vomiting or misbehaving due to excessive consumption it's irrelevant whether she drank 1 bottle or 10!
It is funny though, she drank so much Prosecco even th landlord commented on it and he’d have seen some drinkers 🤣🤣🤣😂
Original poster
froggy1811 · 30/11/2021 22:14

@Bluntness100

So you did actually get a table for dinner? But you forgot how many beers your husband ordered at once?

How drunk were the pair of you? 🤣🤣🤣

We did end up getting a table for dinner, because the chef agreed to cook something for us, which was the only nice treatment we received during our stay!

As for my husband, it was table service and I saw multiple half pints on the tray, and said I thought it was a daft idea! I simply wrote the wrong thing on my OP and DH pointed it out before, so I've corrected this.

OP posts:
BarbaraWoodlouse · 30/11/2021 22:14

Smoking in a non-smoking room is the only relevant fact here. YABU - pay the fine.

Verbena17 · 30/11/2021 22:15

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.

PinkWednesdays · 30/11/2021 22:16

I mean, you had an entire bottle of Prosecco. You would have been very drunk so it’s very possible that your version of events is very skewed.

BreadInCaptivity · 30/11/2021 22:16

You seem to be conflating a number of different issues.

The points about pre-booking meals, how much you spent on drink, late checkout and the landlord not knowing your partner was treating the bar like a beer tasting festival are pretty petty/erroneous.

The only reasonable points you make are about ordering a king sized bed and getting a double, WiFi (if was advertised as a service) not working and the room not being clean.

All the above are legitimate grounds for complaint and you could have contacted booking.com to discuss some compensation assuming you had evidence of the above (eg photos).

The problem is you've knocked the wind out of your own sails by your husband smoking in the room (sorry but out the window doesn't count).

This isn't just against policy. In the U.K. it is actually illegal as you were technically smoking in a place of work.

As such any legitimate complaints you may have, now look like excuses for you not to pay fine that's been appropriately levied against you.

You are also assuming someone saw your husband smoking, but at 2am it's actually far more likely as many posters have said that the smell was obvious when the room came to be cleaned after you had left.

Upshot is: do the crime, pay the fine....

nocoolnamesleft · 30/11/2021 22:17

He did smoke in the room. They know he smoked in the room because the room smells of him having smoked in the room. Pay up.

MyDcAreMarvel · 30/11/2021 22:17

It is not often that we would ever be in a financial position to do this if you both didn’t squander money on cigarettes and your alcohol problems you could afford it more often.
You should be really embarrassed, £150 is cheap for a deep clean.

TrulyPistoff · 30/11/2021 22:17

No symphaty. Pay up.

And the idiot forgot which one was which tells me clearly who is in the actuai idiot(s) here.

Bluntness100 · 30/11/2021 22:17

As for my husband, it was table service and I saw multiple half pints on the tray

It’s called seeing double, it happens when one Imbibes large quantities of Prosecco 😄😄😄

DontPeeInThePlayHouse · 30/11/2021 22:18

Dude, he broke the rules, he was caught by the neighbors with their 2am spy goggles or the fag just stank like hell. I don't think it matters what the cost pays for it must have been in the small print somewhere which you would have signed off on. Action and consequence. It's something we attempt to teach children, if you're old enough to order from a bar you should understand the principle. Pay the fine, leave an honest review for what you found negative and don't smoke out of windows in the next place. Job done.

WheelieBinPrincess · 30/11/2021 22:18

To be fair, I’m not very drunk on a bottle of Prosecco 🤷🏻‍♀️

dumdedumpop · 30/11/2021 22:19

Sorry OP but hanging out of the window smoking would still come under "smoking in the room". You're bang to rights, and need to pay up.