B&B want me to pay £150 fine!

[froggy1811]

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?

I'd probably not even be "merry" after one bottle of Prosecco over a big meal! Each persons tolerance is different!

Is this a reverse? If not I think the pair of you took the piss. Smoking in the room, expecting dinner without having booked, ordering loads of half pints, mixing them upand mithering the barman about which was which. I'm not surprised they didn't like you.

Grim. Pay the fine for smoking in the room.

@MyDcAreMarvel

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.

Well that post just makes you sound like a horrible judgemental snob, doesn't it?

@MyDcAreMarvel

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.

😂😂😂

Honestly this thread is making me laugh out loud, had to read it out to my husband, it’s the downing Prosecco and ordering several half pints at once, staggering back to the room clutching the remnants of the Prosecco and smoking out the window,,

@BreadInCaptivity

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....

Sorry just to add....

The £150 fine isn't about what it costs to clean a "smoky" room.

It's designed to be a deterrent to smoking in the first place.

Pubs have had a smoking ban for several years.

Hotels have to have exemptions for smoking rooms and it is clear if they have them or not.

Pay the fine and be grateful it’s just that.

Next time, smoke outside and don’t be docks about it.

Your list of ways in which the staff were mean is irrelevant.
Your husband smoked and now you have to pay the £150. 🤷‍♀️

Fags STINK! they'll have to give the room a good scrub and if he smoked out of the window the curtains will have to be cleaned.
Smokers really have no clue how much it reeks and for how long.

I smoked for about 25 years and thought I didn't smell. I thought a spray of perfume and a stick of chewing gum and nobody would be able to tell.

Ha.

I'm a smoker. DP is a smoker. We occasionally have a cigarette out of our own kitchen window is the weather is awful. I can smell it as soon as I walk into the flat the next day. Honestly they will not have needed anyone to dob him in and they likely won't have been able to use your room for the following night, the fine is justified and undermines your complaints, you haven't respected their rules so why should they respect you?

For a late check out you need a big hotel, not a B&B with a small number of rooms, same for a table at dinner without pre-booking. Wrong venue for those expectations.

The half pint thing is bizarre...

Cleanliness, WiFi and bed size you might have points but far too late now if you didn't complain at the time.

I've worked in many hotels and honestly if you checked in and behaved as you've described I'd be a bit too.

Hotels have to have exemptions for smoking rooms and it is clear if they have them or not.

Not in the U.K. they don't.

It's illegal to smoke in the workplace and a hotel/B&B/pub is a workplace.

There are no exemptions.

1: It’s a given you should prebook, but it was sorted for you,

2: Landlords don’t automatically know alcohol by the colour.

3: Good thing you stopped drinking.

4: Might be a king there.

5: Not all hotels offer late check out

6: between you both you drank a lot.

7: Did you talk to them about the WiFi?

Your husband broke the rules and smoked in a hotel. You need to pay the fine.

Well he's an idiot then. I thought smokers having a sneaky fag did it in the bathroom with the extractor fan on? 🤷 😂

@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.

The smell of smoke really clings so the clean takes longer and they have to be sure there is no hint of it for the next guest. It’s likely they had to air the room and lost a night’s fee for the it the next night, so that may well account for the fine.

Yabvvvu to object the the fine. Your dh made the room smell. Opening the window doesn't work.

Yanbu (or DHWNBU) to order multiple half pints. Me and DH do this regularly. Every decent pub has stacks of disposable blotting-card drink-mats which are easy to use as labels to help you remember which is which, or you can line them up in alphabetical order. It's not the barkeeper's job to remind you which is which later so long as you are told which is which when they are handed over.

@BreadInCaptivity

Hotels have to have exemptions for smoking rooms and it is clear if they have them or not.

Not in the U.K. they don't.

It's illegal to smoke in the workplace and a hotel/B&B/pub is a workplace.

There are no exemptions.

Wrong.

As long as the rooms in a hotel, B&B, self catering etc are designated as such then they are perfectly legal. I know this as I used to be assistant manager for a small pub/B&B similar to what the OP describes and had to learn it.

Not sure on the HR rules about cleaning it though, its been a few years.

It was a non smoking B&B. Smoking out of the window is not acceptable you must of know this when you booked. Pay the fine.

ITS NOT A FINE!! As PP have said, they are not a judge in a court, they have no right to impose a fine. Either they take the OP to court if she chooses to not pay towards their cleaning costs or they suck it up. Not saying that what the DH did was right, of course it wasnt, but this really is not a legally enforcable fine!

FFs

I'm my experience, I don't smoke and when I did survival training I can see why they teach when in the wilderness don't use scented soaps, smoke ect as it's easily detected in the wind.

People who behave in this manner are generally self entitled arseholes. Perhaps that's what the landlord thought about his guests that night.

NotTerfNorCis

I don't smoke but would one cigarette smoked out the window really make a room with clean bedding smell all day?“

If her husband smokes, he stinks. He wouldn’t need to smoke even one cigarette in the room to make the bedroom smell. She’s used to it and nose blind.

How can they enforce the fine? I mean it sounds like you were being a couple of pissed up idiots who smoked in the room, but I'm not sure how they enforce a fine on you. And it would be the first pub I've come across that doesn't allow tasters or just talk you through the different beers on offer. Heck, just ask one of the locals. Even in Royston Vasey you could probably ask someone about the beer on offer and they'd happily talk you through it.

You smoked in the room. He would have reeked of it.

Last time I had smokers visit, I binned the pillows afterwards and had to take the duvet to the laundromat to wash and dry, it stunk and didn't come out hanging it outside in the sun.

It triggers migraine in me, and I would absolutely refuse to stay in the room if I'd arrived the next day. I can smell smoke on furnishings when someone hasn't had a cigarette for hours.

As a non smoker with a limited smell sense capacity, I too can vouch that a smoker/smoke can be smelt yonks away, as well it sticking to bedding, soft furnishings, and the like.

As far as the standard of the room goes not meeting your expectation, you should have dealt with that the minute you walked into it by going straight back to reception and discussing it with them, not staying there and ''putting up'' with it.

The Owners could have also fiddled with the range of the internet had you given them the opportunity to fix it.

As far as B & B's go, I always thought they were known to provide a more personal touch (although there should be no grounds for rudeness) as opposed to staying in a motel/hotel chain where your joint consumption of alcohol might have gone unnoticed (or just not spoken about to you). Perhaps this is what you should try next time for accommodation?

But yes you are going to have to suck up the fine for Hubby smoking and be aware that you are staying in someone else's property next time. Look out for rooms esp. set aside for smokers when you go to book.

How do smokers not understand that it blows back in?

I just genuinely feel like they were looking for issues!

There's no logic to this thinking. They run a business which is reliant largely on good customer reviews, which they now blatantly won't get from you. Your "D"H broke the rules on smoking in the room, so just accept it and pay the bloody fine